Not sure if my reply will lead to insight. I presume it will just be rejected as false but ….here goes.
when you transport music in a ethernet frame its information is protected ( CRC ) .
As soon as you unwrap that Ethernet frame you end up with serial data ( music)
That data is created in the bridge and send to the DAC to be converted into an analog wave.
As soon as you have unwrapped the ethernet frame and create your serial data there’s no protection (CRC) . To identify the information in that serial data stream we need a clock. At Fixed moments in time your clock will pick a sample and decide if that sample is a 1 or a 0 Standard there is a clock in your bridge and a clock in your streamer that function independent from each other
Your DAC will look and sample the incoming serial data using its own clock. These time related voltage samples will be used and stored in the DAC buffer. But garbage in is garbage out.
the buffer is just a storage to make sure that there’s a continuous flow of data and not to overcome jitter of the incoming clock
The world of clocks is not perfect and jitter and smearing does take place.
that means if timing in the bride fluctuates there is fluctuation in time entering the DAC. The DAC will therefore sometimes detect a 0 for a 1 or vice versa.
Same goes for smearing if the puls is not sharp anymore it can lead to a false Decision being 1 or 0 in the DAC
How to overcome this it to make sure that your serial data will leave your bridge with perfect timing. Even better is to have a very precise external clock feeding your bridge and your DAC making sure that there are no differences between them.
I was very skeptical about this timing at first but I was also constantly frustrated why I didn’t hear that same wide soundstage of that same song and recording in my home system compared to the more higher known brands that passed my way. Mind you I use a rasberry Pi as bridge so I can play with it and build it out… I started with buying stuff from Ian Canada that I could easily add to my Pi ( reclocking ) and the impact was impressive . Then I learned about the importance of clocks and low jitter ( short term jitter not long term jitter) i found a few in Denmark that cost me 800euro but I wanted to know if it made any sense. The impact was huge. I’ve got that openness and clarity in sound that I was looking for for so long.
Later talking with Grimm audio and others they confirmed my educational journey.
Therefore when I read that timing is nonsens we are to far apart to come to an agreement.