How about: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.40.cNOUDD&id=41154083487&ns=1&abbucket=7#detail
They are available at the frequencies we need for U12, but, i suppose we need extra psu for them?
@abartels That OCXO is pretty nice for its price, it reminds me of what this guy did with a Teradak converter:
https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=1EB7027489224A7D&id=1eb7027489224a7d!526&v=3
I'm still on the fence about the 3M stuff, but I'm interested. I'm still mulling on what areas need application, need to read up the spec sheet on that material as well.
@rb2013 The atomic clock stuff is pretty crazy lol. I'm a bit tin eared, I don't think I could appreciate the difference but who knows. If I had that kind of money I'd probably get TOTL headphones, I think mechanical distortion at the transducer is probably a bigger contributor than the rest of the signal chain at that point.
@prot I saw that Pulsar clock a while ago too on diyaudio. I had a chuckle because I couldn't imagine why an OCXO would be export restricted lol.
@the i2s discussion:
As for i2s, one needs to be very careful since there is no standard pinout. In fact, you can just assume that everyone is doing whatever the hell they want. For example Audio-GD and Yulong both have i2s through a RJ45 port. Same port no problem right?
http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/diy/I2Skits/I2SEN.htm
http://yulongaudio.com/en/product_detail.asp?pid=23
But they are actually using completely different pinouts. And the Gustard U12 forgoes the RJ45 port entirely for an HDMI port. With something DIY like the Buffalo it's no big deal. However if you bought into a brand, you are pretty much stuck with it lol.
Thankfully if you have deep pockets and buy something $2k+, you wouldn't even need an external usb interface.
@gustard x20
I'm curious what the X20 will be like too. But I didn't wait to find out, I just bought the X12 since I doubt I could afford the X20 anyways.
My idle speculation on the X20:
- Integrated DAC/AMP combo, like the Yulong and Audio-GD offerings
- Possible balanced headphone out along with single ended, since people love balanced and it's all the rage (I still like SE lol)
- Around or slightly below $1k MSRP
OR
They could pull off something crazy that would excite me, like a pure DAC dual mono ES9018 implementation, kind of like what L.K.S. Audio did.
I still think they will just come out with an integrated DAC/AMP box that everyone loves so much. I think the vast majority of setups being sold are integrated boxes nowadays.