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.
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. |
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 |
Thanks @david_ten for posting this question. I presume network clocks solely affect sound stage, imaging, perhaps resolution. Some presume my issues with the added clock in audiophile switch is due to inferior quality of said switch. So, if the clocking in this switch is doing its job, I should have more precise sound staging, imaging, more resolution. My listening experience with switch confirmed my presumptions of what added clocking would do, more precise sound stage, imaging and a bit more resolution, in my case sound stage, imaging overly precise. It seems intuitive to me that a better/more expensive switch and/or clock would only increase that precision, this I don't want.
If this not the case, please explain how a higher priced, supposed higher quality clock/switch would improve over my switch/clock. Are there flavors of switches/clocks, do network appliances affect things like timbre, tonality, micro and macro dynamics? I've not heard any of these kind of changes with any of my network improvements, solely sound staging, imaging and resolution changes.
I've heard of the sine wave vs square wave issue, don't know if this is issue in this case. And the attack and decay issue is an interesting concept, this allied to micro/macro dynamics. The defects in sound staging I'm hearing could be interpreted as micro dynamic issue, the overly precise imaging/sharp outlines mimics micro dynamic decay, but in my case solely sound staging related, no perceptive change in dynamics.
I'm certainly not alone in hearing defects with audiophile switches. Just not sure if their issues are the added clocking or something else?
Its also possible router mods have diminished my need for switch/added clock. I'm powering with over spec'd LPS (amperage supply greater than need) and added rfi shielding. Entire network and USB chain post server already optimized.
And my digital surpasses my tt setup by quite a large margin, and only sounds increasingly analog as resolution increases.
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