[regal]

I may be hyper sensitive to jitter. I can hear the mettalic pops in almost all CD's. As I understand it an external DAC has more jitter especially one like the Zhalou. Would I be better off with a soundcard analog out to an amp skipping an external DAC?

 

[RogerWilco]

Quote:

Originally Posted by regal I may be hyper sensitive to jitter. I can hear the mettalic pops in almost all CD's. As I understand it an external DAC has more jitter especially one like the Zhalou. Would I be better off with a soundcard analog out to an amp skipping an external DAC?

I really don't know why you think the Zhaolu has more jitter.If it does i have finally found jitter that sounds good to me

 

[device manager]

Coax or optical cable?

 

[TigzStudio]

use a coax

 

[kin0kin]

i have noticed the clicks and pops with some of the albums....I believe it is due to its slightly flawed resampling circuit. If you are running a digital out from the PC, for resampling on pc to at least 48khz and that will eliminate it. anyway, this is not an uncommon problem...that's what resampler are for anyway

it doesnt matter if you use a coax or optical, it is audible on both.

 

[fwojciec]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kin0kin i have noticed the clicks and pops with some of the albums....I believe it is due to its slightly flawed resampling circuit. If you are running a digital out from the PC, for resampling on pc to at least 48khz and that will eliminate it. anyway, this is not an uncommon problem...that's what resampler are for anyway

Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think clicks and pops - if you're getting them - are produced by Zhaolu. I'd attribute it rather to your sound card, or rather the PCI bus in your computer. In my experience 90% of click/pop problems are due to PCI latency settings.

BTW, is jitter audible in the form of "mettalic pops"? I always thought that it increased the noise floor.

Filip

 

[kin0kin]

i doubt it is due to the card. Ive tried both on board and digital out from my SC, both are heard unless the sampling rate is set to 48khz or more. the pops and clicks are almost exactly like what you'd hear in vinyl...though not as extreme. again, in my situation, it is only heard on some albums...i still cannot figure out why...

 

[fwojciec]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kin0kin i doubt it is due to the card. Ive tried both on board and digital out from my SC, both are heard unless the sampling rate is set to 48khz or more. the pops and clicks are almost exactly like what you'd hear in vinyl...though not as extreme. again, in my situation, it is only heard on some albums...i still cannot figure out why...

Well, as long as you have the solution for the problem then, I guess, it's not really something to worry about. I've had some problems with click/pop sounds on my computer but this was due to the latency settings/bios version. Once I’ve sorted it out no more clicks or pops that's why I think that it's unlikely that Zhaolu is responsible - mine plays with no clicks whatsoever.

Filip

 

[kin0kin]

i am a little worried about it still. I'm planning to get the SB3 to go with it...but im not sure if the SB3 can be set to resample it..or how good is it's software resampling.

I think the ZL is responsible for it

I'm not the only one noticed the problem

 

[fwojciec]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kin0kin I think the ZL is responsible for it I'm not the only one noticed the problem

Not that I'm on a mission to defend my precious Zhaolu

but the only way I would believe that this is Zhaolu's fault is if somebody would report that they get clicks and pops while listening to cd transport/zhaolu setup. Clicks/pops are the plague of computers as sources, no wonder many people who use Zhaolu (with computers) experience them.

Filip

 

[CookieFactory]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fwojciec Not that I'm on a mission to defend my precious Zhaolu but the only way I would believe that this is Zhaolu's fault is if somebody would report that they get clicks and pops while listening to cd transport/zhaolu setup. Clicks/pops are the plague of computers as sources, no wonder many people who use Zhaolu (with computers) experience them. Filip

I'll test it tomorrow. Optical and coaxial just for completeness.

 

[sejarzo]

I still get random clicks and pops on PC audio using a Chaintech AV-710's high sample rate DAC's and Foobar set to resample at 96k, via DirectSound 2.0 (KS refuses to work at all in my system) and full file buffering set to 200 MB, so that all tracks play 100% from RAM, not from the HD.

To me, that means my clicks and pops are very likely not from jitter, but from bus issues in the PC.

 

[Sean H]

My DAC 2.0's (or my 1.3 for that matter) have never made any clicks or pops and I haven't used anything but a computer as a transport (using both coaxial and Toslink). No problems here.

 

[regal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RogerWilco I really don't know why you think the Zhaolu has more jitter.If it does i have finally found jitter that sounds good to me

because there is no jitter correction as seen on most higher end stand alone DAC's. It is important with stand alone DAC's.

 

[lan]

Jitter is caused by a few things. I don't think we can speculate anything regarding this without more investigation. The more pricey DACs may have jitter reduction mechanisms but unless you have them powered with great power and precise clocks, they have little effect IMO.

We should investigate more what's up with this weird clicking thing though.