Solo streamer

I'm a month late to the party here but to:     

jazzman7 and @monowatcher,

Clock source can depend on the DAC.  Maybe not normal synchronous I2s protocol but according to my Owners Manual for Pointus II, "incoming signals are all stored, buffered, and re-clocked using the DAC internal clock".  

     So without a streamer, using USB from a MB Pro M3, streamed RadioParadise or ripped CDs, sound is very good (would probably be better with a DDC), but noticeably better is I2s directly from an OPPO 83 to the Pontus, whether 16/44.1, 24/196, or SACD.

"Reality only exists because we invented Time"...Oppenheimer 

So, thanks 

jazzman7 for sending me down a Tech rabbit hole of "clocks" for 3/4th of my day... lol.  

   Back in the good ole Air Force pre-GPS, analogue days (1970's for me) we always did a Time Hack during any mission brief with multiple airships to insure coordinated actions...easy!  The transition to digital requires a lot more brain power.

   Denafrips has been notorious for not being fully transparent with their signal processing, eg "real NOS"... ref GoldenSound reviews.  I'm totally guessing here but it seems on the Pontus II, their PCM FPGA module acts on all? incoming signals.... that could allow a synchrous slaved DAC clock to accept I2s data which is then stored and buffered, resampled?,... then re-clocked with the DAC clock and sent to analogue out.

   As a side issue, I was unaware of,  but thoroughly explored by Amir at ASR is HDMI (I2s) is a poor audio source connection, cause it just sticks audio in the spare video spaces of the synchronous stream, and is very susceptible to jitter.  He goes on to show async USB can have very well controlled jitter and low noise flour= better. Hmm, maybe, yrmv.  

   I do notice a slight improvement in sound from my OPPO 83 playing a cd/sacd if the "pure audio" button is used...it shuts down most video processing.  Maybe that lowers the noise floor and shifts the OPPO clocks from video sync to the OPPO DAC clocks?  Regardless of which clock is in-play,  I2s does sound better than any USB or SPDIF source...    

   My ears still LOVE the Pontus II (with the 3rd FPGA firmware upgrade) however it works!

OPPO 83, Pontus II, Holo Bliss KTE amp, Susvara HPs