CD Player/Transport Reviews

In the measurements section that accompanied the original review, I said that I would measure the Levinson's word-clock jitter rejection once I had set up the Miller Audio Research Jitter Analyzer. The results are shown in fig.8, a high-resolution, FFT-derived spectrum of the player's analog output while it decoded data representing a high-level sinewave at exactly one quarter the sample rate (11.025kHz at -6dB) over which had been overlaid the LSB toggling on and off at 229Hz.

Fig.8 Mark Levinson No.39, high-resolution jitter spectrum of analog output signal (11.025kHz at -6dBFS with LSB toggled at 229Hz). Center frequency of trace, 11.025kHz; frequency range, ±3.5kHz.

The measured jitter level of 140.2 picoseconds peak-peak is one of the lowest I have measured. Other than data-related sidebands at ±229Hz and its odd harmonics, only pairs of sidebands at ±600Hz and ±15.6Hz can be seen. I have no idea what the former are due to; the latter are always seen in digital products that use the Pacific Microsonics PMD-100 digital filter chip; both sets of sidebands are too low in level to have any subjective effect, I feel. This is superb performance.—John Atkinson