Aftermarket Cable for Master Clock?
JLeeMD -- Tue, 01/12/2010 - 12:22
I'm considering adding an Esoteric Master Clock to my Esoteric X-05 based on Robert Harley's descriptions of the significant (!) improvements one can expect by doing so. Question: since the music signal never flows through the BNC coax cable that connects the Master Clock to the SACD/CD player, is there any basis to expect that an aftermarket cable will better the freebie in the box? After all, my experience with MIT's interconnects and speaker cables have been quite positive.
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If you are asking just about the master clock cable, any standard well made cable should be fine. (i.e., as long as it's not extra-cheap junk, which I doubt you would use).
before asserting your position did you experiment with a high class cable like a mexcel digital cable and dont miss trying a lessloss power or if you have enough money a mexcell cable .personnaly I have done it and dont regret it .THe only problem Your complete system must be able to reveal the differences .
I'm a believer in good cables which is why I forked out $$$ for MIT's Magnum MA and Shotgun MA interconnects and speaker cables respectively. However, the coax cable between the Master Clock and SACD/CD player does not carry any music signals and thus I am wondering if an aftermarket coax cable (as opposed to the freebie in the box) would make a difference in the same way quality interconnects and speaker cables surely do...
I did replace the stock cable between the dCS Puccini and U-clock with the top of the line high-end Kimber Kable digital cable - but no luck there, sounds the same. Hope this helps. Jon.
I used standard off-the-shelf BNC cables to connect the clock signal with both the Esoteric and dCS clocks. These were supplied by the manufacturers. I suspect that if there were performance benefits to using aftermarket clock cables, Esoteric and dCS would have wanted me to use them for the review. What's most important is that the cable is BNC terminated, and not an RCA cable with RCA-to-BNC adaptors.
Hi Robert,
You make a good point there about the BNC terminated cables. The Kimber KGDL needs a BNC adaptor and if there is any difference in the sound, the stock cable may actually be a bit better on this premise alone.
Jon.
Thank you for your replies...they are extremely helpful.
Happy hunting, JLee!
An RCA cable with a BNC adaptor is bad news; it can never have the correct impedance, which is crucial for transmitting clock signals.
Dear Mr Harley.
How about AC cord feeding G0Rb ?
Do I need something like Shunyata CX series to feed the master clock ?
Can it make some positive improvement ?
Thanks
I have not tried different power cords on just the Esoteric G-0Rb, but my experience generally suggests that all the power cords in a system should be of good quality. I don't know what level of premium cord is appropriate, but you absolutely should not use a stock cord. I recently replaced the stock (black) power cord on my PC-based music server with a Shunyata cord and the difference was signficant. I had been living with the stock cord because the EIC jack on the computer would not take an aftermarket cord, until Shunyata developed an adaptor for just this purpose.
is it any di fference between a musical signal and a clock signal travelling trough a digital connecting cable .As not being a technician I could imagine that both benefit from the most accutate mode of transportation that is the most efficient cable .Often Iexperimented that if icould not hear a diiference between two pieces of equipement ,the reason was the lack of transparency of my system .
If you are referring to a "music signal" meaning what we normally use a digital audio cable for (say S/PDIF to S/PDIF), then yes. A music signal is timing info and data info (the music bits - the 0's and 1's) together. The clock signal is timing info.Here the idea is to set up a master clock to ensure accurate timing between 2 devices
See Robert Harley's own article from 1992: http://www.stereophile.com/reference/193jitter/# for an explanation of what jitter is and how signals are sent.
very interesting ...
one of the major dealers of dCS in the UK has another opinion:
sic
"CD Clock Cables
Calling all dCS owners, and other owners of CD transports and DACs with clock links or external clocking.
We have been experimenting with new digital cables from MIT as clock cables, and the difference they can make is profound. We are not saying that this is so in every case, but in our trials with dCS kit, the results are remarkable!
A new clock cable needn't cost a fortune, we get very good results with the MIT AVt1 at £130. However, the differences made by the better cables need to be heard to be believed. The MIT Shotgun digital cable at £599 is a significant improvement on the AVt1, and Oracles (starting at £1,500) are absolutely stunning.
This may be a difficult concept to accept, but no one so far who has heard what these cables do in this context have been anything other than bowled over."
worth trying?
As Mr Harley says, all these cables need to be BNC terminated. Shelling out mullah for expensive digital cables may be an exercise in futility if one uses a BNC adaptor. The proof is in the listening. After breaking in the Puccini and U-clock for 200 hours as suggested by my dealer, I went back to comparing the stock dCS cable with the KImber AGDL and BNC adaptor. There is no doubt about it - the stock cable sounds so "right" while the AGDL with BNC adaptor came out sounding all wrong and this certainly has to do with the mistiming brought on by the inappropriate termination. Hope this helps.