2. digital
  3. 1231332114

Jitter reduction, best device?

Am wondering what is the best device for jitter reduction and for producing an analogue like sound. I've read about the Genisis Digital Lens, GW Labs Processor, Monarchy Digital Processor, Meridian 518 Processor. Are there others to consider and are there any decent reviews that compare the various devices? I run an MSB Gold dac to a Dyna amp. The sound is very good but feels a bit "clinical". Thanks.
boleary3
pmi_guy
72 posts
 
I'm not sure how audiophiles can diagnose a jitter problem except by trying jitter reduction devices and listening. In general, upsampling DAC's will be more immune to jitter because they re-clock the signal to a higher rate. The re-clocking will filter out a lot of the jitter in the original signal. I haven't seen any way to measure jitter except for using expensive lab equipment.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,702 posts
 
Pmi_guy,

I think you are right.

I suppose whichever devices do the re-clocking task best would work the best also.
rbstehno
1,510 posts
 
not necessarily. why does esoteric build a $10k external clock? why does dcs build the 3 box setup for $60k. thats like saying you can buy the cheapest cd player but the dac will fix all symptoms. those pieces sound wonderful but at a price. IMO, you want to use the best quality pieces that you can spend to get the best sound. you are not going to buy a cable that will perform miracles with a mediocre dac or cd player. the only way to tell if something will work or not is to demo it. or just leave things like they are and be happy withwhat you got. but you can't say you trust your ears and you would know what you are missing.
slothman
311 posts
 
Rbstehno, I do not doubt for a second that some serious clocks can be had for that kind of change.

I would just like to point out that chances are quite good that audiophiles have a number of CD's in their collection that was digitally mastered utilizing a Meridian 518 or 618 (pro version). I just can't comprehend what spending 60k is going to achieve beyond what the mastering engineer had produced in the first place. My opinion is "good enough for the engineer, good enough in my system."
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,449 posts
 
Jitter is noise in time domain. Jitter produces sidebands at very low levels but audible since not harmonically related to root frequencies. Jitter free sound has more clarity (free of noise).

Many CD were made from poorly digitized tapes and contain A/D converter jitter that cannot be removed.

As for device - Benchmark DAC1 does excellent job with jitter. Its jitter bandwidth of only few Hz translates to about 100dB of jitter suppression at few kHz.

Jitter comes from recording, transport, cable (reflections on impedance boundaries and noise) and DACs clock jitter.
More to discover