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Computer Audio

A case for 96K over 192K recordings and DAC's 

CD quality is 16 bit / 44.1 kHz sample rate.
Today you can buy 24 bit / 912kHz recordings.
But I am here to say that for now it is better to stick to 96k or less for most of us.

Let's do some calculations using 192 Khz
Playing 192 kHz is 1/192.000 sample per second= 0.000005208333333333330 s

If the clock driving the DAC has an intrinsic jitter of 10 nano seconds then time step produced at DA conversion fluctuates between:

0.00000001 = 10 ns 
0.00000 521 8333333333330 +10 ns
0.00000 520 8333333333330
0.00000 519 8333333333330 -10 ns

Obvious the fluctuations in clock speed are pretty close to the time step.

Ok, let's use a better clock, one with an intrinsic jitter of 1 pico second.

0.000000000001 = 1 ps 
0.00000 5208334 333333330 +1 ps
0.00000 5208333 333333330 
0.00000 5208332 333333330 -1ps

In this case the variations in the time step look more decent.
Therefore we can see that the higher the sample rate the more import low jitter values become.

Of course,  jitter performance is far more complex then this but it looks like even with a clock that has an  extreme low intrinsic jitter of 1 ps is not able to generate the correct time step for 192K recordings

This is why one of the best USB DACs on the market today is a 24 bit / 96K Conrad Johnson s HD3 USB DAC see our DAC page for more information.