Word clocks, any experience?

[Reid Malenfant]

Oh my Purcell was non-firewire, so I used 192 into my (also non-firewire) Elgar.

I'm going to try out the dual AES3 connection so i can go & upsample to 176.4 KHz & 192.. I can leave those connected & effectively decide which i want to connect to via the Delius. I'd have loved the Elgar, but it just didn't make sense that they made the thing a different shape Not so important in all honesty But a consideration due to the Elgar being more expensive as well, & none are cheap

Must say i'm absolutely loving what the combo is doing, i'm sure you know yourself

Not a huge audience for these due to the cost, but worth every single penny imo, i wish i'd seen the light earlier

[Steve H]

[QUOTE=amdismal;
You'd need some metadata transferred to the master clock (or remote control, I guess) to control the speed. I imagine that USB async in modern DACs sorts this.[/QUOTE]

The dCS USB clock is manually switchable between 44.1 and 48Ks/s

Mark, I wondered about the Elgar's different shape but it's a really elegant thing and it has a liquidity of sound which I thought the best thing I'd ever heard. Also, the granite top matches perfectly with Vertex AQ Kinibalu supports.....

[Reid Malenfant]

Hi steve, cheers for the reply

Trust me i'm in audio heaven right now I'm using an Oyaide IEEE1394 firewire cable of 60cm length between the relevant ports. Standard 2M or whatever it is gold plated BNC cable for the word clock between the Purcell & Delius....

I'm going to get a shorter BNC to BNC cable (cheap as chips on fleabay) & see if it makes any difference.

This setup makes the older Monarchy Audio dual 20 bit DAC sound rather dated, there is an incomparable difference. Somewhat like from going from 2D to 3D & i'm not comparing things to these cack 3D TVs out there

Apart from my upgrade to Krell DT10 transport this has been by far the biggest improvement in sound quality & imaging i have ever encountered

Loving it All the best

[nat8808]

Can I ask a quick (haha!) question?

When you use a word clock generator does it have to provide different clocks for different sample rates? Or does the slave work out what it needs from just one incomming clock rate?

I have a studio word clock that outputs 256fs (don't really know what that means) so if I wanted to get a future DAC to slave to it but at different sample rates (e.g. 44.1 and 48 or say 96 and 88.2) would it work or would I need a more flexible word clock and have to keep switching clock rates to match the format?

For example, I use sources at both 44.1 and 48 and in the future will want to record/playback at 88.2 and 96 AND I have a format convertor with word clock in. Can I use my clock with 256fs outputs to be master of all sources and DAC?

I do have a 44.1/48 DAC with word clock input so perhaps I should experiment but does this work with 256fs?

[Reid Malenfant]

Hi Nat, it more than likely depends on the equipment it's feeding. For instance this dCS kit requires a 44.1KHz word clock & it converts from that for DSD which is 64 times the frequency.

I have seen studio type DACs that need different word clock frequencies when using different sampling frequencies. When i was looking into the word clocks i couldn't help but notice If you take a look at something like the Apogee Big Ben i think you'll see what i mean There were others i found & every one could output multiple frequencies (though obviously not at the same time)

I have a feeling that if your clock only happens to output one frequency you might have to upgrade, though don't take this as gospel, it'll depend on the DAC as well

[Audiocom AV]

Also try the Aardvark Aardsync, it was £1695 but can be purchase S/H for around £350.00.

[nat8808]

Also try the Aardvark Aardsync, it was £1695 but can be purchase S/H for around £350.00.

That's what I've got see! Aardsync II - £120 Ebay bargain.. That's kind of why I bought because of the price but err... don't know how to use it or if I can very well. Ebay prices are actually more regularly ~ £250 rather than £350 - whilst the Apogee Big Ben that was released only a year later for near the same price but with lots more features which implies lower quality in exchange for quantity, still fetches £600+ no matter its age.

I reckon slaving my PC would be easy as semi-pro/pro cards are nice and flexible. The dCS I have might be ok too - will have to check. I guess it's the future dac I'm yet to buy will be the difficult one, especially as I wanted to go DIY - a word clock receiver may not be something readily available to add to a DIY project, let alone one for my TASCAM CD700 transport.

I have too seen clocks with multiple outs like the Big Ben so perhaps something with multiple outs is what I need.

The Antalope gear looks very tasty at £5000 plus... with an atomic clock add-on!

[Reid Malenfant]

The Antalope gear looks very tasty at £5000 plus... with an atomic clock add-on!

I saw something earlier today with a Rubidium clock, just wish i could remember what the hell it was as i might be able to find it again

[nat8808]

Was it silver and shiney with bright numerical display in the centre? Yep, that's the Antelope Rhobidium Atomic clock add-on to their sync clock generator.. £4300 list price add-on to their £2400 universal clock.

[nat8808]

Just found the (brief!) Aardsync II manual online..

Seems I can simultaniously output say 44.1 and 88.2 and 256xFS (which looks like it is 11.28 MHz) or 48 and 96 and 256xFS (does this 256xFS still remain at 11.28MHz?) but not output different base frequencies at the same time like 44.1 AND 48 - for that the manual shows two Aardsyncs synced themselves to an external clock generator...

So, looks like I have to manually switch between 44.1 and 48 (and so their 88.2/96 multiples) from the front panel.

With my current set-up, upsampling with the dCS may well be limited to 88.2 from CD unless it can derive its own clock multiples from 256xfs.