I bit the bullet and ordered a Tent Labs XO3.
I have a Pioneer PD77 which is similar to PD95 which I've compared to a lot of transports and it's held it's head up very well against transports costing 10x more, as I'm using it as a transport only with a Musical Fidelity A3.24 (modded) dac (see previous posts on mods) I've always been interested in trying Guido's clock as it seems to be the best ready made one out there.
The Tent XO3 has a new SPIDF output as well, thou I thought that the one in the Pioneer was going to be hard to beat as it uses a transormer coupled output with a Motorola MC74HCU04 as a buffer very similar to Guido's new SPDIF output on the XO3 , but I instaled it anyway and retianed the original as well, so what, it's another rca on the back.
I was not prepared for what I heard when I first powered the system up, the difference was quite astounding, the transparency that I heard of music that I know well and thought that I've already heard at it's best was breathtaking, the impact of transients was as if the system had no limit to it's headroom, and the decay of instruments, seemed to fade into a black abyss, this clock has blown me away.
I've heard other clocks before, not on my system, the best one before yesterday was the LC XO3, it was very good but does'nt seem to have the impact that the Tent Labs has.
The oringinal SPIDF sounded better with the XO3 clock, but the new SPIDF was better.
If you get one of these XO3's do'nt bother adding a new SPIDF output rca, convert the old one over to the new SPIDF XO3 output that way the back of your machine will still look original.
Anyone who is contemplating doing a Pioneer PD77 or a PD95 be prepared, they are a real pain to put a clock into because of a packed inards and layered boards and no space to mount the XO3
Thank you Guido for showing me the light.
It's the old Lin Sondek addage get the front end right first.
Cheers George
I have a Pioneer PD77 which is similar to PD95 which I've compared to a lot of transports and it's held it's head up very well against transports costing 10x more, as I'm using it as a transport only with a Musical Fidelity A3.24 (modded) dac (see previous posts on mods) I've always been interested in trying Guido's clock as it seems to be the best ready made one out there.
The Tent XO3 has a new SPIDF output as well, thou I thought that the one in the Pioneer was going to be hard to beat as it uses a transormer coupled output with a Motorola MC74HCU04 as a buffer very similar to Guido's new SPDIF output on the XO3 , but I instaled it anyway and retianed the original as well, so what, it's another rca on the back.
I was not prepared for what I heard when I first powered the system up, the difference was quite astounding, the transparency that I heard of music that I know well and thought that I've already heard at it's best was breathtaking, the impact of transients was as if the system had no limit to it's headroom, and the decay of instruments, seemed to fade into a black abyss, this clock has blown me away.
I've heard other clocks before, not on my system, the best one before yesterday was the LC XO3, it was very good but does'nt seem to have the impact that the Tent Labs has.
The oringinal SPIDF sounded better with the XO3 clock, but the new SPIDF was better.
If you get one of these XO3's do'nt bother adding a new SPIDF output rca, convert the old one over to the new SPIDF XO3 output that way the back of your machine will still look original.
Anyone who is contemplating doing a Pioneer PD77 or a PD95 be prepared, they are a real pain to put a clock into because of a packed inards and layered boards and no space to mount the XO3
Thank you Guido for showing me the light.
It's the old Lin Sondek addage get the front end right first.
Cheers George
