Master Clock Talk

[OCC7N]

It's a 10 MHz signal, it's more demanding than audio. But, in radio, 10 MHz is still called "HF" and off the shelf coax is good to least 50 MHz. So there is plenty of room.

If cables are built from trustworthy production cable stock, the specs for that are listed by the manufacturer, including attenuation, speed factor, etc. If you buy magic cable you have no idea what you're getting.

Ok. sommer cable you say?
Gonna look into that

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Ok. sommer cable you say?
Gonna look into that

Thomann has the meterware and some premade cables. I have a bunch of their 75 ohm BNC cables, never had a problem. I use them for ACSS and WCLK to my TASCAM gear. Clock always locks, everything sounds great.

 

[DACLadder]

I thought it was the other way around a lot of people told me 50 was rare and expensive. But now that I look 75 looks more rare

Only the LMR400-75 ohm cable stock is rare. LMR400 50 ohm cable stock is readily available It seems.

In 50 ohm land there is no such thing as an audiophile cable. Spec sheets win versus hype.. until proven otherwise. LMR400 has great specs but is stiff and needs large bend radius. But sounds great and affordable. Until something better comes along.

 

[sajunky]

In 50 ohm land there is no such thing as an audiophile cable. Spec sheets win versus hype.. until proven otherwise.

Absolutely. Military spec is frequently printed on the jacket. These numbers are very convenient, it allows to identify design characteristics and all materials used to built the cable.

 

[JaMo]

Yeah right that situation again... ADOT stuff just looks like yours or these here: https://m.10gtek.com/feconverter

That shop which sells the ADOT pieces also has different length multimode cables.
What about 4.25Gbit/s SFP's?
Do these ports have to have a certain speed spec for audio?
Thanks!

Hi @ChJL
Those SFP's are former used in a fiber channel situation in a storage solution. They are not made for audio traffic specific.. The importance is that the SFP's are of good quality and in my setup Multimode 50 micrometers wavelength. The TP-Link MC220L doesn't seem to be too picky with compability. The speed in the fiber link is 1 Gbit/s so the SFP's must be able to go down to it.
/Jan

 

[mivarpet]

For the tweakers amongst you all, I've made a few mods to my OCK-1 that have all been worthwhile -

#1 - Changed the feet to improve mechanical isolation. I used Audio Serenity ISO-9H and have use these before with good results. Link - Audio Serenity ISO-9h

#2 - Fabricated an aluminum RF shield to go between the transformer and incoming AC and the DC & clock stages. The OCK-2 has this kind of isolation. There's a photo of this below. It's attached to the chassis using a vacant hole.

#3 - Changed the main PSU caps from 1000uF to 2200uF Panasonic FC and the two 100uF OSCON style caps on the regulator output to 1000uF.

Was it all worthwhile?

#1 - absolutely, especially as it was an easy mod.
#2 - again, yes, if you're able to fabricate the divider plate.

#1 & #2 positively reinforce the "OCK-1" sound that JaMo so accurately described in his review. Less grain and more clarity in the top end, notably better imaging and perhaps a bit more bass.

#3 - yes, also worthwhile if you're handy with a desoldering tool and soldering iron. This mod changed the sound somewhat to be closer to the OCK-2 sound that JaMo described - the bass leaned out and tightened up a bit (not in a bad way) and the sound signature moved a bit away from the organic end of the spectrums to slightly more analytical. This mod probably hasn't settled down yet though as the caps only have a few days time on them so far. My experience with recapping devices where the caps are at relatively low voltages is that they take a bit longer to settle down. I may change the Panasonic FC caps to my preferred Nichicon KA series, but I had the Panasonics on hand so I went with that as a first step.

I suspect that I may have invalidated my warranty too

Like a few of you here, I started the 10Mhz clock journey with a Morion clock and linear PSU. It's been a hugely satisfying upgrade to get the OCK-1 and it's a massive bargain given that the Morion is now selling for about the same price as the OCK-1, and that's before adding a decent PSU.

 

[Boomboy]

Hi .. long time lurker first time poster .
Enjoying this thread .
I'm Planning on purchasing a ock-2 soonish to feed my U18 .
@mivarpet .. did you change your fuse at all ?

 

[mivarpet]

Hi .. long time lurker first time poster .
Enjoying this thread .
I'm Planning on purchasing a ock-2 soonish to feed my U18 .
@mivarpet .. did you change your fuse at all ?

I haven't tried a fuse swap yet so thanks for reminding me!

The one in the OCK1 has gold caps so on that purely aesthetic basis might be better than the average cheap one.

I have a spare Gustard fuse I'll give a go over the weekend.

 

[Boomboy]

Ok .. I put the gustard fuse in my U18 and topping dac .
Is it the same fuse size / specs as the U18 ?

 

[Exocer]

Using a 5x20 sized, slow blow, 1a QSA Light Blue fuse I had lying around without an issue. It sounds good

 

[OCC7N]

Hi @ChJL
Those SFP's are former used in a fiber channel situation in a storage solution. They are not made for audio traffic specific.. The importance is that the SFP's are of good quality and in my setup Multimode 50 micrometers wavelength. The TP-Link MC220L doesn't seem to be too picky with compability. The speed in the fiber link is 1 Gbit/s so the SFP's must be able to go down to it.
/Jan

The answer is maybe here for finding good SFPs:
https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/...work-switch-group-buy-for-audiophilestylecom/

 

[mivarpet]

Ok .. I put the gustard fuse in my U18 and topping dac .
Is it the same fuse size / specs as the U18 ?

From what I see on line the fuse for the Gustard U18 is 500mA but the one in the OCK-1 is 1A.

EDIT - I just tried a 500mA fuse I had spare and the OCK-1 powered up fine without blowing the fuse.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

The answer is maybe here for finding good SFPs:
https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/...work-switch-group-buy-for-audiophilestylecom/

What problem is this supposed to solve? I can't understand what this is about.

 

[DACLadder]

From what I see on line the fuse for the Gustard U18 is 500mA but the one in the OCK-1 is 1A.

EDIT - I just tried a 500mA fuse I had spare and the OCK-1 powered up fine without blowing the fuse.

Good job as always. These are 15VA transformers used in both OCK-1 and OCK-2. For the Talema 70050K 15VA tranny (OCK-2) Talema recommends minimum 0 .125A fuse at 230V. (0.25A at 115V) So 500mA should give plenty of margin.
https://talema.com/wp-content/uploads/datasheets/70000K-72400K.pdf

What did you use to bend the aluminum for the shield? Looks like a pro!

 

[OCC7N]

What problem is this supposed to solve? I can't understand what this is about.

To be honest I tried a cheap fiber solution to see if it would sound better than my stock/cheap ethernet solution…with a BAASKE MI1005.

It sounded like it eliminated the sweet distortion thats gives the music some crispiness/saturation. After a while I went back to ethernet, It seems better.

Thats where quality comes in. With a better fiber/fmc I think it may be better = Finisair