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A Transport of Delight: CD Transport Jitter Page 4

After measuring the first two products (the PS Lambda and the Panasonic SV-3700), I went back and repeated my measurements to make sure the analyzer was giving consistent results, and that my test setup was correct. When I remeasured the SV-3700, I got about half the jitter than when I first measured it!

What caused this reduction in measured jitter?

Changing the direction of the digital interconnect between the transport and the jitter analyzer.

This phenomenon was easily repeatable: put the cable in one direction and read the RMS jitter voltage, then reverse the cable…

A Transport of Delight: CD Transport Jitter Page 5

When I wrote that review, I had no way of measuring transport jitter. Now that we can measure the DTI's effect on jitter, let's see how close our listening impressions were to the DTI's measured performance; it may shed some light on how much jitter is audible and what the sonic effects are.

Fig.11 is the SV-3700's jitter spectrum with the DTI in the S/PDIF signal path. The DTI reduced the jitter by a factor of 10, from 4250ps to 450ps (with a 1kHz, full-scale signal), easily seen in the comparison with fig.4 (the SV-3700's jitter without the DTI). The jitter reduction was less apparent…

A Transport of Delight: CD Transport Jitter Page 6

Figs.15 and 16 show the Meridian 200 transport's jitter on test signals and music, respectively. The -90dB, 1kHz test signal (the trace with the highest peak at 1kHz) produced a fairly high—but typical—jitter level at 1kHz and 2kHz.

Fig.15 Meridian 200, jitter in S/PDIF data signal, 20Hz-50kHz, when transmitting digital silence (solid), a 1kHz sinewave at -90dB (dashed), and a 1kHz sinewave at 0dBFS (dotted) (vertical scale, 1ps-2ns, 100µV = 1ps).

Fig.16 Meridian 200, jitter in S/PDIF data signal, 20Hz-50kHz, when transmitting music #1 (solid) and music #2 (…

A Transport of Delight: CD Transport Jitter Page 7

Although I haven't yet auditioned it, I measured the gorgeous new $8000 Denon DP-X transport (figs.23 and 24). The DP-X had very low jitter below 200Hz, but slightly higher jitter in the treble. The 2kHz component in the top trace (made with the -90dB, 1kHz test signal) is lower in amplitude than any of the other products tested, but it had more jitter energy above 3kHz when the transport was transmitting a full-scale, 1kHz sinewave. The DP-X had a slightly higher jitter level on music than the best of the transports tested.

Fig.23 Denon DP-X, jitter in S/PDIF data signal, 20Hz-…

A Transport of Delight: CD Transport Jitter Page 8

The Proceed PDT (original version) is shown in figs.31 and 32. It had surprisingly low jitter considering how much better the PDT 2 and 3 sound in comparison.

Fig.31 Proceed PDT, jitter in S/PDIF data signal, 20Hz-50kHz, when transmitting digital silence (solid), a 1kHz sinewave at -90dB (dashed), and a 1kHz sinewave at 0dBFS (dotted) (vertical scale, 1ps-2ns, 100µV = 1ps).

Fig.32 Proceed PDT, jitter in S/PDIF data signal, 20Hz-50kHz, when transmitting music #1 (solid) and music #2 (dashed) (vertical scale, 1ps-2ns, 100µV = 1ps).

Finally, we come to the…

A Transport of Delight: CD Transport Jitter Page 9

Although the No.31 and the $4650 C.E.C. TL 1 appeared to have similar spectra and jitter levels in the graphs presented earlier, we can see in fig.36 that the C.E.C. in fact has lower jitter in the treble, particularly between 3kHz and 40kHz. The No.31, however, has lower jitter and a smoother jitter spectrum in the bass, seen in fig.37. In my listening comparisons of the two products, I noted that the C.E.C. did indeed have a softer, more laid-back treble than the No.31, but that the No.31 had tighter and better-controlled bass. Could these differences in measured jitter performance explain…

A Transport of Delight: CD Transport Jitter High Jitter vs. Low Jitter

Sidebar: High Jitter vs. Low Jitter

What is the sonic effect of jitter in the S/PDIF datastream? To answer that, I listened to the same music through the same system, but switched between the PS Audio Lambda and the SV-3700 as the S/PDIF data source.

The difference was not subtle. On the Harmonia Mundi recording of Handel's Water Music (HMU 907010), the violins sounded almost unrecognizable through the high-jitter SV-3700. Instead, they sounded like a single synthesizer, devoid of all nuance, detail, and the sonic cues that tell you a bow is moving across strings. In place of…

A Wee Dram of Scotch: Linn Products' Ivor Tiefenbrun

More than 20 years ago, when the turntable was considered a perfectly neutral component in the playback chain, Ivor Tiefenbrun single-handedly demonstrated to the world that the turntable was not only an important part of a hi-fi system, but perhaps the most important part. That radical idea was the basis for the legendary Linn Sondek LP12 turntable, the product that launched Linn, and which is still in production 22 years later.

Ivor also had some unconventional ideas about music reproduction and what a hi-fi system should do—ideas often at odds with the traditional view of "high-end"…

A Wee Dram of Scotch: Linn Products' Ivor Tiefenbrun Page 2

John Atkinson: The resistance was quite violent, as I remember.

Tiefenbrun: People felt I was some kind of charlatan. The funny thing is that most marginal, or even nonexistent, improvements were welcomed, and yet here was a very large one that was easily demonstrable. But people actually didn't even want to listen. When they did, of course, they were flabbergasted.

It seemed obvious to me that the quality of the input signal was crucial in the performance of the total system, and that getting information off the record was substantially the task of the turntable; it was a…

A Wee Dram of Scotch: Linn Products' Ivor Tiefenbrun Page 3

Harley: You were talking earlier about having a relationship with the customer rather than just making a sale. Was the upgradeability part of that?

Tiefenbrun: As I always say, it's the relationship that matters, not the sale. I don't believe there's any virtue in selling something to somebody when it doesn't meet any customer requirement. I never felt comfortable with the notion that people should buy our product without knowing actually why they bought it. In other words, personal experience.

I said from the beginning that we want a thrilled customer, not a happy one. We want…