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Computers as an audio platform is very suitable for jitter reduction

I shared your same ideal view, ie. optical input and DAC (or external clock) as master. Thats why I bought the Scarlatti Clock.

The clock of the soundcard can't be as good as the one generated by the DAC, not to mention the PC environment isn't exactly helping.


In the paper, following is mentioned:

Computers superiority in jitter performance is not well understood. Consider this: SATA specifications demand strict jitter tolerances for which standards are defined (something like not exceeding 160ps peak). Computer manufacturers utilize jitter testing equipment measuring in femto seconds (a femto is a thousand fold less than a ps)! This is all very necessary to achieve very high bandwidths and extremely low bit error ratios.


Computer manufacturers have substantially more R&D dollars to create faster, cheaper & more efficient products. Because of ever increasing performance demands (faster processors, RAM etc) manufacturers have to reduce jitter to very low levels. This is critical for achieving high bandwidths. Clever noise reduction technologies are being implemented, e.g. DDR2 that has ODT (on die termination) technology that terminates signal reflections within the memory module. Reduction in power consumption demands is also forcing the industry into creating low-power components.

Combining a soundcard (PCI, Firewire or USB based) with a computer allows one to achieve low jitter when correctly optimized. My experience suggests that soundcards have good quality XOs (a must for the recording industry where computer audio is the norm). Yes, computers are complicated animals and offers phenomenal capabilities BUT they come with configurations that suit a general PC user and NOT audio. Such configurations create lots of jitter at the soundcard. The challenge is in reconfiguring it.

Thus, a computer acting as Transport is a perfect platform for low jitter IF configured correctly. Given its processing capabilities it offers another very important benefit: high precision upsampling based on bandlimited interpolation which recreates the analogue waveform. Such reconfiguration of a computer is covered in cMP's documentation (based on Windows XP). Others provide excellent guides for Linux. When fully implemented, the results are very good indeed. So much so that it can act as clock master and question the 'DAC as master' approach! You get all this for $1500. That's how I'm experiencing it and feel compelled to share it.

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