Quote:
Originally Posted by custodian
The DCS clock is a standard OCXO of pretty good spec.
Using the master clock input on the DCS clock, you can use an external master clock which might improve sound.
Options for master clock are:
1. GPS clock - not a good choice because of poor short term stability
2. Rubidium clock- can be a real improvement however basic rubidium also has poor short term stability and you really need something where rubidium and OCXO are working together to get better performance.
3. BVA OCXO clock which is ultimate short term stability but at a price. Only commercial unit designed for audio use costs $35k!
BVA really makes a huge difference to sound quality in removing any hint of digital edge.
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This is indeed an very exciting topic as pointed earlier in this thread. I am confused on this topic as a year ago I did experiment with the Antelope Rodium reference clock with my Vivaldi stack. At first I was impressed but after a few days of listening I felt the sound was colored a bit and could not understand why.
I called dCS directly since I had met the rep and he then had told me dCS apparently a while back looked into reference clock ... in the case the Antelope, he suggested its switching power supply was not ideal and even if you feed the dCS clock with a perfect 10Mhz signal, it still needs to be converted to 44.1 and 48khz internally using most likely a less then ideal chip set. otherwise not required when using the internal 44.1 clock directly. So while in theory using a reference should be better, they moved away from it.
I still would like to try it again and will look into some of the other choice you mention in your post. But, would it make any sense to any of you who experimented with this that the "conversion chip" that takes the 10Mhz to make it 44.1Khz inside the dCS clock may actually impact the desired result to the point using the internal being superior?
Are any of these reference clock you describe come with a linear power supply? I suspect why esoteric may have good result with their clock is because the Rodium reference is actually in the main Esoteric chassis, power by a linear power supply.
As you can see, many questions on this exciting subject!
Jacques