2. digital
  3. 172684-7805

Can the digital "signal" be over-laundered, unlike money?

Pretty much what is implied by the title. 

Credit to @sns who got me thinking about this. I've chosen a path of refrain. Others have chosen differently.

I'm curious about members' thoughts and experiences on this? 

Though this comes from a 'clocking thread' by no means am I restricting the topic to clocking alone.

Please consider my question from the perspective of all ["cleaning"] devices used in the digital chain, active and passive.

 

From member 'sns' and the Ethernet Clocking thread [for more context]:

 

"I recently experienced an issue of what I perceive as overclocking with addition of audiophile switch with OXCO clock.  Adding switch in front of server, NAS resulted in overly precise sound staging and images."

"My take is there can be an excessive amount of clocking within particular streaming setups.

...One can go [to0] far, based on my experience."

 

Acknowledgement and Request:

- For the bits are bits camp, the answer is obvious and given and I accept that.

- The OP is directed to those that have utilized devices in the signal path for "cleaning" purposes.

Note: I am using 'cleaning' as a broad and general catch-all term...it goes by many different names and approaches.

 

Thank You! - David.

david_ten
auxinput
2,920 posts
 

I have a friend who also had a negative experience with an OCXO clocked network switch in front of the music server.  The switch is just a data packet transfer mechanism, but I actually think that it's injecting a certain type of "character" with the digital pulses it sends down the line to the server.

Having an OCXO clock in the dac or server generally does not have this type of result. 

This is all n assumption, though.

antigrunge2
1,416 posts
 

If additional clocking results in a sterile sound, two possible reasons apply:

1.mismatch when the device requires a sine wave and the clock provides a square wave or vice versa

2. when there is a cable mismatch or quality issue: e.g. 50 Ohm cable on 75Ohm port, long cable suffering from mirroring or RMI/EFI interference due to ineffectual shielding.

Superior clocking in my experience always results in superior rendition of the soundstage as well as intruments‘ attack and reverb

gdnrbob
4,447 posts
 

With anything digital, messing with the original signal is bound to result in a change.

Whether it is 'good or bad' will be a matter of personal opinion.

FWIW, I do believe digital will get very close to analog in the near future.

B

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