What Is Your Favourite Bit of Kit?

[ff1d1l]

Still loving this - homebrew S&B tx102 silver transformer preamp

[alphaGT]

Because reading an optical disc is a mechanical process: the laser has to remain focused as well as having to 'track' the disc. Reading an SD card would be completely electronic and free of potentially noisy servo-mechanisms.

Thanks Berry, Exactly the point

Remember when jitter was discovered? Suddenly it was on the lips of every high end designer, low jitter numbers were the secret to better sound! By removing the spinning disc and mechanism that tries to produce the bit steam at the correct speed, you've just about killed jitter completely. A static pool of bits standing in a buffer flowing via a clock to the D/A, jitter could be so vanishingly small as non existent. I really wish I had completed my engineering degree, I'd just build one!


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[alphaGT]

Still loving this - homebrew S&B tx102 silver transformer preamp

That looks awesome!


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[ff1d1l]

Thanks!

[Macca]

Thanks Berry, Exactly the point

Remember when jitter was discovered? Suddenly it was on the lips of every high end designer,

Jitter was well know about and the issue resolved prior to the introduction of CD to the market. The only people to discover it later on were the marketing departments. It doesn't really make any difference as to whether you are reading off a spinning disc or not.

Makes sense to not have any moving parts if you can avoid them though, as moving parts tend to go wrong eventually. But I don't see there being any appreciable benefit to sound quality.

[walpurgis]

Jitter was well know about and the issue resolved prior to the introduction of CD to the market. The only people to discover it later on were the marketing departments. It doesn't really make any difference as to whether you are reading off a spinning disc or not.

I have a couple of 'jitter busters'. A Theta TLC and a Monarchy Audio DIP. Both (either) improve the sound regardless of which CD player/transport I use with them.

[Macca]

They could be changing the sound for any number of reasons though. Distortion produced by jitter is fractions of a percent, even with the cheapest players.

[ff1d1l]

I've got a Wyred4Sound Remedy, and the difference produced by this is not small, certainly not in the fractions of percent. I don't know whats going on here, or how they're doing it, but it's definitely a substantial upgrade to my Musical Fidelity v90.

[walpurgis]

They could be changing the sound for any number of reasons though. Distortion produced by jitter is fractions of a percent, even with the cheapest players.

They do change the sound. For the better. I don't delve into the technicalities. My ears tell me what I need to know.

[Macca]

They do change the sound. For the better. I don't delve into the technicalities. My ears tell me what I need to know.

Right but your ears don't tell you what they are doing to change the sound. Pretty much every digital related product these days comes with reams of bullshit as to what it claims to do and what problems it claims to address.

A long time ago someone non-technical came up with the idea that it is jitter that was causing an issue. This gets repeated by non-technical reviewers and on forums and pretty soon there is a demand for 'jitter busters'.

Of course these things cannot do nothing to the sound because you would take it back for a refund. So it has to have some effect on the sound, just not for the reasons claimed.

As I was saying the other day no point saying this is a good piece of kit because of its high quality power supplies. No audiophile cares about that. Tell them it cures jitter, or fixes 'timing issues' and they are all over it because they have heard about those things.

It is good advice not to take any manufacturer's claims at face value. In all things but especially in hi-fi, bullshit sells. They have been bullshitting for years and have become quite good at it now.