cheapest slavable cdp

[Konig]

What is the cheapest cdp i can get to slave to my dac without having to solder the clock cable?

 

[regal]

If your DAC has wordclock out look for a CD Recorder, some of these have wordclock input. I'm not sure they all work in play mode.

 

[gevorg]

I'm afraid there aren't any cheap CDPs with a seperate clock output. Its probably much cheaper to just mod a decent CDP.

 

[Garbz]

Look for a second hand decommisioned pro unit. becomethemould picked a nice Studer cdplayer on ebay with wordsync connections.

 

[Konig]

I need a cdp with just a superclock input.

 

[thomaspf]

Okay, not just word clock but superclock and cheap....

How many CDPs with superclock input have you found so far?

Cheapest might turn out to be a PC with a sound card that can do superclock input.

Cheers

Thomas

 

[Konig]

superclock sync is supposed to sound better than word clock. Is that true?

 

[regal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thomaspf /img/forum/go_quote.gif Okay, not just word clock but superclock and cheap.... How many CDPs with superclock input have you found so far? Cheapest might turn out to be a PC with a sound card that can do superclock input. Cheers Thomas

I wouldn't do this, a slaved Soundcard has worse jitter than even a modest CD player. The sound card has to manipulate the incoming clock with a PLL and creates jitter in the proces negating the benefits of slaving.


I'm curious as to what DAC the OP has with clock output ?

 

[Konig]

i have a lessloss dac 2004 with both word and superclock output.

yeah, the designer warned me about slaving to lynx card.....

 

[regal]

Less Loss makes it look easy to mod a transport to be a slave, is it tougher than advertised ?

How do you like this DAC's sound ?

 

[Konig]

If you have good recording its going to sound very live, especially jazz where u can feel the passion and energy encapsulated in the singer's voice and the bite of the string into instruments are easily audible.

If u have crap recordings like a lot of anime osts like i have, it still sound musical but it doesnt quite immerse u into the music anymore (apart from cowboy bepop and ghost in the shell, yoko kanon is the only artist that eschew cutting corners in anime osts nowadays)

 

[Garbz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by regal /img/forum/go_quote.gif I wouldn't do this, a slaved Soundcard has worse jitter than even a modest CD player. The sound card has to manipulate the incoming clock with a PLL and creates jitter in the proces negating the benefits of slaving.

You're missing the point of the sync connector in the first place. The source may have higher jitter when slaved, but the DAC now has a master clock syncronous to the source. The result is very cheap easy and very effective jitter reduction. Mind you you have to have a DAC which does this, but if it didn't, what's the point.

 

[Konig]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garbz /img/forum/go_quote.gif You're missing the point of the sync connector in the first place. The source may have higher jitter when slaved, but the DAC now has a master clock syncronous to the source. The result is very cheap easy and very effective jitter reduction. Mind you you have to have a DAC which does this, but if it didn't, what's the point.

for some reason liudas had tried and eschewed this option. its gotta do with the PLL and i cant find the thread where he explained this.

im getting the transporter. Its just crazy to burn all those flacs into audio cds.
btw why is word clock not as good as superclock? i know the math (the thing with whole multipe), but i dont know why that math causes a inferior sound.

 

[Garbz]

I do not know the differences between word and superclock, but I am more interested in this jitter thing.

The PLL I know is not perfect. Jitter can leak through the PLL from the source when adjusting a VCXO to synchronise the clocks. Dan wrote a lovely paper on this a while back and how he combatted the problem in the Larvy DA10. But if the PLL is locking onto the superclock or wordclock, even if you do not use the the clock and control a VCXO like you would with synchronous reclocking, the worst jitter you can get is based on the quality of the clock source, not the data source. This is the reason the use them in the pro industry in the first place. I can't come up with any reason why the source as apposed to the clock generator could make a difference in jitter when using one of these options.

Btw if you have a link to a paper which discusses the math, please share

 

[audioengr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Konig /img/forum/go_quote.gif for some reason liudas had tried and eschewed this option. its gotta do with the PLL and i cant find the thread where he explained this. im getting the transporter. Its just crazy to burn all those flacs into audio cds. btw why is word clock not as good as superclock? i know the math (the thing with whole multipe), but i dont know why that math causes a inferior sound.

FIY - I just spoke with a customer that had SB3 and bought a Transporter hoping to get something audiophile quality. He said the sound was not great, so he is sending it back.

Word clocks are a throwback to much earlier DAC's, and professional gear. Most modern DAC chips actually use the bit clock (AD1852/53, CS4396/97) or even the master clock (DM1704/PCM1702/4) for doing the final D/A conversion, and this is what matters for jitter. They do not use the word clock or L/RCLK. It is simply another control signal, like the serial data. Therefore, it is much better to get an I2S implementation where the bit-clock and Master Clock can be optimized for low-jitter. This will actually reduce jitter by putting the relevant clock close to the D/A chip, even though it may still be attached with a short cable.

I would not trust the word-clock interfaces on commercial gear. They are not well-defined as to voltage levels, termination etc.. and I believe many of them are implemented on DAC's that will not benefit anyway. Professional gear actually does this correctly most of the time, but the clocks are very expensive.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
Manufacturer