Théoriquement, UPnP media renderer et DAC se trouvant dans un même élément permet de mieux maîtriser le jitter à l’instar d’un lecteur CD avec son DAC intégré (UPnP media renderer = lecteur CD proprement dit).
[Naim DAC white paper]Since 1991 when the first Naim CD player – the CDS – was launched, Naim’s design philosophy has been that for best sonic performance from digital audio the master clock must be positioned close to the DAC chips. When the clock and DAC chips are closely coupled, timing errors are minimised. Whereas if a CD player is connected to an external DAC via S/PDIF, the master clock is in the CD player and the DAC chips are in the DAC, ie they are separated by the S/PDIF interface. The DAC has to recover the clock from the S/PDIF signal, and this can easily introduce timing errors (jitter). Moreover, S/PDIF circuitry represents a radio frequency (RF) noise source and its presence in a CD player is audible. Consequently, Naim has never fitted S/PDIF outputs to its CD players and has never developed an external DAC – until now.
Il se peut donc que le Naim UnitiQute disposant de sortie préampli à niveau variable et utilisant comme UPnP streamer + DAC soit meilleur qu’un couple à éléments séparés, plus cher, Linn DS + Naim DAC par exemple.
