opaqueice Wrote: 
> Sean, could you verify if the the pk-pk value is the "latest" (most
> delayed) sample minus the "earliest" sample?

Right. It's the "width" of the sample set and is not terribly
meaningful.  More important is the shape of the distribution.

> 
> In the latter case you can't compare at all, unless all jitter spectra
> are non-Gaussian in the same way...

That's not the least of it. Stereophile's tests look at the spectrum of
the DAC's output (sidebands around a pure test tone) which is IMHO a
rather roundabout way of measuring jitter and may mask or exaggerate
other factors. Of course if you are measuring a whole system including
the DAC's jitter sensitivity (as opposed to a digital signal) this is
what you need to do.

I am measuring it by looking directly at clocks or the s/pdif signal in
the time domain, using a 10GHz scope and a specialized jitter software
package. With this system I have made repeatable measurements of
phenomena as small as 2 picoseconds (for example, the jitter introduced
in a single gate delay, or a few centimeters along a PCB trace).

I also have a dScope analyzer which can generate jitter, and also
decorrelate jitter from the s/pdif input and show its spectral content
in the 0-96Khz range. It's not very interesting unless the jitter is
highly correlated to some non-gaussian source in the audible range,
which I've never seen except in contrived cases such as when using the
jitter generator (and then only at very large levels, ie 1ns+).

As a side note, the guys at Lecroy chuckled when I told them what I
wanted to use their jitter tools for - they considered it massively
overkill.  :)


-- 
seanadams
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