Digital audio knowledge base articles

Digital audio is in a state of rapid development, with new and better products coming out almost every week. Find out more about what some of the best designers in the industry are thinking, and what they are doing to take digital audio to a new level.

• A New Era in Computer-Based Audio by Ayre talks about jitter, asynchronous USB, adaptive USB, the TAS1020B, and CEntrance. This is a great paper if you really want to understand the benefits of asynchronous USB.
• Why longer is generally better for an S/PDIF Digital Cable by Steve Nugent shows how transition times and cables lengths can affect jitter.
• The Digital Enemy by TNT Audio discusses the fundamentals of jitter and what it's all about.
• Dither on Wikipedia and Dither Explained give excellent descriptions of how ditherered volume control works. In addition this page has listening samples so you can compare the noise levels of various dither methods.
• Digital Level Control - done the right way by Daniel Weiss explains the sonic benefits of aproperly-mplemented digital volume control.
• The Computer as High Quality Audio Source: A Primer published by Bel Canto.
• Resources On Computer Based Music Playback Weiss Engineering's guide to hires download sites.
• Computer Audiophile is a generally useful web publication.
• TAS 194: The State of USB Audio by AVguide.com.
• TAS 180: Esoteric G-ORb Rubidium Master Clock Generator by AVguide.com talks about jitter.
• The D/A Diaries, Part 2 by planetanalog.com is a paper on USB, jitter, and dac chip architectures.
• Jitter in Digital Audio Data Streams by Steve Nugent gives a nice jitter overview.
• Jitter Theory by Julian Dunn gives a nice overview of the causes and effects of jitter.

Competive features and performance overview

We've assembled detailed information about many of the popular USB-S/PDIF converters and processors available on the market today.

• Competitive summary matrix differentiates several popular USB to S/PDIF converters.

Essential digital audio terminology and definitions

Here are all the pop-up definitions from our Web site:

• Jitter
• Direct connection
• Asynchronous USB
• Adaptive USB
• Fixed frequency clocks
• Dithered digital volume control
• Compatibility
• Power supply
• Output stage
• Firmware
• BitPerfect testing
• 12v trigger
• VirtualCable
• JitterSimulator
• Remote control
• S/PDIF