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Importance of clocking

There is a lot of talk that external clocks because of the distance to the processor don‘t work. This is the opposite of my experience. While I had used an external Antelope rubidium clock,on my Etherregen and Zodiac Platinum Dac, I have now added a Lhy Audio UIP clocked by the same Antelope Clock to reclock the USB stream emanating from the InnuOS Zenith MkIII. The resultant increase in soundstage depth, attack an decay and overall transparency isn‘t subtle. While there seems to be lots of focus on cables, accurate clocking throughout the chain seems still deemed unnecessary. I don‘t understand InnuOS‘ selling separate reclockers for USB and Ethernet without synchronising Ethernet input, DAC conversion and USB output.

antigrunge2

Showing 2 responses by big_greg

big_greg
6,711 posts
 

Spend your money on a good DAC that includes a good clock.  Spending thousands on a clock is a huge waste of money, IMHO.  

As mentioned earlier, the main purpose of an external clock is to synchronize multiple devices, not to improve sound quality. 

If there is an improvement in sound quality, it's going to be much less than you could have realized by putting your money into a great DAC.  Lipstick on a pig and all that...

big_greg
6,711 posts
 

As you can see, you have two kinds of posters here. One that have tried and implemented an external clock to a greater benefit. And then those, who have been peddling their ideas based on ‘documentation’ i.e. no direct experience 🙄 

There are also posters in this thread that have added a clock and heard no noticeable difference and were willing to admit that.  And those that achieved significant improvements by upgrading their DAC, rather than trying to wring some small improvement out of their existing DAC by adding a clock.

Which isn't to say that adding a clock might not be an improvement with some DACs.  If you hear a difference and the cost was worthwhile to you, then it was a good investment.

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