[Buckminster]

I'm using headphones only with this set up so yeah maybe it's more noticeable using speakers?

Unfortunately I don't have a DDC on hand to test that out. That particular set up of mine uses the built in streamer of the A26 via a LAN connection

Of the 3 BMC connections, the first one (all the way to the left when looking at the back) is the square wave output & the other two are the sine wave ones. If you look at the picture on Ali, you can see the first squiggly line above the BNC is more squared off than the other two which look smoother

I see you also have the Aune XC1, have you noticed any differences using that clock vs this Ali one?

Hi, Gustard R26/C18 user here. You mentioned PCM 768...would you mind checking with upsampling to 705.6, or just playing OG 16/44.1 songs to see if you're still hearing zero difference? Like you I was originally surprised to hear no difference with 48khz source material, though I've trained my ear to hear the slightly expanded soundstage now with the clock engaged...on some tracks. It's extremely subtle and eats into the value of adding a clock early in one's upgrade journey. On 44.1 stuff, however, the difference is pretty clear, and a nice improvement, it's just that more and more high res material in my listening library seems to be 48. I'd be curious to hear your experience.

 

[OCC7N]

Needs to be shared as for the technical performance of ISCSI.

For those of you that don´t have a masterclock yet and want some technical improvements: If you own a Desktop/Laptop - NAS/Fileserver like Synology

NAS -> RJ45 - SWITCH -> SFP(single or multi) -> SWITCH -> SOURCE.

The basic share on a Synology NAS is SMB/NFS. If you have a Synology and good amount of free space. Setup an iSCSI Target on it and from your source run the Initiator.
- it will pop up like a normal share/drive.

So many basic/improvements can be done before buying all sorts of units. ISCSI

It is noticeable that ISCSI lifts one veil vs SMB/NFS/DLNA.

The improvements: Gives the music life, like a fresh air, but the best part is how all layers(especially the background) have the timing and easy to digest on a very technical way, without taking away from the musical experience.

I don´t think when I had the OCK-2 I got so great improvement. Even the Alibaba clock I have now on the ethernet card is accepting this improvement.

Network and ISCSI is the "new" DDC/Masterclock for me.

 

[jimmychan]

Needs to be shared as for the technical performance of ISCSI.

For those of you that don´t have a masterclock yet and want some technical improvements: If you own a Desktop/Laptop - NAS/Fileserver like Synology

NAS -> RJ45 - SWITCH -> SFP(single or multi) -> SWITCH -> SOURCE.

The basic share on a Synology NAS is SMB/NFS. If you have a Synology and good amount of free space. Setup an iSCSI Target on it and from your source run the Initiator.
- it will pop up like a normal share/drive.

So many basic/improvements can be done before buying all sorts of units. ISCSI

It is noticeable that ISCSI lifts one veil vs SMB/NFS/DLNA.

The improvements: Gives the music life, like a fresh air, but the best part is how all layers(especially the background) have the timing and easy to digest on a very technical way, without taking away from the musical experience.

I don´t think when I had the OCK-2 I got so great improvement. Even the Alibaba clock I have now on the ethernet card is accepting this improvement.

Network and ISCSI is the "new" DDC/Masterclock for me.

iSCSI looks like a local drive to the system. How is the sound quality compared with a real local drive?

 

[OCC7N]

iSCSI looks like a local drive to the system. How is the sound quality compared with a real local drive?

Yes it is Block level based not file level based as SMB/NFS, meaning as open and manageable as internal storage.

At first day, initial 30min, I did not notice anything. I assumed it was make-belief. It was like good timing on the overall sound...

The difference is not as noticeable on solo instruments or vocals. It is when two melodies play on top of each other it comes through. The background gets synced and on big tracks with a lot of instruments, you can hear every melody/instruments....They all come through without a fatigue of listening. The forground is not dominant/charming, the whole stereo spectrums is like one.

1. As always the system disk where windows is installed is the worst performer, here the difference is big. Very polluted and lifeless in contrast.
2. Same disk as system/980 Pro, but on a dedicated disk for software/music, here the difference is still noticeable but not as much. Sounds good on this disk, but ISCSI is like a breeze of fresh air/life together with the above mentioned technicality.
3. Samsung EVO 850/870 SSD on the sata port, it has a different neutral sound than the 980 Pro. Still the same noticeable difference/technicality. 980 Pro is such a nice textured sound. 980 Pro on guitars, the texture of the guitars comes through. Avoid the EVOs and get the PROs for HiFi for internal storage. ISCSI Target is fine with EVO870, however I will upgrade to PRO ASAP!

