And The Winner Is.............................

[Audiofanatic]

Ladies and gentlemen,

Many of you know me by the nickname of Audiofanatic a few of you guys, call me by my name, José
My nickname says a lot about me, for instance, Audio is my passion, I don't want to live without music, I rather go blind than to loose my sensible ears. I had for what I can remember more than 12 audio magazine subscription and so on, and so on. To cut it short, I know what I'm talking about.

This is the last time I'll write about Master Clock's!
After testing these clock's for weeks, I must say, there is no winner or looser!
I want to thank you both, Elso and Guido, for everything you've done to help me/us, and want to say that you both did a great job, each one with different topology and both working fine.
One makes me happy the other one makes me cry of joy.

I had the chance to test both on two players, both player where TEAC VRDS 25X with huge modifications. To name a few: New PSU, almost all the caps are BG's and OsCon's and both players are identical in all parts except the master clock's.

One had the Tent XO2 an the other one the Kwak Clock (KC-7).

We (a few audiophile friends) had a long listening test for a few days and we all came to the same conclusion the more analogue sounding, more relax sounding and less fatiguing sounding clock was and still is the KC-7.
That does not mean that the Tent XO2 sounds bad, NOT AT ALL! The Tent XO2 sounds good, but it is (to our ears) fatiguing in the long term.

I must say, that the Tent X-O is not expensive for the DIYer, but you have to make your own PSU. The XO2 is good for the money but if you can make a low noise PSU like the Wenzel PSU than you can safe some $$ but you still will not reach the top with this clock. The Tent X-O with a Wenzel PSU sounds, to my ears and those of my friends, as good as the XO2.

So to be honest I needed the time to find out what was bothering me about the sound of the XO2 clock but eventually I've reach that light bulb moment, and that is that I am and always will be an ANALOGUE guy and that's why I fell in love with the KC-7.

Guido, you make a great product and I'm not saying that you XO2 is bad, but for the money, the KC-7 is the winner! And for the moment it will stay on the top till someone makes a better one.
I thank you both for your support, and will finish this post by saying this.

It's like comparing cars, the one loves TOYOTA the other will always drive a NISSAN.
You can look at it on this way; Tent XO2 is a NISSAN and the KC-7 is a TOYOTA!
I've work for a long time for both companies and liked NISSAN very much, but TOYOTA is and will always be my brand! That does not mean that NISSAN is not good, on the contrary, but TOYOTA …………………………………………………………………………..
I love TOYOTA own a TOYOTA and if I need to buy an other car, it'll be again, a TOYOTA.

Best regards, Audiofanatic

[Peter Daniel]

Well, your assesment after all be right on the mark. I started with KC7 and later switched to Tent clock. Initially, it felt like an improvement: sharper, more detailed imaging comparing to more relaxed and seemingly veiled KC. I still have the Tent clock installed in my player, but for some reson it always bothers me that the sound is a tiny bit abrassive and not completely analog.

Maybe it's time to try Kwack clock agan?

[Audiofanatic]

Originally posted by Peter Daniel
Well, your assesment after all be right on the mark. I started with KC7 and later switched to Tent clock. Initially, it felt like an improvement: sharper, more detailed imaging comparing to more relaxed and seemingly veiled KC. I still have the Tent clock installed in my player, but for some reson it always bothers me that the sound is a tiny bit abrassive and not completely analog.

Maybe it's time to try Kwack clock agan?

Thank God, I'm not the onlyone that has sensible ears.
I had a tough time with the (real) blind test for weeks, but eventualy the relaxed and analogue sound of the KC-7 was the one I/we fell in love with!

For me, the analogue sound of the KC-7 is so important that regardless of the Mechanism (I also have a Marantz CD-80 and a CD753) it always make me smile!

