TV digital audio - Home theatre vs Stereo audio
My question is that if I anyways have only a 2-channel music system set-up through which my TV sound plays, does it matter whether I use the optical out from my TV or the more advanced HDMI ARC? The Toslink optical output will be better than the HDMI for driving your DAC and particularly if you reclock it with the Synchro-Mesh. This will elevate both your movie and CD sound quality significantly. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
If you want to use your DAC and 2-channel system for TV/Internet movies, then you are stuck with 2-channel. You can set the optical output from the TV to PCM 2-channel in the setup menu. In this case, I would highly recommend reclocking the optical cable from the TV with a Synchro-Mesh reclocker and then a good silver 1.5m BNC coax to your DAC. This will reduce jitter and improve clarity significantly. You can also drive the same Synchro-Mesh with your Oppo for CD playback and switch between TV and CD player to get the benefit of the low jitter for both. The Oppo must also be set to 2-channel for Blu-ray movies if you want to use your DAC for blu-rays. If you want Dolby Digital from the TV then I highly recommend using the iFi SPDIF iPurifier from Amazon to reduce jitter of the Dolby Digital signal. Like the 2-channel SM above, the iPurifier accepts Toslink in and out or coax in and out. Run a Toslink optical cable from the TV to the iPurifier and then a 1.5m BNC coax with RCA adapters to your SS processor/amplifier. You cannot use your Auralic DAC for this. If you use your Oppo for Dolby Digital Processing, you must have the 5 speaker or 7 speaker/amplifer system to support it. If you only have 2-channel, then stick with the DAC and reclock with the Synchro-Mesh. I highly recommend this Toslink cable: https://btpa.com/TOSLINK-XXX.html Always buy BNC terminated high-end cables for coax and use RCA adapters. Always get at least 1.5m length. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
Jitter plots of two popular reclockers: https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=157348.msg1727698#msg1727698 Steve N. Empirical Audio |
Not saying many old/new DACs have great jitter suppression, but most modern ones do reduce it better than CD quality. CD quality (from a CD player) is a low-bar for me. My digital is much better than that. There is no way that I would have gotten best of show several times with a CD player in the system. I have had a lot of different DAC's in my system since I modded them for many years. None of them were jitter immune, none. I have heard from customers that the Benchmark DAC3 is jitter immune, but I have not heard it in my system. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
Can the Sychro-mesh be used in HK where the voltage is 220V and not the 110V as in the US. Also since I already have high quality Coax and Toslink now (connecting my Oppo and TV to the Auralic DAC), I will only need a Coax cable to connect the Synchro-Mesh out to the DAC. I already have a very high-end Coax with me now. Please can you send me a quote for the product with shipping to HK Island. Yes, the AC adapter has different plugs and universal voltage rating. I sell world-wide. I also offer a fast-reacting LPS for the SM that has a Hynes-based voltage regulator. Hynes is famous for his excellent discrete regulators, coming from the UK actually. As for coax, if you don’t have a BNC-terminated coax with RCA adapters as needed in a length of at least 1.25m, you will need 2 new cables. My Standard BNC cable is very affordable and pure silver. Aerospace grade. My Reference cable is exceptional and very liquid sounding. Go to the Empirical Audio website and click on "contact us" to send me an email and I will send you a paypal invoice. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
My room is specially designed and treated. However, it does not require anything special in the room to hear the difference between 20psec of jitter and 7psec of jitter. It only requires a system with a really low noise floor and low distortion, such as my own. My system has zero ground-loops and minimal analog stages. One analog stage in the DAC and two stages in the tube SET monoblock amplifiers. Simple is better. You state the 96dB of dynamic range that undithered 16Bit offers is too low. What? I never said this. The plot you show is still through a DAC, not a direct measurement. Send me the Topping converter and I’ll post the actual jitter from it. I recently tested two other USB converters that are well-regarded, including the Singxter SU-1. The Jitter from the Singxer was 4nsec and the other was 500psec. A far cry from the 10psec from my own USB converter. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
