Marco - not quite. We can never know what the clock variability was in step 2, since all we have is the CD. We don't have the analogue original. In some cases, there is NO analogue original (think of DDD or ADD recordings).
Since we have no way of knowing what it was, we just have to live with it. When the CD is ripped we get the samples exactly from the CD at an IMPLIED definite, fixed rate (44.1kHz) with no drift - because there is no clock, just bytes of data - like any computer file. As you have seen from your tests of WAV/FLAC files via spdif, with a linked clock there is NO error - none!. When we playback the rip/wav, the DAC clock drifts slightly and the results create (part of) the difference between the original WAV rip and the analogue recording of the DAC. This is "systemic" in that we can't eliminate it completely - or even measure it. All we can do is assume that the clock in step 2 (which we cannot know anything about) was "perfect".., and that any difference we record is down to the quality of the DAC clock. So, we can and try and use a more accurate/stable/less jittery DAC clock. and hope that gets us closer to the original wav file. The other part of the error in the DAC comes from noise and frequency response errors in the DAC analogue stage, plus artifacts from the DAC and filtering process itself... ringing, pre-echo, aliasing etc. Different DAC's (NOS, Oversampling, Upsampling, Ring, etc) handle these in different ways and personal choice plays a part here too. This is where the science stops and the ears start... Regards Phil -- Phil Leigh You want to see the signal path BEFORE it gets onto a CD/vinyl...it ain't what you'd call minimal... SB Touch Beta (wired) - TACT 2.2X (Linear PSU) + Good Vibrations S/W - MF Triplethreat(Audiocom full mods) - Linn 5103 - Aktiv 5.1 system (6x LK140's, ESPEK/TRIKAN/KATAN/SEIZMIK 10.5), Townsend Supertweeters, Blue Jeans Digital,Kimber Speaker & Chord Interconnect cables Kitchen Boom, Outdoors: SB Radio ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Phil Leigh's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=85 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=71321 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
