Sony STR-DA9000ES - Manual (Page 10)

ES Receivers v1.0 Page 10
As a primary manufacturer of Large Scale Integrated circuits (LSIs),
Sony has the freedom to pursue innovative thinking like S-Master Pro
and then express this thinking in silicon. The result is Sony's own
CXD9773Q.
• Superior dynamic range. The previous S-Master Pro LSI achieved 24-bit
processing at 1024 fs. This translates to an impressive 34 bits of resolution at
the 48 kHz sampling rate (fs). The new CXD9773Q goes much further, with
32-bit processing at 1024 fs. Internal dynamic range at the 48 kHz sampling
rate is improved from 180 dB to 228 dB. When Super Audio CD signals are
sampled at 8 fs, the internal dynamic range improves from 162 dB to 210 dB
out to nearly 100 kHz. Clearly, the new 32-bit processor has more than
enough dynamic range for the most demanding digital audio sources.
• Higher accuracy for the Clean Data Cycle. Because one-bit digital signals
depend on the accuracy of the time domain, Sony suppresses jitter with
Clean Data Cycle. Our 24-bit processor achieved a theoretical accuracy of
40 femtoseconds. One femtosecond is 1/1,000,000,000,000,000 second (in
scientific notation, 10
-15 second). For comparison, it takes a billion
femtoseconds to equal one nanosecond. Stated another way, there are as
many femtoseconds in one full second as there are seconds in 30 million
years!
So it's fair to say that accuracy of 40 femtoseconds is fairly precise. However
our 32-bit processor goes well beyond this, to an accuracy of 0.08
femtoseconds (or 80 attoseconds, if you prefer). This is about the same time
it takes an electron to fluctuate within a single lattice of a metal crystal. So we
can say that the 32-bit Clean Data Cycle reduces jitter to the theoretical
minimum. (Note: This measure, 80 attoseconds is roughly four orders of
magnitude more precise than the jitter induced by chassis vibration. From a
practical standpoint, suppressing chassis vibration has a great impact on the
final sound quality.)