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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
erik_squires OP
5,268 posts
 
thank you @astewart8944 - Like I was thinking, maybe this is better as an external gadget.

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.

Best,
E
djones51
617 posts
 
DAC's isolate jitter maybe they could have something that lets you know how much jitter they isolated from the incoming stream before sent to the reclocker. If it only added $10 or $20 to the cost might be an interesting doodad to watch .
erik_squires OP
5,268 posts
 
All DAC's attempt to isolate themselves from jitter, ground loop and noise and do so with relatively different levels of success.

I think given the drop in processing power, cost of excellent clocks and DAC chips, maybe this can take over after everyone is done with MQA. :)

Best,
E
tastyfreeze's avatar
tastyfreeze
94 posts
 
Yep,  Source programming and delivery can be a problem with some media.
erik_squires OP
5,268 posts
 
Yep,  Source programming and delivery can be a problem with some media.

Right? Like with streaming. Would be nice to know
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