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How can I tell if I need a better clock for my DAC?

I was interested in the responses to a related post by leemaze this week, saying that a Synchro Mesh was a good way to improve a DAC with subpar jitter.  I have a Cambridge CXU, with an inboard DAC; how could I determine how much jitter it has? 
128x128cheeg
gdhal's avatar
gdhal
1,641 posts
 
so if you agree with my analogy then you would have to agree that reducing jitter, no matter how that is done, like reducing stress, that is a good thing.
@tooblue 

Yes, I do agree that reducing jitter - no matter how - is a good thing. 
tooblue
1,953 posts
 
Just wondering while we are talking about it, I still have an Audio Alchemy DTI, which I used between a Magnavox CD650 player used as a transport and a PS Audio Digital Link gen ll dac and it definitely made an improvement in that set up. Would that be a viable option or am I reaching?
audioengr
3,282 posts
 

The Audio Alchemy DTI and DTI pro both use two or more CS8412 S/PDIF receiver as a PLL to reduce jitter.  The Pro is a lot better.   It will reduce jitter, but not like a good resampler such as the Synchro-Mesh.  Worth a try though.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

audioman58's avatar
audioman58
4,209 posts
 
A clock is such a small part of the big picture . I have found 
if you have a external power supply this is vastly more profound an upgrade. The  Mojo  Illuminati -2 external power supplies are miles ahead of what are stuffed in the stock boxes.
i have a Lumin dac- D-1 Player  that comes with a crappy smps ,
evrn a Sbooster Linear supply is much better. The Mojo is on par 
even the Lumin flagships S-1  Power supply  at 3x the moneys .
my point is if you can improve your power supply well worth the efforts.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 

Power delivery is the reason for high jitter from even good master clocks.  Power delivery includes:

1) power supply

2) cabling

3) decoupling caps

4) board design

5) regulator design

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

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