[sajunky]

Gaia is with oxco clock and Iris is with Femto clock and not the same, right ?

Always look for the best connection. And it is.... T+ synchronising clocks with DDC. Then it doesn't matter what clock is internal on the DDC.

 

[richardloh]

Of course, I even daisy chain Avatar and Gaia and then Hermes ... it was on the comment that specs of gaia and iris being the same which is not.

What else different between the 2 on xformer, pcb routing, power supply treatments etc will not be on spec. and I can safely assume that top of the crop of gaia would have better ones as compared to cost effective iris.

Cheers.

PS: I opened up both Gaia and Hermes before finalised Hermes

 

[sajunky]

Of course, I even daisy chain Avatar and Gaia and then Hermes ... it was on the comment that specs of gaia and iris being the same which is not.

Daisy chaining only improves protection from ground loops, but clock quality deteriorate on each step. Remember that I2S is a feed-forward interface, clock is passing to the next device in a chain and deteriorate continuously. Reclocking with a poorer quality clock doesn't make sense and an equal quality clock barely allows to maintan the same level of performance.

Unless... it is done what I wrote... A clock synchronisation of all devices in a chain to a single frequency. In such case, reclocking can be avoided completely.

 

[richardloh]

Daisy chaining only improves protection from ground loops, but clock quality deteriorate on each step. Remember that I2S is a feed-forward interface, clock is passing to the next device in a chain and deteriorate continuously. Reclocking with a poorer quality clock doesn't make sense and an equal quality clock barely allows to maintan the same level of performance.

Unless... it is done what I wrote... A clock synchronisation of all devices in a chain to a single frequency. In such case, reclocking can be avoided completely.

For sure a masterclock is best but not possible in this thread on T plus without clock input that is being discussed .... we are simply having the best available oxco clock of the T plus being this SINGLE masterclock with denafrips ddc or/and the Avatar.

In my use case, daisy chained is needed to Avatar, in addition to Hermes for other sources, instead of having 2 clocks of both femto one in Avatar and the oxco one in Tplus trying to sync up and most importantly, it sounds better while deterioration of daisy chaining clock signal is only theoretical and of unknown extend which listening tells me that it is not significant or not as significant.

You must be confused as there is no usage of a lesser quality clock in the daisy chain setup ... only one SINGLE oxco clock of Tplus which is of higher quality than Gaia's oxco is being used.

Cheers.

PS: do you have the T plus, ddc and Avatar ? Try daisy chain setup if yes ...


https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/does-your-studio-need-digital-master-clock

 

[sajunky]

You must be confused as there is no usage of a lesser quality clock in the daisy chain setup ... only one SINGLE oxco clock of Tplus which is of higher quality than Gaia's oxco is being used.

This is exaclty what I wrote. Where is confusing part? However... however, if there is a place a (this) clock feed-back mechanism breaks, reclocking cannot be avoided. Unfortunately Gaia will always reclock on the USB port, while for the best SQ PC source should remain slaved to the master clock on T+. There are more possible breaks when you daisy chain DDC's. It can be because they also do reclock when not neccesary (like Gaia) or the clock input is incompatible.

I also disagree that Terminator's OXCO clock is the best in the world and a fact that T+ do not have clock input makes it non-upgradeable setup. There are many external clock devices featuring many times better performance, it could be used, assuming T+ had 10MHz clock input which is now becoming a standard.

 

[richardloh]

Daisy chaining only improves protection from ground loops, but clock quality deteriorate on each step. Remember that I2S is a feed-forward interface, clock is passing to the next device in a chain and deteriorate continuously. Reclocking with a poorer quality clock doesn't make sense and an equal quality clock barely allows to maintan the same level of performance.

Here in bold.

I am not using usb input of my Gaia/Hermes, the antipodes cx and ex stack is connecting directly to T+ ... sound quality drops when usb output of antipodes is connected to Gaia/Hermes although it improves with the allo usb signature and Nuprime omnia 1.

I am saying the oxco in Tplus is the best from Denafrips, including Gaia's and certainly not best in the world that I am puzzled how you had read it.

External master and word clock of 10Mhz clock had always been the case e.g. dCs, esoteric etc. but I applaud the denafrips' idea of 44.1khz and 48khz and its multiples since this is what music are encoded in without further complexity and expensive circuitry to get 10 Mhz back to multiples of 44.1khz and 48khz.

Cheers

 

[dcguy73]

not sure what you had or having but chance is that you will love it !

If also into cd, do consider the reasonably priced Avatar transport with philips cdm9 and sync it to T+'s ocxo clock which is the best what Denafrips can conjure ... more so than the gaia's oxco clock that will also benefit when synced in daisy chain manner ... like I did.

Enjoy !

Got the Terminator Plus from UPS yesterday…it is much smoother than I expected! I was concerned it’d be a super-detailed neutral/reference/dry-sounding monster, but it’s eminently listenable. I thought it’d be 42 pounds of pit bull jaw-locked-down sound, but it’s more like 42 pounds of a Shetland sheepdog/golden retriever mix.

Of course, that’s how it sounds without the Gaia and the clock-syncing thing. My Gaia‘s USB port unfortunately failed after a few days, probably due to a thunderstorm-caused power outage yesterday that knocked out the USB receiver…at least that’s the working theory for now. I have to send it to Texas for repair once I get an RMA from Alvin.

But with my Singxer SU-1 KTE doing temporary DDC duties, the Terminator Plus sounds awesome. The details are all there, but they’re not in my face. I’m listening with a big smile.

