I had the chance to compare three clocks today:
-crystek cchd 957
-accusilicon as318-b-451584
-Andrea Mori sc-cut, driscoll pcb without oven.
All 45mhz samples.
The Andrea Mori clock is the best sounding by far; it delivers lots of openness, air, focus and a warm tone without any harshness.
The accusilicon was second best and at quite a distance from the Andrea Mori clock. There was more harshness, less dynamic and a bit fatuiging in comparison.
The crystek is a bit behind the accusilicon with a tad more harshness and similar overall sound.
All clocks were used on an Ian Canada fifopi, battery/supercap powered and bypassed ldo’s, mounted on an Allo Usbridge Sig, feeding my, tuned to the max, 4 deck dddac.
I have been living happily for quite some years with the crystek clocks but now after using the Andrea Mori clock for about a year I cannot imagine going back to this type of clock anymore. The music is so much more natural and “analog”. You have to hear the difference to understand how much there is to gain with good clock design.
Regards,
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You can use AT-cut crystal or SC-cut crystal if you want an oven controlled clock.
He has several pcb’s but the driscoll is the best one.
So an AT-cut with driscoll pcb will bring you in low phase noise clock heaven.
Want a step up, go for the SC-cut with oven.
You need to learn to master smd soldering!
The power supply is very important, I use a battery supply but Andrea also has ps pcb’s with nice regulators.
So there you have it
PS. Sorry to hijack your thread Doede
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Different 45mhz clocks
Hi Supersurfer,
Thank you for your report about different 45mhz clocks.
I'm wondering...can you hear this difference with a quite standard 2 deck DDDac and medium hi-end amplifiers/ speaker system in a normal living room?
Or do you need an extreme mega-bucks hi-end system in a dedicated listening room with accoustic threadment and playing 24bits master recordings?
I'm not joking. Maybe you can tell a little bit more about your reference system, listening room and used recordings.
Thx, Johan.
Hi Supersurfer,
Thank you for your report about different 45mhz clocks.
I'm wondering...can you hear this difference with a quite standard 2 deck DDDac and medium hi-end amplifiers/ speaker system in a normal living room?
Or do you need an extreme mega-bucks hi-end system in a dedicated listening room with accoustic threadment and playing 24bits master recordings?
I'm not joking. Maybe you can tell a little bit more about your reference system, listening room and used recordings.
Thx, Johan.
Hi Johan,
You are welcome to visit for a listening test with your dac. Send me pm if you like.
My set is all self build with quality components. Does this mean megabucks setup? I do not think so, there are many much more expensive amplifiers and loudspeakers out there. But I do dare to challange anyone with such a megabucks setup to compare with my humble diy stuff
The amps are build from directly heated triode tubes, interstage coupled. The loudspeakers are an open baffle system with a very nice field coil unit from EMS France, almost full range, with a Phy tweeter on top running from 15khz. This is a VERY revealing system. It resides in a living room without special room treatment.
But that does not mean that a better clock on less revealing systems are not a welcome improvement. After all your system is a strong as your weakest link.
Regards,
Attachments
Hi Johan,
My setup is a single deck dddac (tent edition), stock dddac p/supp, Pass B1/Amp Camp, IMF TLS50 speakers (so no high end stuff) and experimented with different streamers.
- Rpi - Allo Isolator - higiberry digi plus.
Sounded okay for me and had it running for almost a year.
- Rpi - Isolator - Kali
Sounded better in my ears, more transparent, better overall soundstage
- Rpi - Ian fifopi with stock clocks
No better than the Isolator/Kali combi.
When I ordered the figopi I also did order the Accu Silicon clocks but didn’t installed them at first time to hear the difference between the Kali and the fifopi.
Installing the Accu Silicon clocks was a real step forward. Sounded in my setup so much better than the stock clocks. More detail, more transparency, better image. I can recommend the Silicon’s.
Never heard the Andrea Mori clocks but I can imagine this will be another great step forwards.
Could you elaborate a bit on the meaning of "AT" and "SC"? Also, what's the thing with the oven? I have one in the kitchen (for pizza and stuff), but I guess that's not what you are referring to. I am a bit lost...
I can give you this about AT and SC - Cut, too much to write it down here :
Quartz Crystal Cuts | Crystal Resonator Cuts | Electronics Notes
AT versus SC: AT cut vs SC cut | difference between AT cut and SC cut
Quartz Crystal Cuts | Crystal Resonator Cuts | Electronics Notes
AT versus SC: AT cut vs SC cut | difference between AT cut and SC cut
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The resonance frequency of any Crystal shifts with temperature, you do not want this. Using an oven that keeps the Crystal at a steady temperature is a well known trick. Clocks using an oven are known as OCXO: oven controlled Crystal oscillator: Crystal oven - Wikipedia
AT and SC are two types of crystals, for oven controlling an SC is required. You can find more information here: https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/dig...itter-crystal-oscillator-200.html#post6070032
Guys, i do appreciate the fact we can improve the DDDAC with other clocks possibly, but would like to ask to not do a double thread on the clock technical details and backgrounds. My understanding is, there will be a group buy coming up for the next generation of Mori clocks, so every dddac owner can decide if they would like to try that. When it comes that far, it is time to mention it here I guess?
Everyone interested in the technical discussions etc, should follow the clock thread I think
Everyone interested in the technical discussions etc, should follow the clock thread I think
hello DD
experienced something really weird today
my dac seem to have lost the bass foundation in the sound and e.g in we get requests with oscar peterson and ray brown, ray is really far away in the distance and the sound is slightly tinny and lightweight
thought it might be the new Fifopi reclocker board, but sound is approximately same with dac spdif input fed directly from Studer a727 used as drive
you might remember I run the dac straight into a TVC and thus I don´t have any output caps or extra transformers on the output
any idea what might result in sound as if sent through a hipass filter? must be up in min 3-400hz range
any ideas are welcome
best
Leif
experienced something really weird today
my dac seem to have lost the bass foundation in the sound and e.g in we get requests with oscar peterson and ray brown, ray is really far away in the distance and the sound is slightly tinny and lightweight
thought it might be the new Fifopi reclocker board, but sound is approximately same with dac spdif input fed directly from Studer a727 used as drive
you might remember I run the dac straight into a TVC and thus I don´t have any output caps or extra transformers on the output
any idea what might result in sound as if sent through a hipass filter? must be up in min 3-400hz range
any ideas are welcome
best
Leif
Hello Lief.
If this is the first time you have used the DAC after adding the reclocker I would first check the installation and look for any issues that could have occurred during the work. Check all the power supplies as well as the dac output DC voltages on the DDDAC main board. If these things are all as they should be, then I would look closer at the reclocker installation and perhaps bypass it, if practical, to see if the problem goes away.
will do this weekend
really weird issue....
anyway I rely on vinyl and tape, so digital is a secondary media in my system, but very convenient
Hi Leif, just follow typical deduction method. Use some sinus tones and a scope or just a multimeter on AC and measure where the drop of bass voltage is starting… it might be everywhere. secondly if things stay fuzzy, replace/plug in some known working signal at the place where the dac gives a signal out
also see if you can play a spdif signal with same error or not?
just some thinking and ideas how to track the signal and find the place or error