Digital clock - any recommendations?

This difference may:
1- not be better2- is very DAC dependent.
From an electrical engineering point of view, you want the clock as physically close to the DAC for the best signal and lowest jitter.

I prefer to get a DAC with a great internal clock, Mytek. Anything outside the case is going to be worse just due to the distance involved.


I suggest you audition your DAC and keep an open mind as to which version sounds better.


Best,

E

How much are you willing to spend?

Any excellent DAC will not benefit from an external clock. The good ones, like the Benchmark DAC3 reclock S/PDIF themselves, so the only jitter is internal.

Why buy a $700 reclocker when you can get $700 or cheaper DAC with external jitter reduction?

For instance, the Schiit Modi 2 showed improvement when the Empirical Audio $700 reclocker was added, but pretty much no difference when used with the Topping DX7s ($500 DAC+headphone amp).

Going digital out of your Marantz to say the SMSL SU-8 would give you similar results to using an external reclocker, in that the jitter from both would be well below audible levels.

Any excellent DAC will not benefit from an external clock.

Did you not read the OP? Presumably Esoteric make good DACs with good clocks? dCS also have an adequate reputation yet my Vivaldi stack improved significantly with the addition of the Mutec 10MHz clock.

Besides the performance of the clock having a separate and dedicated power supply and greater isolation from vibration can all help - in my experience in addition to care in choice of the BNC one also should pay attention to footers, power cord and grounding

 @folkfreak  +1

+2, @folkfreak


@tzh21y,

Here is another recommendation for external clock,

http://www.grimmaudio.com/pro-products/master-clocks/cc2/

I think the guys suggesting to go with external DAC missed your point of exploring the external clock. I own the same player, If your goal is to improve SACD playback then external DAC will be of no use cause you cannot transmit SACD layer through a SPDIF output.

I would only explore external DAC if your goal is to improve CD playback which kinda defeats the purpose of owning a fabulous sounding SACD player from Marantz 😉