I have to say it is more than a small percentage which is selling audiophile products without any value add in them. The high-end audiophile products are priced high - because they are low-volume custom jobs and so have to pay the author as well as for the high bill-of-materials. Since they have to be priced high, the manufacturers put nice faceplates, bells/whistles. But many others without adding value will put out a nice package and claim it improves the sound. This is the main reason we all have to be very technical, read up and evaluate the products well before we buy.
Anyways, back to the topic of jitter. The best tests for these in my opinion are done by Stereophile. Pass in, say a 5KHZ wave and take a look at the output, anything other than 5KHz must be noise or artefacts of jitter. The problem here is - not only the amplitude but the jitter spectrum also has effect on the sound. Actually, digital music is bits that is all, but the bits have to be played back at a specific rate (eg. 44.1Khz) but this is an ideal scenario. It will be played back say 44.0Khz or 44.2Khz (to exaggerate the numbers) and this will keep changing at a high frequency (compared to variation in the motor speed of a turntable). This folks is Jitter. I am sure you all know, but now we are on the same page. Here are a few steps to reduce jitter - 1. Vibrations - need to be controlled. I prefer racks, stands with a pointy tip to solid ground. I also like Vibrapod cones (not the squishy ones) and the cork-with-rubber on two sides footers. 2. Power supply - basically you need to supply a steady voltage without much noise. You can try some power conditioners, but the major issue here is they will limit dynamics. Finding one which does not limit dynamics is difficult. Power cords also help. I can tell the difference between a stock cord and after market ones like BlackSand easily. (I am now on the stock power supply for my SBT and I can hear the hash/harshness, need to solder the dc jack/wire and get back to the wellborne labs power supply) 3. CD playback - I am out of this. The playback chain is so messed up. The CD sounds diffferent each time or if you clean/polish it. That is why I rip it and play it. 4. Electrical connections - keep all connections clean. Nickel on the prongs gets oxidized and it affects the sound. Ensure the wall socket is a good quality one (I cannot believe people are spending 3 or 400 on these. Maybe their hearing is sharper). Sometime just wiping with a paper towel briskly is good enough (or that is all that is needed). I think dedicated power lines with thicker wires help, but I have no personal experience. 5. Digital cables - Glass toslinks are better than plastic. WIth electrical cables. I think it is more of a impedence match which is responsible for the reflections and hence jitter and sound. I suggest trying different low-medium brands and probably some variations in length as well. There is no gotcha's in digital music other than jitter (well, there is some error correction on the CD, which is easy to handle with good ripping tools like EAC). (Also, I dont have much thoughts on SACD vs PCM, I hear good reproduction in all formats including the 16bit/44.1Khz. To be fair, I think my Oppo converts SACD to PCM over HDMI as I am using a Panansonic receiver now. Eyeing the NAD 390DD or M51 now). :-) (BTW, I have not bought anything from Steve , but I have read his writings. He is an awesome engineer. He has good credentials from having worked at Intel.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SoftwireEngineer's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7000 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=96407 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
