Importance of clocking
There is a lot of talk that external clocks because of the distance to the processor don‘t work. This is the opposite of my experience. While I had used an external Antelope rubidium clock,on my Etherregen and Zodiac Platinum Dac, I have now added a Lhy Audio UIP clocked by the same Antelope Clock to reclock the USB stream emanating from the InnuOS Zenith MkIII. The resultant increase in soundstage depth, attack an decay and overall transparency isn‘t subtle. While there seems to be lots of focus on cables, accurate clocking throughout the chain seems still deemed unnecessary. I don‘t understand InnuOS‘ selling separate reclockers for USB and Ethernet without synchronising Ethernet input, DAC conversion and USB output.
Let‘s just say that my ears and reputable designers like Innuos, Esoteric et al disagree with you Dont simply trust “designers”. Companies want your money and will happily sell whatever for a profit. Always verify their claims. I have seen big, imposing chassis from a very reputable company which should stay unnamed, that was literally empty inside with puny power supply and 2x2” PCB board. I costed $$$$ and got rave reviews. |
@antigrunge2 I assume you mean Phoenix NET network switch. I can theoretically imagine that streamer has underpowered CPU and low performance network stack and hardware so an extra switch before it helps. The network switch may be set up to filter out other traffic (like your kid playing Warcraft) so only audio related traffic reaches the streamer. It is possible that streamer CPU is low performance in order to avoid spinning fans and cooling issues. You count obtain your own network switch for like $100, but setting it up properly may be a challenge unless you are proficient in IT. |
Network switches used to improve sound quality (rather than just giving extra ports as originally intended) do so by massively reducing the amount of RFI reaching the streamer. I guess it will also filter out other traffic in the process, but it’s the RFI from other connected devices rather than some sort of digital crosstalk. An unmanaged switch will do just as good a job of filtering RFI as a managed one, as the management bit is nothing to do with RFI. |
@antigrunge2 You said "I don‘t understand InnuOS‘ selling separate reclockers for USB and Ethernet without synchronising Ethernet input, DAC conversion and USB output." The PhoenixNet operates purely in the ethernet domain to kill RFI noise, it is not there to improve signal timing accuracy so decribing it as a reclocker isn't really accurate (this implies the improvement in sound quality which PhoenixNet users report is down to more accurate clocking and it's not). You can't synchronise asynchronous (ethernet) and synchronous (DAC); it doesn't make sense. |
