Low Jitter Clocks for CD

The London Live DIY HiFi Circle has been working on upgrades to CD electronics since it was formed. As well as looking at the analogue filter stages and power supplies, we were among the first to address the topic of clock jitter in a practical way. The article you can download below was published in our newsletter in 1993. Since then, several Circle members and friends around the world have progressed these ideas and all have been pleased with the results. One of the first to do so was DAC specialist Audio Crafters Guild, who incorporated the ECL oscillator into their designs. 

Circle member David Field has published in our Newsletter the results of many months of work during which he optimised both the oscillator performance and the SPDIF interface. His article also appeared in the December 98 edition of Audio Electronics magazine, under the title "Jitter Reduction for Philips-based Players". 

Download Paul's original 1993 article (57K) in Adobe PDF format. For copies of the diagrams in a slightly more readable form, email Paul.(Remove 'XX')

Download the 1999 update on measuring jitter spectra.

More on this subject can be found on the web. Try here for a start.