Implications of Esoteric G-0Rb atomic clock


The latest TAS (March 2008) has an excellent piece by Robert Harley: a review of the Esoteric G-0Rb Master Clock Generator, with sidebars on the history and significance of jitter. This Esoteric unit employs an atomic clock (using rubidium) to take timing precision to a new level, at least for consumer gear. It's a good read, I recommend it.

If I am reading all of this correctly, I reach the following conclusions:

(1) Jitter is more important sonically than we might have thought

(2) Better jitter reduction at the A-D side of things will yield significant benefits, which means we can look forward to another of round remasters (of analog tapes) once atomic clock solutions make it into mastering labs

(3) All of the Superclocks, claims of vanishingly low jitter, reclocking DACs -- all of this stuff that's out there now, while probably heading in the right direction, still falls fall short of what's possible and needed if we are to get the best out of digital and fully realize its promise.

(4) We can expect to see atomic clocks in our future DACs and CDPs. Really?

Am I drawing the right conclusions?
drubin

Showing 2 responses by rgt

The Memory Player, produced by the Nova Physics Corp. made clocking obsolete! Here's how it was explained:

"All clocking does is synchronize the laser with the DAC. Clocking synchronizes the beginning of the time the sampler is "open" for the laser to seek & read the bits. So clock & clock again & you only get the sampling period to start exactly when the laser begins reading a new section of the CD.

The problem is the bits can be read at any time during the sample period, and are read randomly. So the bit, a representation of a moment of music, is always late. Sometimes a little, sometimes intolerably late.

So clocking ever more precisely improves an area that is already nearly perfected in $200 DVD players at Walmart.

All Memory Players extract music bits as a mirror of the master. No more clocking to sync to anything, no jitter as nothing moves, only laser reading efficacy & ONLY reading music bits, hence, a mirror of the master.

As you have no error concealment bits to back up a missed bit, Memory Players must reread to capture all bits dropped in the first pass. If we used error correction bits, we're back to synthetics again so the goal is to reread more & more & faster & faster. In this way, very few bits will be lost & the ONLY bits you CAN hear, are MUSIC BITS.

It is not dependent upon a clock. All of the music bits are on memory & just stream off the memory in the order & TIME they were recorded.

The small community that is either copying the MP or designing their own now that the cat is out of the bag, know the CD player as we know it is going extinct. Good riddance. It was a poor compromise they chose in 1982. They had it nearly perfect (& perfect on CDs containing programs instead of music) but relaxed error correction to fit Furtwangler's Beethoven's 9th symphony on it & digital audio was never right again."

So who would pay $15k on a clocker that merely reduce jitter?
This might answer all your questions.

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/critics/messages/25316.html

I believe that the reactions of all the reviewers that first heard the Memory Player were NOT all hype. For Harry Pearson to say "He was in AWE" is huge. If his statement was hype, well he must be a "silent" investor in Nova Physics Group.

To be able to explain the shortcomings of the CD playback system and the approach they took to mitigate it is simply not a band aid approach, in my opinion.