jitter free s/pdif for imac

[ar-t]

Doing fine, by me.

 

[BobH]

Everyone here needs to read this a second time. And a third and a fourth, etc.

 

Unless, of course, your primary interest is in the sound a DAC produces - as opposed to the measurements it may or may not have. In which case you don't need to read it at all! ;~)

 

[ar-t]

Then why do so many of the people who post in these forums keep bringing up jitter figures and specs? I know, blame it on the magazines. They publish it, and folks swallow it whole, and then parrot it out on the forums.

 

[BobH]

because we like to have something to worry about. Like most obsessive hobbyists, audiophiles aren't happy unless they're unhappy about something. Personally, if my own system gave me no reason to worry, I'd be really, really, worried!

 

Jitter fits the bill perfectly. Hardly anyone understands it, or knows what it sounds like or even at what level it is actually audible. Perfect worry material! Vinylisto's worry about such things as wow and flutter and whether 240g pressings sound better than 180g pressings. Speakeristo's worry about all manner of crossovers, driver types and efficiency. Valveisto's worry about old new stock or new old stock, Russian or Chinese, 300b or 36BB!

 

Manufacturers provide a confusion of solutions for these and many, many more worries. Forums provide a fun and (mostly) companionable ongoing non-solution to the same worries. It's a win-win. The manufacturers make a living and we get to keep our worries nicely intact. :~)

 

[davidR]

Well put sir.

 

[Nikos]

I have to disagree.

I am talking about a real world situation where my dac is not capable of eliminating jitter.

I can hear the differences between an esoteric and a very expansive cdpro2 based transport.

now I have to make a music server and I can not try all the interfaces to my system.

I know exactly the audiophile upgreditis but I don't have the symptoms right now.

Nikos

 

 

 

[BobH]

It may also be quite educational, though dull as ditch water, to trawl back through the many jitter threads that have polarised opinion around here for quite some time. It's actually quite interesting that, these days, the conversations generally centre around the solutions to jitter. It is not that very long ago that the jitter wars were largely about existance and audibilty! That is quite a change in perception and attitude when you consider that the vast majority of us probably wouldn't be able to identify it!

 

I may well be able to tell whether or not I like a DAC. Whether or not those likes and dislikes are down to jitter, the output stage, the connection type, the power supply, or the fact that it was soldered up by a fat capitalist rather than a fat communist is anyones guess!

 

Want a low jitter interface? That would be the one you like the sound of!

 

[BobH]

My nos DAC is the Promitheus with usb and spdif inputs. It's been fed with both connections over the year or so I've had it, via usb, internal soundcard and external soundcard. It's never sounded better than with the new HiFace. I'd love to get my hands on the new Weiss INT202 and try firewire to spdif but my reasonable side baulks at shelling out the best part of £800 to possibly better the HiFace. It seems rather a high price to pay just to get the signal out of the computer. But that's just me, rather than good reasoning! ;~)

 

[Nikos]

bob wrote " I'd love to get my hands on the new Weiss INT202 and try firewire to spdif but my reasonable side baulks at shelling out the best part of £800 to possibly better the HiFace"

 

yea... I think I made my decision... hiface it is...

(but wait... what if someone could compare hiface vs int202?)

thanks Bob...

 

 

 

[johniboy]

see this thread:

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Weiss-Int202-vs-HiFace-contest

 

;-) so what now??? hiface or int202???

 

[Nikos]

now I have to save money for the int202!

the guy on the above link has probably a dac similar to my ad1865n-k dac (18bit/96hz)

quite interesting...thanks