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Music servers and other computer based digital audio technologies.

RE: I am amazed

Bob_C says:
"Maybe because they look at the computer as a computer only, a digital device. IMO better to look at the concept of audio in the analogue sense and maybe better understand the logic."

Perhaps this is the problem.

Too many still hold on to analogue concepts as it pertains to computer technology and audio.

First, all that is transferred to the DAC is DATA. Not continuous waveforms as some seem to believe; just DATA representing what the waveforms should look/sound like. Data in an MP3 file is even more removed from the PCM lossless data as to how it represents the ultimate analogue wave. From there, the DAC will then recreate the analogue (hence the "Digital to Analogue Converter" acronym of course) whether with further upsampling and reconstruction or straight through as in NOS - it is within this reconstruction to analogue that determines the amount of jitter based on your hardware's precision and that is derived from the *internal clock circuitry of your DAC* - not your computer.

Secondly, unlike S/PDIF coaxial/optical where temporal continuity is important within reason, there is no need for a continuous stream in the USB paradigm - in fact the transmission is performed in PACKETS like Ethernet (hence how strange "audiophile ethernet cables" seem to many of us).

For high speed USB 2.0, I believe the packet size is 1024 bytes with a CRC check and handshake signals that can acknowledge successful transmission and the DAC has the ability to stall further transfer if needed. Modern asynchronous hi-res DACs essentially have another little computer inside to do this job. This "burst of data" type activity is outside the effect of common software like JPLAY.

Please. Think different. "Time of flight" and "arrival" from the computer to DAC will just be negotiated by the interface ultimately. So long as the buffer in the DAC gets the data in time without going empty, it really doesn't matter if it took twice as long with the next packet. Focus on the quality of the DAC hardware - it isn't the software player.

The above is what I see when tests are run on digital gear. This is how it was engineered to be with asynchronous USB DACs.

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Archimago's Musings: A 'more objective' audiophile blog.


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