Elso, for me and my 6 other (audio) friends who helped me with the test, You are the WINNER!
The KC-7 gets a 9.0 and the Tent XO2 gets a 7.5

Best regards,


Audiofanatic

[Audiofanatic]

Originally posted by Peter Daniel
Well, your assesment after all be right on the mark. I started with KC7 and later switched to Tent clock. Initially, it felt like an improvement: sharper, more detailed imaging comparing to more relaxed and seemingly veiled KC. I still have the Tent clock installed in my player, but for some reson it always bothers me that the sound is a tiny bit abrassive and not completely analog.

Maybe it's time to try Kwack clock agan?

Hi Peter,

Can you tell me in which CDP you have instal the Tent Clock?
The Pro TDA1543 combination or the Marantz CD94?

Thanks,


Audiofanatic

[Terry Demol]

Originally posted by Audiofanatic



Thank God, I'm not the onlyone that has sensible ears.
I had a tough time with the (real) blind test for weeks, but eventualy the relaxed and analogue sound of the KC-7 was the one I/we fell in love with!

For me, the analogue sound of the KC-7 is so important that regardless of the Mechanism (I also have a Marantz CD-80 and a CD753) it always make me smile!

Elso, for me and my 6 other (audio) friends who helped me with the test, You are the WINNER!
The KC-7 gets a 9.0 and the Tent XO2 gets a 7.5

Best regards,

Audiofanatic

Big conclusions and judgements on a very well engineered and
researched product made by a very experienced person.

I'd like to know more details about your transport and DAC
topology, mods etc.

Our experience with clocks/reclocking is that often better
clocks have better resolution and expose other problems
in a system or DAC, resulting in less musical presentation.

Cheers,

Terry

[rbroer]

Originally posted by Terry Demol

Our experience with clocks/reclocking is that often better
clocks have better resolution and expose other problems
in a system or DAC, resulting in less musical presentation.
Terry

You beat me again

IME and my implementation of KC7 (modded version) sounds warmer, but veiled and less at ease compared to Tent XO and Tent XO2.
The Tent XO sounds more transparant, but also exposes other problems more ruthless. The extremes become more apparent, also for recordings. I do understand the preference for the Kwak-Clock though, it's less ruthless

I have the same experiences with BG-N/50V 4.7u used as coupling caps (super E (anti-parallel) or whatever they call it)
Bit veiled (400+ hours btw) but very nice, hifi-ish sounding.

On an absolute scale, both clocks are great improvements most of the time with good price/preformance ratio.

[Audiofanatic]

Hi Terry,

Big conclusions and judgements on a very well engineered and researched product made by a very experienced person.

Terry, my ears don't lie, and I think that Peter has the same thing!
Just read between the lines, Guido knows about this I'm not going to tell you or anybody anything Guido and I talked about. That's between us! He's a great guy! I just trust my ears.

'd like to know more details about your transport and DAC

I'm sorry, but I wasn't the one who designed the digital servo, a friend of mine did and he don't want to talk about it.
Guido has a modification for the servo of the VRDS transport, maybe he is willing to shear this with you.

Our experience with clocks/reclocking is that often better clocks have better resolution and expose other problems in a system or DAC, resulting in less musical presentation.

That may be the case, but my ears don't lie to me.

All the best,


Audiofanatic

[Peter Daniel]

Originally posted by Audiofanatic

Can you tell me in which CDP you have instal the Tent Clock?
The Pro TDA1543 combination or the Marantz CD94?

Yes, that's the one.

[Audiofanatic]

Originally posted by Peter Daniel


Yes, that's the one.

Hi Peter,

The reason I asked is cause I've try the clocks on both CDP's TEAC and Marantz CD-80 and the results where the same.

Thanks for shearing this with us!

Gr.


Audiofanatic

[Elso Kwak]

Hi José,
Can't wait to see your review of the KWAK-CLOCK-8.
Sorry guys no schematic available.
BTW did you use the clock for the sample rate converter or for the masterclock in the Teac?. Can't find the schematic right now.