Dither button on or off with the word clock?

[MDAguy]

Hi all, new member here, and hoping to learn a lot from some of you... and of course opinionate on occasions....

Anyone have any idea whether it's better to run your word clock with the dither button on vs off? dCS, who make mine told me to just push it and leave it engaged, but the nerd in me wants to understand why? I watched a few good videos on YouTube, but that's like staying at the holiday in express...

 

[amirm]

Did some quick reading and their advice is correct. Basically, dither is added to the phased lock loop clock so that it can latch onto incoming signal phase better. Once there, the dither itself is filtered out by the PLL so it doesn't impact the fidelity of the achieved clock.

 

[MDAguy]

Thanks for confirming that Amir... I thought I read something about it causing a higher noise floor and how it's actually higher with dither on.. but I probably either a) misunderstood the article, or b) this elevated noise floor is somehow a good thing to my ears ??

 

[M00ndancer]

I thought I read something about it causing a higher noise floor and how it's actually higher with dither on.. but I probably either a) misunderstood the article, or b) this elevated noise floor is somehow a good thing to my ears ??

As far as I know that's the process when you convert/down sample audio from 32bit/44.1k to 16bit audio. You will get a better sounding 16bit file with
measurable higher noise floor. (not a good explanation, but I hope it helps) Different implementations of dithering.

https://www.waves.com/audio-dithering-what-you-need-to-know

 

[RayDunzl]

I think there is some confusion above:

Dithering the clock in a PLL is not dithering PCM samples.

 

[amirm]

I think there is some confusion above:

Dithering the clock in a PLL is not dithering PCM samples.

Exactly. This has little to do with the normal concept of dither in digital audio. It is a trick to make the PLL lock better. It does not modify the audio samples the way normal dither does. It is only used for timing, not value of audio samples.

 

[M00ndancer]

Exactly. This has little to do with the normal concept of dither in digital audio. It is a trick to make the PLL lock better. It does not modify the audio samples the way normal dither does. It is only used for timing, not value of audio samples.

That was what I was trying to say. Thanks.