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Recommend me a DAC that does a good job of resolving jitter under 450

post #1 of 9
3/13/10 at 7:24am
Thread Starter 
Hi, Im looking to get a DAC that does a good job of reducing jitter particularly for optical because Ill be connecting it using the optical out of my macbook pro and on occasions to my PS3. Depending on some sales I should have around 450 ,but te lower the better , Im not opposed to buying used. thanks
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post #2 of 9
3/13/10 at 7:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kawai_man View Post
Hi, Im looking to get a DAC that does a good job of reducing jitter particularly for optical because Ill be connecting it using the optical out of my macbook pro. Depending on some sales I should have around 450 for one but the lower the better . thanks
In my opinion, low jitter is only one (of the many) characteristics that a good DAC should have. I am not sure you should based your decision on that sole factor. For example it is possible to make a DAC with an excellent digital section (i.e. good jitter rejection) but at the same time it could have a very poor analog section. I think it is better to look at the overall picture when selecting a DAC.
If you can stretch your budget to $480 you can look at the audio-gd 19 (see noinimod review here : http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f7/rev...f-mkiv-477417/)
Other DACs that you might want to consider under 450 are the DACMagic or the Audio-gd FUN.
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post #3 of 9
3/13/10 at 8:05am
any decent dac should reduce jitter to un-audible level. that said, I can recommend you Pico Dac or for Mac Apogee Duet. I own the first and the latter has become standard recommendation for anyone who's looking for a decent DAC and a MAC user
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post #4 of 9
3/13/10 at 8:19am
You may take a look at TC Electronics BMC-2 DAC, which has a good jitter-reducing engine and costs about $300 (it is a pro gear). However, there is still a very slight difference between toslink and coax inputs (I slightly prefer the second). But is is so slight that you really have to try hard to distinguish between them.
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post #5 of 9
3/13/10 at 8:55am
I don't recall more than a few extremely expensive DACs actually stating the level of jitter before and after input, so the OPs question is rather impossible to answer. More difference will be made by just about every other feature of the DAC anyway.
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post #6 of 9
3/13/10 at 9:28am
Thread Starter 
Those audio-gd products seem to have master clocks, from what I remember reading on posts about jitter master clocks will do a better job at reducing jitter than slave ones , so those look like a good possiblty.

the pico dac and apogee dont take optical so those will not work for me, I need something that will accept optical.
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post #7 of 9
3/13/10 at 9:57am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Currawong View Post
I don't recall more than a few extremely expensive DACs actually stating the level of jitter before and after input, so the OPs question is rather impossible to answer. More difference will be made by just about every other feature of the DAC anyway.
From what Ive read theres different clocks and implementations to reduce jitter some of which are known to reduce jitter better than others, I think people who are knowledgeable about this will be able to help as well as peoples experiences with different DACs

The only DACs people seem to mention when talking about reducing jitter are DACs by Benchmark,Lavry,Emperical Audio, Monarchy Audio, theta all of which are quite expensive, I coudnt find any thread where good lower budget options where mentioned, which is why I started this thread.
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post #8 of 9
3/13/10 at 10:27am
I know the Nuforce Icon HDP has a great DAC for its price and I've yet to hear a single complaint about jitter.

Plus, at 450USD MSRP it fits your budget perfectly!
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post #9 of 9
3/13/10 at 11:54am
Don't dwell too much on low jitter.
A lot of the affordable DACs today manage to minimize jitter issues quite well.
Also the presence of good low-jitter receivers (DIR9001) and intelligent reclocking modules are not as exotic as they used to be.
I find a lot more important the power supply and output stage quality, also the bit-accuracy of the source material.

Considering your budget and gear my suggestion is Audio-gd Fun with a discrete opamp upgrade. This solution might replace (and significantly improve) your mini-Aune and LD 1+.

I have only listened to the Fun (+ Earth discrete opamp) via USB and coax.
I don't know how it fares on optical, but given the quality of the design I think it's very good.
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