For Gustard R26...which bang for the buck: DDC or LHY OCK clock?
I've been enjoying this dac for several months now. I have tried USB and COAX and now I2S.
There is a noticeable improvement in each of these inputs. I have read many of the discussions here regarding both DDC and external clocks. I am wondering which of these would give more bang for the buck. The Gustard goes very well with my tube amps.
I am considering the LHY OCK 1 or 2 for clocks and undecided for the DDC.
@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? |
@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. |
@kereru I am using fairly generic LMR240 50 Ohm and RG402 75 Ohm cables I bought from a chinese seller, bydpete, on ebay. It wasn't clear to me from my reading what the best, affordable cable would be but I'm not going to spend $180 for something like the Gustard C2. I have also ordered a couple of the Mini-Circuits BLP-10.7+ filters that the guy at EtherREGEN suggests using which are supposed to obviate the need for expensive cables etc. Swenson's white paper is here: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0660/6121/files/UpTone-J.Swenson_Clock_Considerations.pdf https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0660/6121/files/UpTone-J.Swenson_Clock_Considerations.pdf |
yes, the dh labs was for the i2s connections...I was looking at a few things at the same time! the bnc to bnc I was looking at was a Harmonic Tech Digital Copper III (50 ohm) cable. This would be the reclocker to the bnc of the R26. I am thinking this cable doesn't have to be long. The hdmi (i2s) cable would be 1.5 or 2 metres in length. I have been very happy with Youtube Music for a few months now and don't feel any urge to change that. I actually tried Tidal last year and gave it up in less than a month. |
