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  3. 170445-3293

Can (or should) you “Reclock” a Bluesound Node?

I have one going into a pretty darn good system.

I know this could start a jitter discussion, but is there any SQ benefit in connecting the Node to a reclocking device like Wyred4Sound or Denafrips then to your outboard DAC?

the goal being to reduce jitters and feed the DAC with a purer digital signal?

I know they range from $200 to $4,000.
have always wondered if a “digital transport” feeding a dac would add value.

sure, I’m gonna listen me self, but thought to ask you guys,


ianrmack
erik_squires
16,004 posts
 
I have a bit of experience and the answer is that it really depends on the age of your DAC.  Reclocking older DACs (10 or more years) really helps, by a lot.

However DACs in the modern world have superb jitter rejection already.

The Wyred4Sound is a unit I've tried myself  Works great, but with older DACs.  I absolutely cannot hear a benefit with new DACs at all. YMMV
jjss49's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
jjss49
6,612 posts
 
i tried a w4s reclocker on the digital output of a node 2i early on when i was climbing the learning curve streaming... could not hear a difference with and without

different experience when using a stock sonos streamer... reclocking definitely improved many aspects of the sound

iirc correctly the dacs i had at the time were a chord qutest, a mhdt stockholm and an rme adi2
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
5,411 posts
 
I used an iFi version 1 with LPS. There was a noticeable improvement, wider soundstage, music had more weight to it.

@erik_squires is right. After a significant DAC upgrade, I didn't need it anymore.
I must point out that I was using the old iFi. There may be some benefit using version 2. 

audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,717 posts
 
You shouldn't be using  node to feed a high end dac via spdif 

You want to.use usb only the brand new nodes can do this

erik_squires
16,004 posts
 
Related to this, is that modern DAC's make Redbook (44.1kHz/16 bit) sound as good as the high resolution files.

Older DACs have a big delta when playing these and really only shine with high resolution files.
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