Opinions on Esoteric clocks ......

Excuse my ingnorance

Is possile to use this antelope isochrone 10 m with dcs puccini? or with esoteric X01 D2? has someone experineced before? I nave heard about them

Thanks

If you will allow me, I’d like to elaborate on the external clocks use.

Something that should be realized about using a "super-precision clock" is that the stability of the clock in ppm (parts per million) does not have anything to do with improving short term instabilities, also known as clock jitter; all it affects is playback speed stability. In other words, if there is a deviation (plus or minus) of the clock frequency, you will hear increased or decreased playback speed, nothing else. Let’s say the audio master clock is 22,000,000Hz (or 22MHz) specified at the “extremely high” +/-100ppm frequency deviation, then you do the math what percentage is 100 parts per million from this frequency and you will find out what will be the speed deviation. Simply, this is something you cannot hear and hardly measure.

When it comes to digital audio, the jitter (or “period jitter”) is what’s important for best sound quality, not the frequency deviation/stability, which is negligible even at 100ppm.

External clocks are made for synchronization of multiple digital audio/video devices in studios and TV stations. The external clock is usually converted to DC voltage that controls a VCO (voltage controlled oscillator). While this synchronizes everything connected to the “house clock” (the external clock) and locks the frequency, it has nothing to do with clock jitter. Not to talk about the fact that, usually, the VCO is used as a reference to a multi-clock generator that is PLL based, so the jitter can sometimes exceed 400pS, although the frequency deviation is locked to some really low figure as 0.00005ppm. Compare to a non-PLL clock oscillator with 2pS of jitter, although its frequency deviation is specified at 50ppm or more.

Hope this helps you understand digital audio clocking even better!

Best wishes,

Alex Peychev
www.aplhifi.com

Dear Alex,

Well said! I hope you are doing well in all your endeavours!

Best Regards,

Kyle Takenaga

I have a P5/D5 with a Gorb clock. The Gorb clock makes the sound more clear and focused without being bright at all. The improvement was worth the money for me.

Bugman03, I've heard this improvement myself with Esoteric's P01 and pair of D01 DACs in their room at CES.

When it comes to synchronous digital audio components (such as Esoteric are), it is beneficial to have external clock because it "locks" them all to the exact same clock frequency. For example, your P05 has a VCO used to reference the PLL multi clock generator, and the D05 also has a similar clocking architecture with another VCO. The two VCOs (one in transport, one in DAC) are impossible to work at the exact same frequency, unless they are "locked" to an external reference (the external clock). This is why the sound is more focused with the external clock. Furthermore, if there was a clock output from your P05 so you can feed D05 with it, you wouldn’t need external clock because the benefit would be the same.

Above does not apply to a single digital audio component (CD/SACD player) simply because there is no benefit from an external clock, IMO. It also does not apply to a Transport/DAC combination where the DAC is asynchronous.

Best,
Alex Peychev
www.aplhifi.com