I think we are in danger of violently agreeing! the "rounding" does introduce uncertainty in the timing - so that's "jitter"...
and yes what we need is an I2S feed from the SB into the DAC (or a master clock approach like dCS). I guess I'm in the minority in preferring the digital out of an SB2/3 to a spinning transport. The differences are MIGHTY small and "better" is a tough concept to pin down - everyone's mileage varies. Also, I'm not listening to the native SPDIF but a reclocked, decorrelated version. What I think is undeniable is the the SB is a more reliable/consistent transport - its bitstream from a given flac is ALWAYS the same...CDP's just aren't like that. Does anyone remember those early CDP's with error counters on them ? - I think meridian made one, and maybe Townsend? anyway, I notice they stopped making those pretty quickly... CD's do get damaged (even new ones can misread) and if it's a CD-ROM the computer will complain bitterly and the software won't work. However, red book will usually keep on playing it (albeit withi the wrong bits!). Also, lasers get worse with age and eventually fail... I know we are talking about jitter etc, but my view is that the SB is a more reliable/robust transport and for that I am grateful. As for sound quality - who knows? Personally I need the SPDIF to drive my TACT (it has no dacs/adcs). The RC has about a hundred times more impact on my enjoyment of the sound than the minor impacts of a little more/less jitter. And yes - if an audiophile SB with great PSU, DAC and the ability to do RC at least as good as the TACT were to come out I'd buy one instantly - almost regardless of price (!). But the RC capability would be mandatory otherwise I wouldn't bother. Actually, that would be a great product: one box, TACT or Lyngdorf or similar RC + SB + super DAC + suitable PSU's. The thing is no CDP could stand against that combo on subjective sound quality grounds without RC...and if it was all in one box/circuit, the jitter problem could be made to go away... ...and we could get back to just using the box for pure enjoyment of the music and exploring the backwaters of our collections (eyes mist over, reaches for the whisky bottle, ice clinks into glass, Roy Buchanan starts to play...) -- Phil Leigh ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Phil Leigh's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=85 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=24670 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