I installed Foobar2000(system, dedicated disk) and Opera/browser on the ISCSI/Synology which is behind a network chain as explained above, that I think also has something to do with the difference maybe. I tested 3 different DACs. R2R, Cirrus Logic and ESS. Cirrus Logic and R2R were the most beneficials.

NAS -> RJ45 - SWITCH -> SFP(single or multi) -> SWITCH -> SOURCE. (I actually did try put NAS on the last switch before source, with same improvements.)

I completely mixed Foobar and Opera in such a way I could not remember them both in taskbar and windows.
-I resize the windows and put them on top of each other and minimize to taskbar, then when clicking on the first one in taskbar I take it to one side, and the other to other side.

Testing on Foobar it was still easy to pinpoint which I liked, and it came down to the ISCSI everytime. Also on Opera/Browser.

The easy decision is on music where a lot is going on in the stereo spectrum. However still noticeable on solos "simple" music.

'''
Important thing to notice here is that the software Foobar is running portable on internal dedicated disk Samsung 980 Pro. The browser is running completely portable on the ISCSI. Opera has been tested portable on: System disk, dedicated disk 980 Pro - EVO850 - EVO870
The same disks for Foobar, and files is on the same NAS, same files but different Share types SMB vs ISCSI.

....

It has been a week now, and I confirm this difference. I tried soo hard to disproof what I heard from mood and emotions. Even on a bad stressful day, tired after work I noticed this difference.

 

[sajunky]

@OCC7N. A sound is changing while moving a mouse as well?


Not joking, there are reports on this and typical remedy is inserting a self-powered USB hub.

Is the same on a motherboard rear USB ports (not a JCAT things)? USB transfer is not asynchronous, or more likely you need a good quality isolator and lock PC in a well grounded gun safe!


BTW, Foobar is small, it loads entirely to a memory. There is an option to preload tracks. And... iSCSI is an old, reliable network protocol, standarised by IBM. It should replace buggy open source protocols on every streamer. There are other for comparison (wikipedia links) I know very little about those:

• ATA-over-Ethernet (AoE)
• Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
• Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP)
• HyperSCSI SCSI over Ethernet frames instead of IP (as iSCSI is)
• ISCSI Conformance Testing and Testing Tool Requirement
• iSCSI Extensions for RDMA (iSER)
• Internet Fibre Channel Protocol (iFCP)
• Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS)
• LIO Linux SCSI Target
• Network block device (NBD)
• The SCST Linux SCSI target software stack
• Service Location Protocol

 

[OCC7N]

@OCC7N. A sound is changing while moving a mouse as well?

No, I have never had that experience, but I am still gonna go further since I get improvements.

My biggest improvements is Network devices: switches/sfp and SAN/iSCSI.

 

[christal]

Hi,
I consider making the tungsten mod (gluing a tungsten cube) on my Gustard X26 Pro DAC and the Gustard U18, as described by MartinWT and others in this thread.

Do you know what type of torx screwdriver do I need to remove the upper lid? I guess I should unscrew the higher screws on the back.

 

[doitttt]

sorry for the debate I don't want to disturb
but just kicking in
gustard a26 and mutec ref10
gives clean sound from usb from laptop
mutec ref10 has run 600 hours 24/7
to achieve the maximum from mutec ref10
we all have seen article by amir
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...haft-platinum-review-external-clock-ps.30310/
then what is the purpose of 10mhz clock
he just doesn't account for letting it run 14 days the cybershaft clock
so the result will probably be different

 

[Jake2]

sorry for the debate I don't want to disturb
but just kicking in
gustard a26 and mutec ref10
gives clean sound from usb from laptop
mutec ref10 has run 600 hours 24/7
to achieve the maximum from mutec ref10
we all have seen article by amir
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...haft-platinum-review-external-clock-ps.30310/
then what is the purpose of 10mhz clock
he just doesn't account for letting it run 14 days the cybershaft clock
so the result will probably be different

I try to avoid commenting on ASR stuff but I’m going to break my own rule here it seems. I have a few questions. What cable was used? As we know cables matter a lot. How long was it warmed up? And how did Amir’s subjective listening impressions align with his observed high offset jitter spurii well below his oft stated audibility limit of, IIRC, -110dB?

