OT: Jitter - is it real?

["Mark Harrison" <Mark.Harrison@xxxxxxx>]

Many of you long-term members of UKHA will remember that, about once a
year or so, it's traditional to have a debate on group about whether
things like jitter have any impact on Audio Quality.

There are, traditionally, three positions adopted by the various camps
(with a couple of variations):

1: Dolby Digital / DTS / PCM are purely digital streams. Therefore, as
long as they get passed through to the DAC/processor correctly, without
any bits being corrupted, they will be processed correctly. As a result
of this, any claims to sell cables / devices that have an impact on the
sound by "reducing jitter" are snake-oil, and should not be
trusted.

2: All these digital streams need to get converted into analogue at
some
point, since you need a voltage to move a speaker/headphone plate. The
conversion process is highly dependant not just on the digital stream,
but on the analogue characteristics of the electrical current that
embeds that stream. As such, reducing jitter should impove the sound
quality.

3: I listened to something that claimed to do this, and I
could/couldn't
[delete as appropriate] hear a difference, therefore I'm prepared/not
prepared [delete as appropriate] to accept it makes a difference:

3i: I use the evidence of my test as a universal constant, and
therefore
am prepared to state that everyone/no-one [delete as appropriate]
should
get such a cable or device.

3ii: I could/couldn't [delete as appropriate] hear a difference, but am
prepared to believe that other people, with different systems, rooms,
and hearing may get difference results.


Well - for a while, I've been in camp 3ii :-)


At last, I managed to borrow a decent digital signal processor from my
local Hi-Fi specialist. I am now passing the DIGITAL signal through
that, which claims to de-jitter the signal, then it passes onto the DAC
STILL AS A DIGITAL STREAM.

Now, and here we come to the chase.

In my system, I can hear a HUGE difference! I was cynical, hence I'd
agreed to borrow the processor, rather than buy it... However, I'm
definitely giving them my credit card details rather than the processor
back... 

... Those of you who know me will have guessed, by now, two things
about
this box:

- It's a Meridian :-)
- It's second-hand and MUCH cheaper than a brand new one :-)

Regards,

Mark

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