ar-t wrote: > Listen to a decent CD player, that has a SPDIF output. Listen to its > analogue output, and then a typical outboard DAC. That is how.
Why would I have a "decent CD player"? I got rid of all audio CD players within a year of getting my first SqueezeBox. And a demonstration does not example proof. A counter example can dispute a theory, but one demonstration means nothing. > Like THD, it depends on amount and spectral distribution. It can not be > answered in 25 words or less. Especially to skeptics. So use more than 25 words. This topic comes up periodically, and the only answer I see is "trust me" I don't trust anyone on this topic. I want science or engineering. Preferably both. > I can measure it. I heard it before I measured it, which is why we set > about to measure it. What do you measure? What values are important? What confidence do you have for the limits of where it matters? Are the absolute differences important? or only relative differences (the way dB are defined)? > So, you don't believe in science and already have your mind made up. > Pointless to continue. No, I believe in science and measurement. I was a PhD student for five years. That is all about science. And I studied engineering for four years as an undergraduate. I don't believe in voodoo. I don't believe that software engineering is engineering, but Computer Science is science. Audio technology is normally designed. If its a real problem, then engineers need measurements to know how to design against it. Real engineers do things like say "I can have this amount of THD in the circuit for $20, or one half that for $30, or one tenth that for $300" so that cost effective tradeoffs can be made. What I don't see is any science between the claims that jitter is important or specific values that are good, bad or indifferent. Its not that my mind is made up, but I've not read a single credible source that says "here is the science on the topic of jitter" That S/PDIF is less than optimal is not very interesting. It was designed by Sony and Phillips as a cheap, mass market connection. In practical terms, S/PDIF is the same as AES/EBU, just over different media. If jitter is so terrible in S/PDIF, then it would be just as terrible in AES/EBU. If its terrible in professional circles, why hasn't it been designed out of the standard in the past 20+ years. So far, I've seen zero evidence that anyone's understanding of jitter is more than "a meager and unsatisfactory kind" and its a long way from "advanced to the stage of science." Lord Kelvin's positions are part of why we as a world have named our temperature scale with his last name. Show me the science. -- Pat Farrell http://www.pfarrell.com/ _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
