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To clock or not to clock?

Hi,

I am considering adding the Esoteric G 05 clock to my system. 

My digital front end is an Esoteric K 01 XD which is connected with a USB cable to an Esoteric N 03 T operating in RAAT mode and connected to a Roon NUC via the LAN.

According the K01 manual, “the USB input does not support clock synchronization.”

So far, I have not tried out any other ways of connecting the K 01 to the N 03 T as I gather that, by using USB, both streamer and DAC are controlled by the same clock.  The USB connection also supports higher bit rates than RCA or optical.  So far, I have not come across 32-bit files in the wild.

My dealer lent me a TEAC clock.  While playing a high-quality CD the sound became very precise, almost etched, but not in a bad way.  Not sure how that would work out long term.  With a rather poor CD the added precision was not helpful at all.

The K01 has a Grandioso Custom VCXO II clock; the G05 is a SXT 03 OCXO clock.  I know nothing about clocks, and I wonder if the G05, being only a clock, would improve upon the K01 clock.

As I stream about 80% of the time, to really benefit from a better clock it would be necessary to change the way of connecting the DAC to the streamer and have both devices synchronized by the G05.

I would be grateful for any advice on this idea, especially from people who have tried a similar move.

paleo12
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,443 posts
 

A high quality external master clock matters. The clocking of digital audio signals is crucial to achieve the highest transparency, a better clock simply gets you closer to the heart and soul of a performance. In your case, you would need to step up to Esoteric G-01X or G-02X master clock to make it worthwhile. Either a G-01X or G-02X connected to K-01XD and N-03T simultaneously will improve the performance of both devices. Don’t sweat the USB connection, you may end up preferring Coax over USB and vice versa.

I recommend a loaner G-01X or G-02X clock from your dealer with good BNC clock cables and Coax Cable and dive in. Implementation is a key here, this level of performance is not cheap but totally worthwhile if your components are designed to accept a HQ master clock.

You may check out my digital system, both streamer and DAC are driven by master clock. Once you experience a properly implemented high quality master clock, you wouldn’t have it any other way. 

thyname's avatar
thyname
3,107 posts
 

OP: wait for the new "discrete" external master clock, the G-01XD. This is not letting me post links, but it is launching for sale in April. Reported to have a US MSRP of $14,000. 

paleo12 OP
40 posts
 

Thanks to both of you for this good advice. 

I am going to try the Esoteric S02 power amp to replace a Bryston 4B3.  If I end up buying that, then the budget won't quite stretch to the G01XD clock.  It may well be an idea to wait until funds are topped up and then consider the better clock.

thyname's avatar
thyname
3,107 posts
 

IMO, your K-01XD deserves the matching tier brethren, the G-01XD. If I were you, I will wait, save money, and make this happen 

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