The clock I use was chosen for its jitter spectrum and pricing. I also offer better clocks in my other products, but not at this pricepoint.
All of my clocks are custom builds, not off-the-shelf.
The clock in most high-volume low cost products is usually off-the-shelf and nothing special. These monolithic oscillators usually cost in the $2-3 range if that much.
It is possible to get slightly better clocks, using oven-controlled technology
to stabilize the oscilltor even more, but these have costs in the $200+ and that is my cost, and I have to purchase the in hundreds, so the risk is $20-40K for me.
The other thing to understand is that no matter how good the oscillator spectrum of jitter looks, the designer will never actually achieve this, only come close. In order to come close, the design must have extremely good power subsystem and voltage regulation. These are all custom discrete designs in my products. Again, off-the-shelf chips are simply not good enough to achieve really low jitter, even from the best oscillators.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio
All of my clocks are custom builds, not off-the-shelf.
The clock in most high-volume low cost products is usually off-the-shelf and nothing special. These monolithic oscillators usually cost in the $2-3 range if that much.
It is possible to get slightly better clocks, using oven-controlled technology
to stabilize the oscilltor even more, but these have costs in the $200+ and that is my cost, and I have to purchase the in hundreds, so the risk is $20-40K for me.
The other thing to understand is that no matter how good the oscillator spectrum of jitter looks, the designer will never actually achieve this, only come close. In order to come close, the design must have extremely good power subsystem and voltage regulation. These are all custom discrete designs in my products. Again, off-the-shelf chips are simply not good enough to achieve really low jitter, even from the best oscillators.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio