Fox Electronics XpressO VCXOs and XOs

[Rookie]

Hi!

What do you guys, clock experts, think about this VCXO and XO from Fox Electronics?

FVXO-HC73

FXO-HC73

Here is a brochure: XpressO

[twest820]

(old thread, but I'm considering using XpressO parts in a build and this is by far the most appropriate of two DIYA threads which mention them)

Seem to offer good bang for the buck. Not by a wide margin relative to competing parts but Fox's pads appear to have the advantage of coming up the side of the package. Should make for easier DIY soldering than the typical underside only LLC arrangement.

Anyone else looked at the XpressOs in, oh, the past three years or so?

[Ken Newton]

Just from looking at the datasheet , these Fox oscillators don't appear to be best for digital audio clock generation. The key figures are the 'close-in' (1Hz up to about 10kHz) phase noise shown in the phase noise plot. The phase noise is rather high in that region, which will directly translate in to highish random jitter at those same frequencies. For comparison have a look at the close-in phase noise plot for the T.I. CDCS502 shown in it's datasheet.

[twest820]

No, they're not the best. But then they don't cost USD 30 each, either. Nice find on the CDCS502---most datasheets don't have a phase noise spec so it's difficult to reason about whether they'd perform better or worse than the XpressOs. At the lower cost end of the range the overall jitter figures on competing parts are higher, sometimes significantly so, and some parts don't even have jitter specs. For example, the CDCS502 datasheet states 100ps cycle to cycle jitter. But not the measurement conditions or whether that figure is peak cycle to cycle or some other metric. If one assumes it's peak cycle to cycle it's probably reasonable to compare it to the XpressOs' total jitter figure of 26ps. In which case the CDCS502 may result in worse performance than the XpressOs despite its lower level of phase jitter. It's been quite a while since I had access to a jitter scope so sampling the two parts and taking measurements to enable direct comparison unfortunately isn't really an option for me.

My experience in ambiguous situations such as this is parts with more complete characterization information in the datasheet tend to work better. That's just a rule of thumb though.

[twest820]

Finished my data trawl. The XpressOs look pretty decent. Certain Vectron VCC1 parts are comparably priced and exibhit 10dB or so less phase jitter and overall jitter statistics which look somewhat better (modulo the conversion between jitter models).

[EUVL]

Do you have a source for the VCC1 for audio DAC frequencies, like 11.2896, or 22.5792, ..., etc ?
Mouser has VCC1, but not in any useful frequencies.

> But then they don't cost USD 30 each

I needed a 45.1584 7x5 SMD XO, and the only thing I can get is FOX :
Digi-Key - FXO-HC735R-45.1584-ND (Manufacturer - FXO-HC735R-45.1584)

It is 30 USD.


Patrick

[twest820]

I don't; one of the handy things about operating ESS DACs in asynchronous/oversampling mode is the freedom to pick among the FXO-HC73s Digikey or VCC1-B3s Mouser has for cheap.

45.158 is a standard VCC1 frequency so I'd email/call Mouser/Vectron and inquire about availability.

[theAnonymous1]

Another option is the Crystek CS3392 (if it has the frequency you need). I used the CS3392-24.576 on my upsampling DAC project.

[wakibaki]

Take a look at the Guido Tent (Tentlabs) offering. They're not cheap, but if you're going to the trouble, why not go balls-out?

w

Oh, and read their blurb about clocks and why they chose these ones.

[EUVL]

> one of the handy things about operating ESS DACs in asynchronous/oversampling mode is the freedom to pick among the FXO-HC73s Digikey or VCC1-B3s Mouser has for cheap

So obviously you have not heard the ESS in synchronuous mode, and compared to asynchronuous.

Anybody using the new ESS Vout DAC (ES9022)?

> Another option is the Crystek CS3392 (if it has the frequency you need).

No 45.1584 from Crystek.

> Take a look at the Guido Tent (Tentlabs) offering.

I know what he has, won't fit.


Patrick