Clock experiments

[custodian]

Over the last year, I've been using a special rubidium clock as master clock for my DCS system. The clock is a prototype from one of the leading digital timing companies in which they synch rubidium with an ocxo to get the benefits of both.

Because this was such a step up from the standard Scarlatti and Vivaldi clocks, I decided to investigate what further refinements in clock accuracy were possible. Last week I received here a prototype clock using a BVA crystal. This is the ultimate development of the OCXO to improve phase noise by an order of magnitude.

Results? A huge increase in sound quality through a reduction of remaining digital edge. I am amazed how much cleaner the sound is. Sound has an analogue sweetness but with great resolution.

Downsides? Two main ones. First cost: the only commercial example made for the HiFi world is $35k although should be possible to build one for nearer $10-15k; second drawback is stabilisation is quite slow, typically 48 hours to get to peak performance.

It really is surprising how big an effect these timing refinements can make to sound quality.