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.
Let‘s just say that my ears and reputable designers like Innuos, Esoteric et al disagree with you Dont simply trust “designers”. Companies want your money and will happily sell whatever for a profit. Always verify their claims. I have seen big, imposing chassis from a very reputable company which should stay unnamed, that was literally empty inside with puny power supply and 2x2” PCB board. I costed $$$$ and got rave reviews. |
@antigrunge2 I assume you mean Phoenix NET network switch. I can theoretically imagine that streamer has underpowered CPU and low performance network stack and hardware so an extra switch before it helps. The network switch may be set up to filter out other traffic (like your kid playing Warcraft) so only audio related traffic reaches the streamer. It is possible that streamer CPU is low performance in order to avoid spinning fans and cooling issues. You count obtain your own network switch for like $100, but setting it up properly may be a challenge unless you are proficient in IT. |
Well, some reviews claim "The Innuos PhoenixNET will also improve your music playback from the files on the music server itself. Even though that music isn’t being streamed through the PhoenixNET. You heard that right." Well.... something not even connected somehow improves the sound. OK. Some digging around revealed that, for example, Ethernet does not do error correction. it does discard corrupt frames though. and TCP will retransmit lost packets. So the switch may be simply buffering frames and then transmitting in sequence on cable with fewer dropped packets. How does it affect the sound? Depends on quality of the streamer. @nigeltheflash - Do you mean RFI on the twisted pair or in the space around the unit? Simple shielding or or galvanic isolation would drastically reduce RFI. Not sure about necessity of switch for that purpose since it runs its own CPU and hence makes its own RFI. |
