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Squeeze Box Love'n'hate

I tellya, had I known this thing would be such a pain in the backside.....but yet I love it....when it works!!! Perhaps it's because I'm a MAC guy and my computers just work. This 'interactivity' with the SQ3 goes beyond my extent of how much I want to be involved with digital. I'm also a vinyl guy and I have no trouble with the interactiveness of playing records....in fact I savour it!

So what is it with the SQ3? Well sometimes it's busy 'buffering' when I want to listen to music. Other times it just shuts itself off. And then there's the times when it won't shut off.....unless you unplug it. And at times it loses it's network......whatever, it's just plain frustrating!!!!

Anyone else have this experience?
Robert
rbatsch
dpac996's avatar
dpac996
714 posts
 
Thanks Steve.
I thought (from the data sheet and the DAC1 implemenation) the SRC chip keeps the two clocks separate, though: 1) The serial data side (most jitter), and 2)on board 20 something MHz crystal,the clk signal of which is fed to the SRC side, AND the DAC. Are you saying that the crystal itself is now adding to the jitter equation, or that the frequency synthesis taking place inside the SRC chip, (the source of which is the crystal) is adding the jitter?
Thanks Much
kana813
956 posts
 
"I'll guarantee 100% that it does. The Pace-Car has an I2S output, which has much lower jitter than any S/PDIF output. It also uses Superclock4 or Ultraclock, which are lower jitter clocks."

Steve- I run the SB3 through the DL into a TacT RCS's AES input(no I2S input) which has upgraded clocks on it's SRC.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
DPAC966 - The crystal oscillator adds its own jitter. The upsampling chip is also not completely jitter resistant. They both contribute.

Steve N.
dpac996's avatar
dpac996
714 posts
 
ok, but they are pretty much about at the point where you have to radically alter the device, no? I mean the physical layout is optimized for transmission line for that specific topology. Perhaps a dropin footprint equivalent device exists, otherwise adding some daughter card with all the extra trace inductance and noise transmission seems to make it a bad compromise. I would leave the stock unit alone, but that's just me.

You can never completely 100% remove jitter in ANY clocked system, anyway.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Dpac996 - I would not radically alter these devices, I would just remove them. This is what I do in the Benchmark DAC-1. I remove the SRC chip completely and make it a non-upsampler, as well as the SRC clock. No clock in the DAC anymore. The clock comes from the Off-Ramp computer converter or the Pace-Car Reclocker. This way I can make the jitter REALLY REALLY low without coloring the sound with a hardware upsampler.

Absolutely true. Anyone that claims complete elimination of jitter is stretching the truth. I only claim jitter at inaudible levels after processing through my Pace-car reclocker.

Steve N.
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