Clocking: again!


There are all manner of folk claiming that clocking is irrelevant to Ethernet and USB connections. While this is obviously ignorant of the RMI/EMI and ground level effects on DA conversion and the analogue stages of a DAC, the level to which digital clocking matters was again brought into stark relief when I changed the clock cable between the Antelope 10m clock and the Etherregen from the cable supplied by Antelope to a Shunyata Clock75 Sigma cable. Shazam! Everything jumping into focus and significantly more snap and reverb. In our hobby everything matters and we are only at the very beginning of optimizing streaming.

antigrunge2

What you get from the switch is foremost a lowering of the noise floor with resultant increase in blackness and impulse. In addition there seems to be less spurious noise affecting the DACs conversion and analogue stage, leading to higher resolution and better rendition of instruments‘ attack and reverb, thereby rendering them more 3-dimensional. The impact of the LPS is though lesser compared to the improved clocking

I'll  throw this out there again. I tried audiophile switch (TXCO clock) with LPS, unfavorable results. Overly precise cookie cutter image outlines and performer placement on sound stage. I prefer spaciousness and air around performers on sound stage, much more natural.

 

At this point I'm making the presumption one can encounter situation where there may be excessive clocking and/or incompatible clocks over an entire network.

 

Has anyone else heard the above sound staging and image effects caused by adding more clocking to network? Still waiting for satisfactory explanation for above. Its been offered up my network switch inferior, cause of above. My response is this clock is doing exactly what it designed to do, I've previously heard greater ss and image precision, along with more detail with prior clock upgrades, adding switch concurred exactly with prior clock upgrades.

 

The Master clock referred to above makes sense if issue I'm having due to incompatible clocks.

I am afraid a TXCO clock, possibly with a generic BNC cable in most cases will be inferior to the internal clock of your DAC resulting in a very pointy and ultimately unpleasant sound. As I said in my original post superior cables are needed if you go to an external master clock and that clock has to be OCXO or Rubidium to be better than the Dac‘s own. The idea is not to add more but better clocking, both in terms of accuracy and phase noise.

Yes, ocxo and rubidium clock superior to txco, my switch was advertised as ocxo clock, I opened up and discovered txco clock. Regardless, I presume I'd have unhappy with ocxo clock as well.

 

I'm convinced enough of my presumptions that any more clocking upgrades not on horizon for me. My present planned upgrades will  be all discreet componentry. Roon library on present modded mac mini to either diy or Euphony Summus server running Stylus OS to Euphony streamer/endpoint to dac, all components running LPS. Already have all AQ Vodka ethernet, AQ Diamond usb and FMC. Server processing power will be sufficient for HQPlayer DSP if desired.

 

 

My research has convinced me all discreet components optimum setup, running multi services within one component noisier. Things are getting more complex, not less for me. Clocks are of secondary importance for me at this point. My dac already runs ocxo clock.