Advices on 10 mhz Clocks


Does anyone have hands-on experience with the following clocks?

  • Aune X1C (I had a good LPS for it)

  • Gustard C16

  • LHY OCK-2

How do they stack up against each other? I’d appreciate any recommendations you can offer. I'm trying to synchronize a DDC and DAC.

lanx0003

@lordmelton The 10Mhz master clock can not be used to directly run the DAC because it is not divisible by 44.1khz or 48khz. Its frequency needs to be internally converted to 45.1584Mhz and 49.152Mhz word clocks that a DAC needs to process the audio data stream through the PLL (Phase-Locked Loop) system.  I think Denafrips / DCS use native clocks directly to avoid PLL-based conversion or internal reclocking.

Goldensound actually demonstrates the jitter (short-term timing) performance is actually worse when 10Mhz clock is brought in as a reference, as you have also touched on.

However, the intention discussed here is to use a more stable long-term 10 MHz master clock to synchronize multiple components—such as the DDC (or switch/streamer) and DAC—as a shared reference, rather than clocking just the DDC or DAC alone. The listening impressions shared by @sls883 support this approach. I’ve also explained the rationale in the post mentioned above.

I initially needed 4 ft cables, but after rearranging my gear, I have one 18 inch cable and one 4 ft cable.  I could get by with a 3ft cable instead of 4ft, but 2ft wouldn't be quite long enough.

I don't know of any reason to use the same cable length? 

@sls883 

Clock cables should be one meter and all the same length and identical models from the same manufacturer.

For economy cables try Shenzen Audio and Denafrips.

High end cables are $1k+

https://cybershaft.shop/

 

@lordmelton Thanks for the information.  Before I saw your post, I had already ordered a pair of 3 foot cables. I hadn't thought about it before today, but it makes sense that they should be the same length.