Influence of PS on clock modules

[fmak]

Most people who tweak seem to spend large sums of money replacing clocks with £200 clock modules and power supplies. Often, the original clock modules seem top be high quality - the one in the Sony SCD1/777 actually measures about 3ppm. They all seem to be fed from 7805 type of regulators.

I decided to put in new clock power supplies in two CS 8420 SRCs, one a commercial unit that sounded rather stoddgy and one I made myself that sounded ok but not outstanding.

Presto, much better dynamics, bass timing and treble too.

Which is more important, the clock module or the PS? I installed TL431 based series pass regulators with very good filtering and excellent regulation. Cost me about £5 each and an hour or so to make.

[jwb]

The answer is: both! You cannot have a good clock without a good power supply.

[Elso Kwak]

Hi, The gold coloured SMD clock module in the Sony SCD-1 is a big joke.
The LCaudioclock is much better but lacking bass...
Jitter specs tell you nothing about the sound...
I estimate powersupply is 20% responsible for the sound of the clock, roughly...

[fmak]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Elso Kwak
[B]Hi, The gold coloured SMD clock module in the Sony SCD-1 is a big joke.
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Why is it a joke please? What makes a good VCXO?

[Elso Kwak]

Hi, Because it is responsible for the VERY disapointing sound of this extremely expensive piece of equipment.

[fmak]

Originally posted by Elso Kwak
Hi, Because it is responsible for the VERY disapointing sound of this extremely expensive piece of equipment.

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THIS IS YOUR OPINION ONLY; I HAVE IT AND IT SOUND FINE . MANY OTHERS AGREE.

[jean-paul]

There is no need to shout when someone dislikes the Sony you have.

[fmak]

Originally posted by jean-paul
There is no need to shout when someone dislikes the Sony you have.

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How am I shouting? I made a post on technical opinion, not a one sentence condemnation of a particular unit or clock crystal!

[jean-paul]

THIS IS YOUR OPINION ONLY; I HAVE IT AND IT SOUND FINE . MANY OTHERS AGREE.

This is shouting. It is hard to accept oneothers opinion about a piece of equipment you really like but such is life. Better move on and enjoy the Sony. It's all a matter of taste and arguing about taste is useless and gives stress to both.

Don't know the SCD1 myself but I own a Sony ES model as well ( but not as expensive as SCD1 ) and to be honest: I prefer my old Philips/Marantz cdplayers. Till now I never heard a Sony that is better than old multibit cdplayers ( that are heavily modified I have to add ! ) or multibit DAC's.

Their Pulse DAC's are not that musical and because of the high clockfrequency of 45 MHz they are more sensitive to jitter. Placing a low jitter clock helps but it is very difficult to shield the stray 45 MHz that wanders around in the cdplayer. But again this is an opinion no one has to agree with. Don't know about the 3 ppm clock in SCD1, technically spoken it should be fine and replacing it seems not beneficial. Making a better PS than 7805 obviously is. Building discrete is a plus and I learnt the hard way that a separate transformer/regulator makes the biggest difference. As a side effect you won't have ground problems when you use a separate transformer.

BTW Is it possible to correct the title of this thread ? When I as non english speaker can see the errors the native english speakers certainly will. Small effort.

[Elso Kwak]

fmak,
If you use only CAPITALS in your post this is interpreted as shouting.
I do not own the Sony. A friend of mine does. I was disappointed in SCAD as this is a top of the line machine.
I finally managed to construct a working 45 MHz clock and then you have incredible definition and depth in the soundfield and BASS in SACD mode.
Of course this my own subjective opinion/experience.