tcutting;432965 Wrote: > I don't see how modifying the power supply on the SB3 could possibly > effect the sound using an external DAC. The only POSSIBLE improvement > would be to somehow reduce the jitter. Jitter is the thing that always gets brought up, but I think it's a red herring. There have been some rigorous tests conducted that demonstrate that even quite large amounts of jitter (like 10nS uncorrelated) is inaudible on musical signals. 10nS of jitter is way higher than you'll get out of pretty much any modern audio component.
So what's going on? If pretty much all digital sources have jitter levels beneath the threshold of audibility, why do they sometimes sound different, and why might changing things like their PSUs affect the sound? Two possible reasons occur to me: 1. Remember that audio playback involves analogue circuitry at some stage. Analogue circuitry can be influenced by factors such as radiated EM interference and grounding issues. If you use a cheap switched mode wall wart that sprays gobs of RFI around, it's likely to corrupt the analogue circuitry inside a nearby DAC or amp far more than a nice clean linear PSU. So even though the linear PSU doesn't improve the performance of the digital source itself in any significant way, the impact it has on ancilliary equipment might be audible. 2. Remember that what you perceive when listening to audio equipment is strongly influenced by what you *expect* to hear. Maybe changing the PSU doesn't actually change the sound, but the listener thinks it will and therefore perceives a difference. -- cliveb Transporter -> ATC SCM100A ------------------------------------------------------------------------ cliveb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=348 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=64505 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