 

[richardloh]

Got the Terminator Plus from UPS yesterday…it is much smoother than I expected! I was concerned it’d be a super-detailed neutral/reference/dry-sounding monster, but it’s eminently listenable. I thought it’d be 42 pounds of pit bull jaw-locked-down sound, but it’s more like 42 pounds of a Shetland sheepdog/golden retriever mix.

Of course, that’s how it sounds without the Gaia and the clock-syncing thing. My Gaia‘s USB port unfortunately failed after a few days, probably due to a thunderstorm-caused power outage yesterday that knocked out the USB receiver…at least that’s the working theory for now. I have to send it to Texas for repair once I get an RMA from Alvin.

But with my Singxer SU-1 KTE doing temporary DDC duties, the Terminator Plus sounds awesome. The details are all there, but they’re not in my face. I’m listening with a big smile on my face.

Congras !

At least for me, the use with denafrips ddc with TP .. tried with Gaia and Hermes .. only benefits lesser usb sources.

It improves my allo usb signature and also the Nuprime Omnia S1 but not my Antipodes ex + cx that I have it directly to the TP.

I have the Denafrips ddc for other digital sources .. primarily my Bel Canto FM1 tuner .. to sync to the oxco clock of the TP and it sounds better than running these digital sources directly into TP.

More is not necessary better than less .. depends on what you starts with and with what I guess.

Only killer feature miss of the TP to me is ethernet input ..

Cheers.

 

[sajunky]

Of course, that’s how it sounds without the Gaia and the clock-syncing thing. My Gaia‘s USB port unfortunately failed after a few days, probably due to a thunderstorm-caused power outage yesterday that knocked out the USB receiver…at least that’s the working theory for now.

HDMI port failure is very frequent here in South Africa, we have beatiful storms. Also remember, it is not hot plug, power off both devices before attaching a cable. It is very sensitive to static electricity.

 

[richardloh]

Wrong post

 

[dcguy73]

I was at an audio shop today, and the salesman said, “Would you like to hear something amazing over headphones?”

We listened to Lady Blackbird on the new double-box Aurender N30SA server with the top-of-the-line MSB DAC through a Cavalli-made tube headphone amp and Focal Utopias. It sounded really clean and clear, but wasn't that compelling or amazing-sounding to me. Back at home, I put the Fruit Bats’ new album on my system and with my HE-1000SE, I think the Terminator Plus/Gaia combo acquits itself quite well compared to the much-more-expensive combo I heard at the shop. Maybe it’s not as crispy-and-clear-as-a-bell as the 3x more expensive system they had there, but the music from my home system sounds more relaxed and a bit warmer to me, which is the type of sound I prefer. I feel better about my system after hearing the much more expensive combo and prefering mine.

 

[martin778]

Sometimes one is chasing the high-resolution rabbit too much I think.
I've always pursued the ultimate resolution system, at the cost of other parts of the spectrum like the bass or midrange. Then at some point you happen to listen to a much cheaper setup and think...well, that sounds bloody good! While the cheaper system doesn't have the resolution, the overall balance is just 'right' and it makes you rethink the gear choices. At least I've encountered it quite often myself with B&W 802N for example.
I've found my love with big Apogees and the Terminator II but it's still itches to try big TAD or Kinoshita monitors if the space (and budget!) ever allows. I'd say even the entry level ARES II does things 'just right'.

 

[dcguy73]

DHL is scheduled to deliver a Jay's Audio CDT2-MK3 CD transport today, which I'll use with my Terminator Plus DAC. I've read that this is a great combination, and I can't wait to try it myself.

I'm very curious to see how the Jay's Audio CD transport (which optionally upsamples to 176.4 kHZ) stacks up against my Euphony Summus audio server with the Terminator Plus DAC. Old school vs. new school!

 

[richardloh]

Hmmh ... believe Avatar would hv been much better option to sync to single superior oxco clock of T plus that you have.

Much cheaper Avatar sounded much better than my 6mth old Jay's cdt2 mk2 that I gladly sold at a loss but still enough to get the Avatar.

Sorry for the "negative" experience I had and hope you find otherwise since mine was a Jay's cdt2 mk2 with femto clock when you can hv an Avatar in your system with the nice T+ to compare.

Cheers.

 

[dcguy73]

Hmmh ... believe Avatar would hv been much better option to sync to single superior oxco clock of T plus that you have.

Much cheaper Avatar sounded much better than my 6mth old Jay's cdt2 mk2 that I gladly sold at a loss but still enough to get the Avatar.

Sorry for the "negative" experience I had and hope you find otherwise since mine was a Jay's cdt2 mk2 with femto clock when you can hv an Avatar in your system with the nice T+ to compare.

Cheers.

I appreciate the advice, but the Avatar is no longer sold by Denafrips and is only available on the gray market. If it were to fail, I would have no means of getting it repaired. Denafrips says on their website they do not warranty gray market products. However, it is possible to buy replacement lasers for the CDT2 MK3 as well as upgrades, such as the one from MK2 to MK3.

Also, the CDT2 MK3 has an OXCO clock built-in, so there’s no need to sync it with the Terminator Plus. I’m not sure that I prefer the change when syncing the Gaia to the single “superior” clock of the Terminator Plus. When I enable clock sync between the two, it “sharpens” the imaging of the music, which is not always to my liking.

I just got the CDT2 MK3 from DHL tonight, so I’ll report back with sound impressions.