For Gustard R26...which bang for the buck: DDC or LHY OCK clock?

I've read conflicting things re optimal cable length for digital cables, though expect it depends very much on the application. The main variable I've found for clock cables at least of which I've tried five is cable quality (conductor, shielding and termination quality) rather than length per se.

@kereru Clock or other digital cables are not the same as HDMI cables for i2S as per my last post.  For example, a digital interconnect is best at 1.5m, whereas that would kill an i2S signal.  The i2S signal is a different animal entirely and extremely sensitive to cable length.  Try the 1 foot cable and see what you think, or try the 6” cable I linked above for only $5.50.  Interested in your thoughts. 

I just got the LHY OCK-2 yesterday.  I am using it with the R26 with the Sine wave output and 50 ohm cable and with the EtherREGEN with the Square wave output and a 75 ohm cable.  It is still early but I am blown away by what a significant difference the OCK-2 is making.  There are greater dynamics as well as a sense of air and separation and better placement in the soundstage. The top end is also more pronounced and detailed. Obviously, I am still in the honeymoon period and perhaps I'll find the greater level of detail fatiguing but right now I am loving it.  

@pinwa Awesome - welcome to the club! Your observations of the character of differences are consistent with mine and other users of master clocks. I find that far from being fatiguing it is less so as notes are more accurately (and naturally) rendered, losing some artificially etched edges and glare.

What brand / model cables are you using?

After doing some further exploring, I am strongly leaning to 

a good DDC to an LHY OCK-2 and a DH Labs Silver Sonic 2.1

cable to connect the clock to the Gustard R26.

@peareye Given your clarification that you predominantly listen to YT off your MacBook I agree that a USB based connection is what you'll need to use so considering DDCs to help optimise it makes sense. 

Reason being, as notwithstanding my preference for the sonics of the R26 LAN input/renderer, the R26 doesn't support any LAN streaming protocol I'm aware of that'd support YT audio. Happy to be corrected here if there's a workaround way to pipe it via UPnP but doubt it'd be easy or ideal if there's video lipsync considerations.

I also listen to and watch a bit of YT, in my case via my TV, using its optical out. I feed this to an Ifi s/pdif iPurifier 2 reclocker (a DDC) then into the R26 coax digital input. This sounds much better than going direct into the R26 optical input which doesn't do any reclocking of the jittery signal from the TV (so is thin and glare-y) and slightly better than going USB direct from my Mac Mini into my U18 DDC but not as good as the LAN for equivalent non-YT music.

That said having recently experienced a substantial improvement from inserting the Holo Audio Titanis USB regenerator/ galvanic isolator in between the Mac and the U18 I reckon that would likely now better the TV/Ifi chain for YT content. I must try it. 

Re clock cables the one you referred to looks to be an HDMI cable which could be used to carry i2S signal from a DDC to the R26, but for the external clock connections (ideally to both DDC and R26 so they're synchronized) you need a BNC-BNC terminated 50 ohm coaxial cable like the Gustard C2 or LMR400.