Long Coaxial audio run?

Undertow,

I think you are right on. I use five megachangers to feed a DAC for a total cost that is still way less than that of a high end player. The sound is probably 9/10ths as good but most important is that I get to hear my music instead of fighting with jewel cases and a filing system (now where is that CD?). When you have over a thousand CD's it is nice to be able to cue any one of them up at the push of a button for contiinuous play. So I am with you there and would not recommend going for an extremely expensive high end player. One day I will junk the tranports and connect the DAC straight to a PC where my music will eventually be stored - that, my friend, like it or not, is the future!

"Is USB effected by all this "Jitter" for example a laptop connected to a USB Dac with like a 15 foot USB Cable etc…?"

Yes, and it depends on the DAC and it depends on the cable as to how much. Cables with small gauge silver conductors and air or teflon dielectric add less jitter. Less dielectric absorption and therefore less dispersion of the signal.

Steve N.

Audioengr
So who makes the optimal USB cable? And dac in your opinion to handle this for that matter?
Thanks

Undertow - here are two good USB cables:

Synergistic
Locus Design Axis

As for DAC's, they are all somewhat sensitive to the incoming jitter, even those with isolated free-running reclocking. In theory they shouldn't be, but they are. I know because I make reclockers and I mod a lot of DAC's. I also read a lot of anecdotal posts. Maybe it's power supply, RFI or ground-plane coupling causing this, I dont know.

I do know for a fact that lesser anti-jitter techniques such as ASRC chips are generally sensitive to incoming jitter. Making ANYTHING that totally rejects all incoming jitter is the holy grail and to my knowledge has never been achieved. Some manufacturers claim this, but when I hear their gear and do some cable swapping, I disprove these claims. They usually just need more resolving systems to hear this. I've been working on this problem for years and thought I had it licked. Closer than anyone has gotten before I believe, but still no cigar.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

I think I heard Audioengr's suggestion on a similiar post sometime back, about keeping USB cable length to a minimum, i.e. preferably 6' or less.

I'm running a benchmark DAC1 and couldn't agree more. I'm using a Belden gold USB 6' usb cable and when I substitute a 15' cable in it's place (same make), it honestly tames the dynamics. Very easy to tell the difference on acoustic tracks. I changed majors away from electrical engineering, so I can't wax on the technical aspects of why this is the case, but I wholeheartedly stand behind the viewpoint.

That said, it p@sses me off because I can't have the computer more than 6' from the DAC and amplifier it's tethered to, but it's a compromise for now.