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Opinions on Esoteric clocks ......

.....I have read the previous threads on these pieces, and would like to hear from people who have bought them as well as the ones who did not and why. I understand what it is doing - just wondering if the sonic improvements are worth the money.
garebear
flye
39 posts
 
Dear Alex,

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

Best Regards,

Kyle Takenaga
bugman03
44 posts
 
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.
aplhifi
515 posts
 
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
garebear OP
1,081 posts
 
So, the clocks do not help with jitter....they merely put the two players ( transport and DAC ) in sync. which improves the overall focus. Right ?????
aplhifi
515 posts
 
Hello Garebear,

Correct, the external clock cannot improve the jitter of the internal clocks; it locks them to the same reference frequency.

I understand that frequency stability/deviation specification of external clocks is extremely tight (this is why they are so expensive) and there is benefit using them with multiple synchronous digital audio components, but that has nothing to do with improving the short-term stability/jitter of the internal clocks, which is critical for optimal D/A conversion.

Best,
Alex Peychev
www.aplhifi.com
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