[spinnerbait70]

Just happened upon the AVI site and am quite interested in their ADM9.1 package. a speaker set with amp & Dac built in, it seems as though it has very few options to upgrade. It has 2 optical digital and 1 analog RCA inputs. Any way for Emperical products to enhance?

PS I am a newbie but have been perusing this and many other sites trying to do as much research as possible. I'm still a little confused

Thanks - spinnerbait70

[audioengr]

Sure, the Pace-Car can be applied to significantly lower jitter.

For instance, if you want to drive the system from a Toslink output from a Mac, then you can run the long toslink from the laptop to the rack and then into a Pace-Car.  The output from the Pace-Car can be short S/PDIF cable into the system you describe.  The Pace-Car will eliminate the jitter from the computer and the effects of the long Toslink cable.

To make this happen, I will need your laptop here to tune the Pace-Car to it.

Another option is using a Squeezebox, Sonos or Duet with the Pace-Car with WiFi from a laptop driving the music.  The WiFi device is on the rack and drives the Pace-Car.  The Pace-Car again drives the system with a short S/PDIF cable.  I dont need to tune the Pace-Car in this case, but I need the WiFi device to add a slave-clock input to it.

Either of these will sound exceptional and they with both be identical in sound quality.

Steve N.

[spinnerbait70]

Steve,
Thanks for the quick reply. The macbook - pace car is the direction I will likely go. Have you ever encountered the AVI package before?

Thanks again
Spinnerbait70

[audioengr]

Steve,
Thanks for the quick reply. The macbook - pace car is the direction I will likely go. Have you ever encountered the AVI package before?

Thanks again
Spinnerbait70

No, but there are more and more of these powered speakers available now.  The big downside with them is:

1) you are locked into their DAC and amps
2) without a reclocker like the Pace-Car, the long digital interconnects impact sound quality

The advantage is of course that it is highly integrated and if the speakers are decent, may be a great system.

Steve N.

[Ashley James]

Jitter is completely eliminated with ADM9.1s so there would be no benefit in the Pace Car.

Understandably people used to having every part of their Hi Fi system in separate boxes are concerned at the thought of them all being combined in one, however such worries are misplaced. Modern electronic components are minute, a preamplifier and very high spec DAC can be combined on a PCB not much larger than a credit card and be perfectly matched, so why separate them.

The major advantages of properly designed active speakers (they vary as much as passive ones) are the vastly improved drive unit control afforded by their direct connection to the power amplifiers, the dramatic reduction in distortion afforded by an active crossover over a passive and being able to use steeper filters so that the tweeter is not audible below the crossover point as it is in passive speakers.

Given the facts it's astonishing that no Manufacturer has done it before. I imagine most didn't fancy the flack that ours have produced! However they are selling in astonishing quantities as more an more realise that they actually do as we claim.

Ashley
www.avihifi.com

[audioengr]

Jitter is completely eliminated with ADM9.1s so there would be no benefit in the Pace Car.

Ashley
www.avihifi.com

Ashley,
This is quite a bold claim, so forgive me if I dont believe it.  Even my own devices which generate extremely low levels of jitter dont completely eliminate jitter. This is literally impossible.  Even achieving inaudible levels of jitter is a stretch.

If your device, like so many DAC's, uses an ASRC to upsample the data and reduce jitter, then it probably does significantly reduce jitter.  However, the ASRC chips that are currently available are all somewhat sensitive to incoming jitter.  Many manufacturers claim that these upsamplers make the inputs of their DAC's insensitive to jitter, but they are incorrect in these claims.  I have yet to find ANY DAC that is insensitive to incoming jitter.

I believe that the Pace-Car would likely make a reduction in jitter which would be audible if your system is as good as you say.

Steve N.