How to remove harshness from my digital gear

I agree with Al and Steve, though both have far more experience than I do. I can say that my efforts to improve digital SQ were most fruitful when I focused on reducing jitter, which included...

1. Using a 1.5 meter S/PDIF cable.

2. Experimenting with a variety of S/PDIF cables until I found the best match for my equipment.

3. Adding a reclocker between the transport and the dac. The reclocker discards the S/PDIF timing data and reclocks with a high precision clock (an Audiocom Superclock 4).

4. Modding the dac to lower jitter. The dac's clock was replaced with a second Superclock 4, and the stock power supply with a custom PSU.

5. Reducing the effects of EMI/RFI, some of which is described here.

6. Experimenting with grounding schemes, as described here.

The collective results of these efforts to reduce jitter were less harshness, greater resolution, more harmonic accuracy, better imaging, and a more relaxed overall presentation. I should also mention...

7. I installed an apodizing filter (software) in my dac and it also improved digital SQ in a variety of ways, but I have no knowledge that apodizing has an impact on jitter.

I'm not saying that the recommendations from other folks won't help, but I suspect that the best place to start is jitter reduction, if possible.

Good luck.

Bryon

While I don't necessarily agree with Steve N concerning the elimination of an active pre-amp. I do agree with his analysis concerning eliminating the problem and not trying to mask it with more boxes or cables.

Chuck

I had a lot of digital glare in my system, I did two things. I bought a tube preamp and a Havana tube dac. Both of these made a huge difference in my system.

Mapman,

do you mean your mkII's face "out" rather than the usual midfield "in" setup?

If so, by about how much (how many degrees angle)?

06-21-13: Czbbcl
While I don't necessarily agree with Steve N concerning the elimination of an active pre-amp. I do agree with his analysis concerning eliminating the problem and not trying to mask it with more boxes or cables.

I agree with you Chuck. To eliminate the problem of harshness with digital gear, one should buy an analog front end. Now THAT is getting to the root of the problem.

Cheers,
John