Ultra micro dac and jitter question

[plonter]

Hi headroom and head fiers. I own ultra micro dac and i know that it's got some ultra clock inside that supposed to output a "jitter free" stream.
I just wanted to know how much "jitter free" is it?

if my transport is sending a lot of jitter to the dac, does it just clean it all?
or maybe it can do a jitter free output only in cases where very small amount of jitter is getting in ?

thanks.

[plonter]

any comments..? maybe one of headroom guys..?
I am using a MARANTZ CD5001 as my transport, it's maybe not the best in the world but it's good enough and i believe that it doesn't output a lot of jitter...but it's just my feeling.

I also using a rca to mini adapter for my coax cable so it is interesting to know if this is another jitter maker in the chain.
I just want to know how the UM DAC handles with all those issues regarding jitter.
the sound is excelent by the way!

[twsmith]

Originally Posted by plonter

Hi headroom and head fiers. I own ultra micro dac and i know that it's got some ultra clock inside that supposed to output a "jitter free" stream.
I just wanted to know how much "jitter free" is it?

if my transport is sending a lot of jitter to the dac, does it just clean it all?
or maybe it can do a jitter free output only in cases where very small amount of jitter is getting in ?

thanks.

Steve Nugent (Empirical Audio) recently wrote an article about jitter in Positive Feedback. I think he did a very good job discussing the whole issue of jitter in a relatively non-technical manner. Perhaps still not the easiest read but I think it may help answer your questions. The bottom line seems to be the asynchronous upsampling DAC chips (as used in the Ultra MicroDAC) cannot completely eliminate jitter but can significantly reduce it -- whether very low levels of jitter can still have an audible effect has been a matter of debate. My own feeling is that the less jitter you send to the DAC from the transport, the better off you will be.

Here is the link: jitter

[TheSloth]

Originally Posted by plonter

Hi headroom and head fiers. I own ultra micro dac and i know that it's got some ultra clock inside that supposed to output a "jitter free" stream.
I just wanted to know how much "jitter free" is it?

if my transport is sending a lot of jitter to the dac, does it just clean it all?
or maybe it can do a jitter free output only in cases where very small amount of jitter is getting in ?

thanks.

Highly unlikely you have a transport that is sending a lot of jitter unless you are using USB. Even cheap mini optical outputs for example on a MacBook are not 'high jitter'. Pair something like that with the Ultra Micro DAC and you'll end up with a total jitter of somewhere between 200 and 300ps. That is considered to be excellent performance.

[plonter]

Originally Posted by TheSloth

Highly unlikely you have a transport that is sending a lot of jitter unless you are using USB. Even cheap mini optical outputs for example on a MacBook are not 'high jitter'. Pair something like that with the Ultra Micro DAC and you'll end up with a total jitter of somewhere between 200 and 300ps. That is considered to be excellent performance.

thanks