2. digital
  3. 139223-115924

Flaws in this chain?

New to streaming and such. Is there a serious weak link in this chain?:

MacBook Pro with Tidal (hi res)------wireless to-----Apple TV-----toslink to-----Schiit Modi 2 Uber-----RCA cable to----Line stage.

I know that the Schiit is no great shakes in terms of a DAC but is there any other serious limitation in the chain? Thanks.

George
n80
audioengr
3,282 posts
 

I guess my point is why spend even $150 to correct (purify, decrapify) the signal from a $100 Apple TV? Seems like I should save my money until I can come up with a better wireless solution....whatever that would be and however much that would cost.

You will end up playing for $1000 de-jitter for your $1000 device or $150 for your $100 device.  They all need it.

Okay, just now spent some time researching music via iTunes via ATV. SQ stinks. Even I can hear it. The only way I can describe it is muddy.

No surprise.  iTunes stinks and the jitter from the 24/48 ATV is high.  What you need to understand is that it's okay to have a cheap digital source like ATV or Sonos, as long as you put the money into reducing the jitter from it.  It's only is only providing the data.  It's the de-jitter device that makes the sound quality great.  I can use a really cheap old transport for playing CD's, but adding the Synchro-Mesh and  good digital coax cable makes it a world class source.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

n80 OP
1,227 posts
 
Thanks. That helps me understand what I'm up against.

But here's a question....why don't device makers, at least high end device makers, include some method for decreasing jitter in the device itself?

And as for the Chromecast. Still 'jittery' but less so than the ATV?
wtf's avatar
wtf
306 posts
 
But here's a question....why don't device makers, at least high end device makers, include some method for decreasing jitter in the device itself?
Most do in fact.

And as for the Chromecast. Still 'jittery' but less so than the ATV?
Actually, its jitter measurements are rather poor. That being said, the CA sends an unmolested digital stream (via optical) to your DAC, which should clean it up rather nicely. Same with the ATV except the ATV sends a re-sampled (molested) stream to the DAC .. not good.

Re-clockers like the SPDIF iPurifier can do wonders for jittery streams feeding DACs with less-than-stellar jitter reduction, but not so much feeding higher-end DACs which have been engineered to do so.

The Chromecast Audio is by no means perfect, just damn good for $35. A couple of things about using the CA with Tidal on Apple:

  1. I don't believe cast is enabled on the Tidal Desktop App yet, leaving you with either Tidal's iOS app or the web player.
  2. Safari isn't supported for Tidal casting so you must use Google's Chrome browser if you go this route. Works great.
  3. Casting from an iPhone/iPad is quite nice if you have one.
FWIW, IMHO, etc., etc., I would purchase the Chromecast Audio and assess. Then if you feel improvement is needed/wanted try out a SPDIF iPurifier. If the iPurifier doesn't move you .. send it back.
n80 OP
1,227 posts
 
Thank you. Excellent advice.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
But here's a question....why don't device makers, at least high end device makers, include some method for decreasing jitter in the device itself?

Many DAC's have reclockers and FIFO's inside to minimize jitter.  The problem is that IME most of them do a poor job of it.  This is why I recommend a DAC with no reclocker on the coax input, like Metrum or Audio Note. 

USB interfaces also have a Master Clock in them, but most do a poor job of achieving low jitter in the USB interface as well. You can get an external USB converter with lower jitter, but you will also need one of these to achieve good SQ with USB:

https://sotm-usa.com/collections/sotm-ultra/products/copy-of-tx-usbultra-regenerator-1

Without this, you might as well stick with S/PDIF coax and a reclocker.  It will sound better.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

More to discover