Implications of Esoteric G-0Rb atomic clock


The latest TAS (March 2008) has an excellent piece by Robert Harley: a review of the Esoteric G-0Rb Master Clock Generator, with sidebars on the history and significance of jitter. This Esoteric unit employs an atomic clock (using rubidium) to take timing precision to a new level, at least for consumer gear. It's a good read, I recommend it.

If I am reading all of this correctly, I reach the following conclusions:

(1) Jitter is more important sonically than we might have thought

(2) Better jitter reduction at the A-D side of things will yield significant benefits, which means we can look forward to another of round remasters (of analog tapes) once atomic clock solutions make it into mastering labs

(3) All of the Superclocks, claims of vanishingly low jitter, reclocking DACs -- all of this stuff that's out there now, while probably heading in the right direction, still falls fall short of what's possible and needed if we are to get the best out of digital and fully realize its promise.

(4) We can expect to see atomic clocks in our future DACs and CDPs. Really?

Am I drawing the right conclusions?
Ag insider logo xs@2xdrubin
Eric, you soooo right. We are all sick of this crap. I have been researching and researching and waiting for "that" product to appear but to no avail. One of the sonic themes that comes out in reading reviews pretaining to digital audio is a certain thinness of sound...ultra detailed yes, but lacking warmth, bloom, bass weight, etc. That is what I crave. You mentioned the Memory Player, and while it sounds promising, who is 10K+ lying around? Anyway, I am planning to a little blinded, A+B testing of digital front ends in the not too near future, and I would like to involve non-audiophiles with good ears and music backgrounds (my wife for example) to keep things real. The potential contenders at this point are:

1. Granite Audio 657 (my CDP)
2. Bolder modded SB3 (Ultimate mod)
3. Modded Sonos + Pacecar + DAC (Empirical Audio)
4. Sonos (w/ ? USB mod or converter) + Exemplar USB DAC

Should be interesting.....
The I2S is what Steve from Empirical highly recommends.

I believe until an audiophile wireless solution ever falls into place, this is the preferred connection.

You'd think with all the computer and digital technology someone would have the answer by now.