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
 
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

kahlenz
168 posts
 
I use an Apple TV in my system and I can't tell the difference between it and an Airport Express, which does not resample my signal.  When I plug in my laptop directly to the DAC it still sounds the same to me.  Of course, I am limited to 16/44.1, but unless I am using headphones I can't really tell the difference between the set ups.  So I leave the Apple TV in the system and have moved on to other things.

As far as hi-res, I struggle to find a difference between it and 16/44.1.  Now I CAN hear the difference in mastering, and a lot of the hi-res music out there has been re-mastered, and it does sound better, but the same remastered hi-res files sound just as good (to me) when downsampled in my system to 16/44.1.

As far as jitter goes, I have yet to figure out what that sounds like.  I've run directly from my MacBook Pro into a Benchmark DAC 3, and it sounds the same to me as when I run the same DAC using an Airport Express (didn't have the Apple TV for comparison).  Still using 16/44.1 files, maybe it is a hi-res thing.  I dunno.  I figure if I can't hear it, it's not worth going down that rabbit hole.  I probably need better equipment if I really want to hear jitter.

Apple TV>Schiit BiFrost MB>Odyssey Candela>Odyssey Khartego>Harbeth P3esr.  Groneberg interconnects, Kimber 4TC speaker cables.

AEX>Schiit Modi MB>Schiit Vali>Sennheiser 650 headphones.  Also run Grado 325e headphones with Little Dot 1+ (that combo is a blast)!
djones51
617 posts
 
kahlenz I think you hit the nail on the head from everything I have read about jitter on engineering and pro audio sites it's another blown out of proportion worry any jitter produced is outside the audible range and if you are using a well built dac no need to concern yourself with it. 
canibefrank
104 posts
 
listen to the wind blow, down comes the night
running in the shadows,  damn the DAC damn the interconnects
break the silence, 
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
kahlenz I think you hit the nail on the head from everything I have read about jitter on engineering and pro audio sites it's another blown out of proportion worry any jitter produced is outside the audible range and if you are using a well built dac no need to concern yourself with it.

The industry DAC designers were asked: what is the biggest issue with digital audio playback?

The unanimous answer was "jitter" was the #1 issue.

Minimize it or you will never realize what digital audio can offer.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

More to discover