Is a femto clock important if you aren't using asynch USB?
I am considering buying a used Wyred 4 Sound DAC2 DSD se for streaming from my Bluesound Node 2i, and the seller told me that this DAC2 se is one of the early ones that does NOT have a femto clock. My Bluesound does not have USB output, so I won't be using the USB input on the DAC2. My understanding is that the femto clock is mainly useful to sync up the digital stream from a computer; is it likely to make much difference if my source is a streamer and the input is SPDIF?
Showing 5 responses by cheeg
Thank you all for your input, but I should have made my current setup more clear. I now have a Benchmark DAC1, which I like pretty well; I was not planning on using the Bluesound’s DAC, which I do not like as well. My goal with the W4S DAC is to improve on the Benchmark; what are your thoughts? PS, the rest of my system is a McCormack DNA1 Gold rebuild with gravity base jr (LOVE), a Modwright 9.0 SE (meh), and Usher MD2’s (like very much). |
@dirkjanl and @erik_squires I wish the two of you would get together and publish a book "DACs for Dummies". I love the insight you both provide on this forum, but sadly I can only follow what you're saying about half the time (my bad). However, I do appreciate Erik's attempt to break through the fog by closing with a warning against chasing a 10 year old DAC... The Modwright is a good unit, but it might make more sense to sell it and put the money towards a new (or at least <3 years old) DAC, and go directly to my DNA1 (using the Bluesound for volume control); any thoughts? |
@vonhelmholtz I read each of the replies quite carefully, including yours. My understanding is that a femtoclock will not fix an incoming bitstream unless it is operating in async USB. Absent that, the clock in my Benchmark DAC1 is probably good enough that I would not detect the difference that a more accurate clock would provide. If you have an opinion on that, I would appreciate it; if not, thank you for your original input. |