2. digital
  3. 147917-3034

Digital clock - any recommendations?

Recently heard an Esoteric setup with and without a digital external clock and the difference was not subtle.  I have a marantz sa11 s2.  Any recommendations?
tzh21y
folkfreak's avatar
folkfreak
1,349 posts
 
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
david_ten
5,480 posts
 
 @folkfreak  +1
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,503 posts
 
+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 😉
dgarretson
2,599 posts
 

+3  @folkfreak 

With an Esoteric DAC it's easy to perceive the improvement of an external 10mhz atomic clock powered by a good LPS.  Why would Esoteric market the interface were this untrue?

Also, if your networked computer audio components have master clock inputs(e.g. SOtM renderer and ethernet hub), or if you have a PCM/DSD digital recorder with clock inputs(e.g. Tascam), it is beneficial to sync everything to one master clock, just like in studio environments.

That said, I have no experience with Marantz.  To Erik's point, at an early stage in digital evolution I had good results with Audiocom Superclocks inside a Sony SCD-1.  The idea there was to position the clock within a few centimeters of the PCB input.   

soix
9,476 posts
 
It depends on how good the reclocker is in your Marantz.  It's really DAC dependent.  The Empirical Audio Offramp is a well-respected design. 
More to discover