Mutec Jitter Reduction and Digital Switching

If you change sources or cables, does the output sound different?

"When you use the Mutec or Benchmark drivers from Foobar, it does not pass the computer beeps and farts.... it can’t if you want bit-for-bit passthrough. For the beeps and farts, I have cheapo powered speakers on my desk connected to the stereo audio jack on my computer’s soundcard.... this allows me to listen to high quality source on the big rig but still hear the beeps and farts. If I don’t fire up Foobar, all music sources are automatically routed out to the cheapo desk speakers."

Bruce, I'm not sure what you mean here. Could you elaborate? I'm also interested in your answer to Steve's question?

Sorry all, been away.....
Update: I purchased a PS Audio Direct Stream Junior DAC... sold the Audio Alchemy. The Junior is fabulous... just wonderful... they really knocked it out of the park. I am done with DACs... for a long time suspect. It really is a special unit. What amazes me is how it makes plain CDs sound so detailed... separation of instruments...without making it harsh or bright. Wow... and it play any source format without clunky, destructive digital conversions. It plays everything natively. A real achievement in engineering. Another wacky thing... it does not have a DAC chip. yep... really a unique engineering triumph.

Regarding changing cables..... The PS Audio (and Benchmark) accommodate different cable hookups so I experimented on different setups. In short, I can not hear a difference in any hook up I tried - XLR, COAX, Optical, USB (direct from computer). Now this is the Mutec to the PS Audio Junior I am talking about. The PS Audio Junior is pretty amazing in that you can throw jitter at it and it will fix it. Now on the PS Audio forums, people swear they hear a difference, not just with hookup types but cable types. I don’t. I just don’t hear a difference... or at least one that I can say one is "better" than the other. I didn’t bother experimenting with the Benchmark... why? The PS Audio sounds so much better I didn’t bother with it.

Normally, I would just use the optical given the electrical isolation it offers, but optical cables have a bandwidth limitation (by design) and the Junior can interpret and play any digital format in existence. So I use the XLR... just because... I do have a few music files that are supper high bit rate just for experimenting (won't pass through optical) but this bit rate is uncommon.
Regarding the beeps and farts...... When you are using a computer to control and play your music, you have multiple sources of sounds in the computer. The first and most important are the tunes you want to play. For this, you want to pass them bit-for-bit (with no volume control) out the PC to your external DAC. But your computer will also generate its own sounds such as beeps when you click on something. Further, if you are surfing the ’net, your browser may emit a beep or something.... then the website you are on may play something... such as YouTube or CNN. If you are using a player such as Foobar and a driver that can bypass the PC’s sound kernel (as Benchmark and PS Audio’s drivers do), your PC goes silent.

If your PC is mixing all sound sources, then you are not getting bit-for-bit for your music files. That is really bad. (BTW, PS Audio has special files that you can play to ensure bit-for-bit... if you have it, the Junior lights up a marker so you know you got it).
But I surf while I am listening and if I see a news story I want to watch, then I have to shut down Foobar and then switch it all back to normal... and then back again... So, I hooked up a small set of powered speakers from Creative (Logitech makes them too, many out there) and I connect the speaker plug to the speaker out jacks on my PC sound card (or your headphone jack on your laptop). Windows 10 can now pass multiple sound signals through the PC. So you set your PC’s volume control to use "Speakers" (or sometimes it shows the name of the soundcard), and Foobar set for, in my case, the PS Audio DSD driver. Then all PC-sourced sounds like the beeps, and YouTube from my browser will always play through these little speakers, while Foobar controls the music files and sends them out the USB port to the DAC (or Mutec.. however you set your system up). Both play and work together and you still get bit-for-bit out to your DAC.
Now there is another alternative to all of this... the PS Audio Junior DAC has a built-in ethernet port and you can configure your NAS, Foobar, and Junior to bypass your PC as a transport for music and have Foobar direct the NAS to send music files directly to the Junior via your home network. Many do this ... I never bothered to try this.... some find it really kludgy, others have no issues. The USB interface through the computer just works and is easiest to set up.
PeaceBruce in Philly

 "Jitter in an A/D converter is critical though.

Sorry but don't follow. I thought to reduce jitter the enhanced reclockers are placed between a digital source and a DAC, e.g., between a CD player and a DAC, etc. So where does this A to D conversion that you speak of occurs?

Since potential jitter doesn’t have an immediate impact on audio in the digital domain, the re-clocking of inbound audio signals when transferring strictly to the computer is not a necessity. Nonetheless it does provide a useful solution for simultaneously monitoring the re-clocked signal on any of the other audio inputs to make sure that the computer is properly locking to the asynchronous USB signal.
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Steve, thanks for the explanation.

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