The CD player is dead.......

Are you saying cd players don't suffer from jitter just because they are cd players?

A well designed cd player will have jitter issues that lie somewhere between minimal and none, because the relevant clocks are generated internally and are only transmitted internally, over very short distances.

A two-box approach, whether the interface is usb, s/pdif, or aes/ebu, faces the fundamental issue that data is transmitted to the dac synchronously to a clock that is generated in the source component, not the dac. That creates huge opportunities for jitter to be introduced, due to impedance mismatches, cable issues, noise issues, clock recovery and synchronization issues, and a host of other possible ways for things to go wrong. Certainly those issues can be successfully overcome, but its nice to not have to worry about them, or to invest time and money in optimizing them.

See for example this excellent Ayre white paper, for an overview of some of the complexities involved in adequately dealing with the jitter that can be introduced in a usb-to-dac interface:

http://www.ayre.com/pdf/Ayre_USB_DAC_White_Paper.pdf

Regards,
-- Al

Jeez...where to begin. Mlsstl, Markets are not born in a vacuum. Not alot of takers on the Light Bulb when it first came out, why? No place to screw it in. Gee, what evil Corporation held it back? As far as not enough customers buying it with no place to screw it in, no wonder we all have to use candles today! There is your Free Market Gentlemen! Newsflash, it is NOT FREE! Someone had to sell the idea BEFORE you have enough customers buying it! The Customers want their Music cheap and dirty, no exception, end of arguement. With that mentality we would still be using cheap and dirty gaslamps, who knows what the hell we would be using for Music! Inventing the Electric Generator costs money. Inventing the Electrical Distribution System for the Light Bulb costs money. Persuading customers to switch from their cheap gaslamps and invest in the much more expensive Electrical System for the light Bulb costs alot of money! All of you must be right, and I am completely wrong! We should have let convenience and expense determine that we keep our gaslamps, and the hell with the light bulb. The Hell with the Phonograph, the Hell with the Airplane, the Hell with the Telephone! None of these things were cheap and certainly not convenient, and NOBODY wanted any improvement in quality of life because it is never cheap and never convenient! Jeez...why not just live under a rock! Certainly those that provided the gas to those gaslamps have a market interest in perpetuating the cheap and dirty society. So I am supposed to accept your rewriting of Economic History and ignore my lying eyes? Pay no attention to that 747 hiding behind that curtain over there-WHAT? How do I get away from this Yellow Brick Road mentality. I'm sorry, I am from a Planet where we DEMAND better quality for our money. Is it not the same here on your Planet? Call the M.I.B., I surrender! P-l-e-a-s-e extradite me! Customers are supposed to DEMAND lower and lower (sound) quality for their money. Can anyone explain to me how that is supposed to work? Is that sort of like everything is supposed to fall upwards due to gravity, I am just not looking at it from the right angle? Its not that I don't like Computer Audio, its that I have a right as a customer to demand better sound quality from Computer Audio. My purpose in life isn't to make things EASIER thereby MORE PROFITABLE for the Industry! I am a Consumer for crying out loud! I am supposed to demand better bang for my buck, not pick up my marbles and go home! Seems to me that I heard alot of people complaining about the Sound Quality of CD when it first came out. Seems to me that I heard just a little improvement through the decades with CD, not most people
completely abandoning the Format when it first came out!
You sly Dogs, you say one thing today, but did the exact opposite back then. You DO believe that Customers should demand better Sound Quality for their money. Call me any name you want, but I will carry on cruxifying Snake Oil salesmen, regardless if they sell Computers or CD Players!
Sorry about that, I am just a Consumer that's funny that way! You want to protect the Industry, well I am a Consumer that is in business for myself as well. I am concerned about MY Corporate profits as well, and the Industry is my competitor NOT my friend!

When it comes to better Sound Quality from the Computer Industry, WHERE'S THE BEEF? WELL, WHERE'S THE BEEF? Don't give me that it's a nice fluffy bun excuse that I can go shop someplace else! WHERE'S THE BEEF? Unless you think that ALL Consumers should be muzzled. Hey, we are a Nation of complainers. Its the only way to keep everyone on their toes. Yeah, wouldn't it be nice World if no-one complained? Hey Pal, it's just what you see!

That's quite a treatise, Pettyofficer. Not sure what it has to do with the subject at hand, but interesting nonetheless.

BTW, the "free market" has nothing to do with price. It is the opposite of a "centrally controlled" economy where everything is run by "experts."

And, as for lightbulbs, Edison held 1093 patents. If you read some history, you'll find that a portion of his inventions were indeed failures because no one bought them. His portland cement piano housing just didn't take off for some reason.

;-)