DAC's : The missing feature: Signal quality


One thing I wish DAC's would provide is some idea of how much jitter and noise a particular input provides. This is something which I think with a little work could be gleaned from the input circuits.

I want something that tells me "woah, that's a really dirty signal coming in, but i"ll do the best I can with it."

One common source of noise is ground loops. Another may be high jitter from a source like Apple TV. This would also help us evaluate the benefits (if any) of various signal cleaners and reclockers.

Best,
E
erik_squires

Showing 6 responses by celander

Erik, signal lock LED’s exist on DAC’s and reclockers. It’s pretty much a -/+ indicator, tho. 
Erik, if I correctly understand your desires for signal quality detection at DAC inputs, then I suspect it would be an extremely costly DAC having that attribute. It would likely be on par of an external reclocking device cost. I’m not sure you want to spend that kind of $$$ for a feature that is nothing more than an idiot light.  
Erik, I presume one could adjust the sensitivity of the LED indicator (or use a multi-colored LED) that reports distinct levels of jitter. Seems like one would need some sort of jitter level sensor on the output digital stream just prior to final analog conversion. That sensor could be calibrated to feed a signal to the LED to indicate jitter level. Not convinced that the DAC jitter reduction would not overwhelm whatever jitter level you’re trying to detect in the input cable. But presumably one could put a similar sensor on the input side of the DAC input circuit. 
Ugh.

Julian, wouldn’t it be easier to simply provide folks here with a link to your pontifications? smh

Hell, I’ll do it for you to spare the suspense for everyone concerned:
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/why-does-my-dac-sound-so-much-better-after-upgrading-digital-...


Erik: “To put this another way, most of us have no way to tell if a digital source is very poor, mediocre, or great. I'd like a little gadget that could tell me.“

Solution:  👂x 2
audioengr3,129 posts11-24-2018 3:20pm

Steve, nice list in this post. With respect to the EA SM reclocker, I can see where your PS upgrade fits on the list. Where does the OTL upgrade fit, under jitter?