What was the measured close-in low offset jitter and phase noise? Amir doesn’t believe in the significance or audibility of the latter so never measures it for any components (even when it might explain owner-observed audible differences between otherwise very similarly measuring components). He just does a zoom in his jitter plot with the smallest axis marker at best 11.6KHz still a 400Hz offset from carrier. In this case zooming on my screen as much as I can I can get a sense of offsets at at best maybe 20Hz from carrier. To be fair it is clear the blue line of the internal clock is lower dB than the external clock at the same offset. It’s just unfortunate we have to guess at and extrapolate for the closer in 10Hz and 1Hz offsets we’re interested in.

It may well be the higher jitter of this particular clock/cable/DAC (incl clock synthesiser, another variable) combo does extend to low offset phase noise, we just don’t know this for sure. But if so, one swallow doesn’t make a summer. What has his or others’ testing of other clock, DAC and cable combinations found incl their correlations to perceived sound quality? The latter is a rhetorical qn, for ASR at least.

 

[sajunky]

we all have seen article by amir
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...haft-platinum-review-external-clock-ps.30310/
then what is the purpose of 10mhz clock
he just doesn't account for letting it run 14 days the cybershaft clock
so the result will probably be different

I bet, it wouldn't. Amir use wrong tool. This equipment do not measure jitter. It is called traditionally a jitter test, but it is not intended to measure clock performance. Besides, it is the most controversial test, even for measuring DAC perfornance.

 

[doitttt]

yes amir use wrong tool
if measured in another way, with jitter
is the result, probably somewhat better

 

[MartinWT]

Hi,
I consider making the tungsten mod (gluing a tungsten cube) on my Gustard X26 Pro DAC and the Gustard U18, as described by MartinWT and others in this thread.

Do you know what type of torx screwdriver do I need to remove the upper lid? I guess I should unscrew the higher screws on the back.

You will need hex keys and to remove the long bolts from the underside. That will allow you to remove the lid.

I used two-part epoxy for a really good bond. You won't regret this upgrade but may I suggest doing it one at a time to ensure you like the result?

 

[beefsupreme510]

Hi, Gustard R26/C18 user here. You mentioned PCM 768...would you mind checking with upsampling to 705.6, or just playing OG 16/44.1 songs to see if you're still hearing zero difference? Like you I was originally surprised to hear no difference with 48khz source material, though I've trained my ear to hear the slightly expanded soundstage now with the clock engaged...on some tracks. It's extremely subtle and eats into the value of adding a clock early in one's upgrade journey. On 44.1 stuff, however, the difference is pretty clear, and a nice improvement, it's just that more and more high res material in my listening library seems to be 48. I'd be curious to hear your experience.

That was it!

I took my dac over to a buddies house who also has the same clock. We hooked it up to his 2 channel system & we took turns switching the clock on & off while the other stayed in the listening position. There was a noticeable difference in the staging & space around notes. I asked him what he was streaming & sure enough it was 44.1
Back at my home, I tried regular 44.1 & switched back & forth with the clock & was able to spot the difference in staging as well. Tried a few different upsampling settings on Roon & seems like 768 was the only one where I didn’t notice a difference. So now I’m all set using my 705 upsampled streaming & the Ali clock!
Thanks again for your advice, it helped me!

 

[Buckminster]

That was it!

I took my dac over to a buddies house who also has the same clock. We hooked it up to his 2 channel system & we took turns switching the clock on & off while the other stayed in the listening position. There was a noticeable difference in the staging & space around notes. I asked him what he was streaming & sure enough it was 44.1
Back at my home, I tried regular 44.1 & switched back & forth with the clock & was able to spot the difference in staging as well. Tried a few different upsampling settings on Roon & seems like 768 was the only one where I didn’t notice a difference. So now I’m all set using my 705 upsampled streaming & the Ali clock!
Thanks again for your advice, it helped me!

That's great news and I'm relieved to hear it, for your sanity and mine! This has vexed me since I got the R26, and it's good to know you've experienced the same issue with the A26 and a different clock. It's a Gustard thing after all.

I will say I've noticed the most difference with 16/44.1 only. When I got into HQPlayer and upsampling, I noticed the effect of the clock diminish with the higher PCM and DSD rates to where it was much harder to guess when it was on in a blind test. I don't profess to know why that is but that's what my ears tell me.