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Looking for Better Jitter Reduction in a DAC

I'm looking to improve the jitter control in my digital setup, which hopefully will create a more analogue presentation. I own a PS Audio PW Memory Transport, which sports a FPGA, and a Nuwave DSD DAC with a scaled-down version of the gate array.

   I have owned a Chord which uses this technology and it was like listening to analogue recordings. I sold it only because it's soundstage was very forward, like sitting in the front row of a concert hall. My current PS Audio setup has wide and deep imaging, as does my Atma-Sphere preamp.
   I have auditioned the Schiit Grundir and it was a bit too fast in the attack and transients, but had the dynamics and deep imaging that I like. So, I guess what I'm looking for is a unit with a laid-back, realistic musical presentation.

The Mytek Digital Stereo192 DSD and Blue Circle DAC are in my price range, but there is no way to audition them.
  So any recommendation and advice is appreciated. DSD preferred, budget is about $1200 used.


128x128lowrider57
audioengr
3,282 posts
 

Bruce - often older D/A chips sound more musical because of the limited digital filtering and ladder-DACs used etc..  I used to sell a tubeDAC called the Spoiler with ladder DAC in it.  Very musical  The problem with them is that they don't render the HF transients very well and they don't support hi-res.  Need a newer D/A technology for this.  To get the beauty of the older chips and the speed of the newer chips in the same design, it requires a really good designer and implementation, including excellent power delivery.  PD includes power supply, wiring, ground-plane correctness, regulation and decoupling.  All of these are critical, particularly with D/A chips.  Very few designers have a good grip on all of these aspects.


Steve N.

Empirical Audio

bruce_philly
31 posts
 
Interesting.......

I plan on dragging that older Accuphase to a good store and comparing it to some of these modern units.... I am rooting for the Accuphase simply because it sounds so much better than a Class A rated DAC, the Benchmark DAC1.   Again, the design of the Accuphase is that it uses multiple stereo DACs..... who knows, maybe these guys discovered something great.  From their manual:

"The MDS (Multiple DeltaSigma) principle em-ploys several deltasigma type convertersin a parallel configura-tion which results in adrastic precision enhancement. The delta sigmaprinciple combines oversampling with noise-shaping (a kind of digital feedback) which projects the amplitude information of the digital signal onto a time axis for precise conversion.Figure 1 shows several delta sigma converters which are fed with the same signal and whose outputs are combined to arrive at the overall waveform. "

Sounds good to me.

Peace
Bruce in Philly
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57 OP
5,417 posts
 
I find it very odd that SPDIF coax, i2i, and optical from transport to DAC all sound the same. I’m using the highly rated Lifatec glass optical cable and an Empirical Design 1.5m coax.

I’m starting to wonder if the problem is the output of the DAC. I'm using the unbalanced output from a fully-balanced DAC. Preamp and amp are both SE.
DAC output is 2.8V RMS (unbalanced).
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
@bruce_philly

How old is the DAC1 you are comparing to the Accuphase?

That DAC1 runs pretty hot. I think it might need a recap after 10 years possibly due to the internal heat causing aging of the caps. You should be comparing to the DAC3 these days. The DAC3 uses 512 delta sigma DACs over several ESS Sabre 9028 chips. Basically this design is a hybrid between a ladder R2R and a single delta sigma 1 bit DAC. This type Sabre chip is where performance minded DAC conversion is heading - the best of both worlds - high linearity (from 1 bit delta sigma) and low noise (of ladder style design) - achieving 9 bit resolution and extremely low noise a far cry from old single 1 bit sigma delta methods of the 90’s.
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