Jitter issues with dacs....

I've been listening to several DACs and CD players over the last year. I enjoyed listening to those with 24/192 upsamlers the most. I attributed this preference to the upsampling.

Well, I tried a Benchmark DAC1, which has no upsampling at all and it had the same characteristics that I liked in the upsampling DACs. After a bit of review, I realized that all the DACs and players I tried (including the Benchmark) had special low-jitter circuits or third party add on clocks to reduce the jitter (in addition to the upsampling).

At this point, it appears that the low jitter was providing a benefit that I completely mis-identified as the "upsampler" effect. I don't know that I can "hear" jitter, but I can identify when it is not there.

-Rick

According to Benchmark Media several months ago, the DAC 1 upsamples to 24/110 via Analog Devices AD1896. They planned to increase the frequency to 192kHz once they were satisfied with the sound. The unit I received two months ago was marked as a 24/192 DAC.

Of course, their claim to fame is immunity to jitter. I'm using the coaxial input with DH Lab's D-75 RCA to BNC interconnect. In any event, the sound is absolutely transparent.

Jitter is a problem with virtually all Transports, particularly stock. Jitter is also increased with lossy S/PDIF cabling. It is aggravated by systems that are not properly impedance matched as well.

I can only speak for myself - I can plainly hear the effects of jitter - they are like echoes or halos around each instrument or like high-frequency sibilance. Adding a Superclock2 to a transport or DAC significantly reduces jitter and this change should be obvious to anyone that is not deaf.

Audioengr- have you measured the before and after jitter levels on the units you mod?

I agree that the effects of reducing jitter are obvious. The system will sound much smoother and more dynamic. I find
reducing/eliminating power supply noise to be just as great
an improvement as add-on clocks, all of which recommend using their own power supply.

Eldartford: You keep having the same misconception about the jitter problem in CD playback over and over again. All your background in digital electronic does not help because your background is stricly only in digital domain.
In CD playback, there is an interaction between digial and analog and it is completely different from what you think.