Wyred4Sound - Do clocks age?

erik_squires OP
158 posts
07-11-2016 4:26pm
Which is why I always drive fast! :)

Finally! Someone said something that makes sense.

@almarg I'd be surprised if clocks got all that much better over 2 years though. The Auralic jitter specs, at least for the SE version, are outstanding, around 80 femto-seconds, while the published measurements for the W4S are around 87 picoseconds. Over 1,000 times worse, but still much better than Apple TV.

In fact, the Remedy in this case may add jitter. :)

I really should read specs better, and not buy products after drinking sake.

Erik 

I’d be surprised if clocks got all that much better over 2 years though.

I have no particular knowledge of that, Erik, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you were right. I was just offering my interpretation of the reviewer’s comment.

Also, when it comes to jitter specs I wonder how much consistency and meaningfulness there is among the different manufacturers with respect to how they are defined. The jitter measurements John Atkinson provides in Stereophile are often specifically stated to be averages taken across a specific bandwidth, and detailed spectral plots based on precisely specified test conditions are often provided as well. But I’d expect that when specs are provided by manufacturers there is lots of opportunity for creative "specmanship." Examples being the bandwidth of the measurement, peak-to-peak vs. peak vs. rms vs. other forms of averaging, measurement at the output of the oscillator vs. the output of the component vs. other circuit points within the component, or just the spec on the oscillator itself as determined under ideal conditions independent of the surrounding circuit and the noise it introduces, etc. etc.

Regards,
-- Al

Do the clocks degrade with time? I have wondered about this as well, but I think the electrolytic caps will give up long before the clocks do.