Reasonably priced dual-master clock (10Mhz) Rb and OCXO....
- Thread starter SCAudiophile
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How is your clock sounding with the Vivaldi? Another user is asking and it would be good to hear how things are going for you?
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X2, very curious to hear. If it's very good, I'd probably dump my Antelope Audio clock. Also, what 50 ohm cable are you using? The one from Kenji?
I used one from Kenji originally and also had one made later by Kubala-Sosna to EMOTION level with 50ohm connectors. There's a great response from Caelin Gabriel that explains the facts behind why at this length we apparently can also use any good SOTA 75-ohm cable. I'll stick with my 50ohm as I already have it though....
Although I could not locate Caelin Gabriel original response, just quotes of it, it seems to me that it ignores the fact that as far as I know the clock is a 10 MHz square wave, not a sinusoidal wave, and the bandwidth should go easily in the gigahertz zone.
IMHO a better solution would be modifying the value of the resistors in the driver circuit - perhaps just adding a 25 ohm resistor would solve the problem.
As you already have a 50 ohm cable, you can try adding a 150 ohm resistor in parallel with the 75 ohm input.
I am considering getting one of the CyberShaft OCXO clocks, just waiting for some feedback from DCS users!
The quote from CGabriel is from another forum so I am not comfortable cross-posting links; it was however just put up in the last 24-48 hours.
Thank you for the feedback on this; that's an interesting idea overall. There are 2 DCS users I know of who either have had or just picked up the Cybershaft clock.
You may find their feedback here or elsewhere if you google Cybershaft....have a great day!
I just ordered the OCXO Premium as recommended by Kenji for my Esoteric K-03. I also ordered his 50 ohm 1.5 meter cable. I should have them in a week or so and will compare to my Antelope Audio Isochrone OCX. I'm hoping to hear good things, we'll see.
Given my personal experience with this clock module and power supply being 1/2 of my existing Cybershaft clock (and having owned Esoteric G-0s and G-03x in the past) and words I have heard from friends and members of this and other forums who have picked up Kenji's products, I would believe that you will have very good and very musical results and improvements. Give it a couple days to warm up and fully stabilize from the shock of international shipment and you should be hearing some very good things out of your K-03. Make sure you set the K-03 for 10Mhz input.
That's great to hear. I'm curious if other users with the Cybershaft or other clocks leave them on 24x7 or only turn them on before listening. I usually just turn on my Isochrone along with my system (except the K-03 always on) an hour or so before listening.
I leave my system on for weeks at a time (usually 2 more or less) and power-down the system for at least an hour in between up-time cycles. It's better for the power supplies plus with all the various componentry in transports, DACs, clocks, pre-amps, amps, etc...these days, particularly the transformers and capacitors (IMHO), I have found over the years that with solid state gear, it simply sounds much better all the time. For tube gear however, there are other considerations from what my friends with tube gear tell me. When I go out of town, I shut everything down, and once back in town, power up and allow up to 24 hours for everything to "come back" sonically, particular big SS amps before critically listening again. Clocks are definitely meant to remain 24x7 powered-on, again, IMHO.
Good Day! When will you receive your Cybershaft Premium clock? Did you receive the test specs as yet? Eager to hear how this goes for you after a bit of break-in of the clock...
I received the Cybershaft Premium 3 days ago, set it up, powered it on and connected it with my existing 75 ohm cable. I played music yesterday and initial observations are positive. Here's primarily what I heard:
- Increased depth. Meaning, instruments with depth were further back, instruments that were forward were further forward.
- Spacial cues seemed to float more (it think it's more again of a front to back imaging) more 3 dimensional.
- Better separation of instruments. For example, when I played Daft Punk's Touch (I know not audio high quality but still decent) I could more clearly hear the choir along with synth sounds and strings, they were noticeably easier to discern.
- Slightly better bass definition/clarity.
One thing I'm not certain about is that I thought it sounded a bit thin in the mids, but I could be mistaken. It wasn't on all songs and was hard to tell without A/B with the Antelope which I plan to do later in the week along with trying the Cybershaft 50 ohm cable. My gut tells me over all it's keeper. More to come
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I received the Cybershaft Premium 3 days ago, set it up, powered it on and connected it with my existing 75 ohm cable. I played music yesterday and initial observations are positive. Here's primarily what I heard:
- Increased depth. Meaning, instruments with depth were further back, instruments that were forward were further forward.
- Spacial cues seemed to float more (it think it's more again of a front to back imaging) more 3 dimensional.
- Better separation of instruments. For example, when I played Daft Punk's Touch (I know not audio high quality but still decent) I could more clearly hear the choir along with synth sounds and strings, they were noticeably easier to discern.
- Slightly better bass definition/clarity.
One thing I'm not certain about is that I thought it sounded a bit thin in the mids, but I could be mistaken. It wasn't on all songs and was hard to tell without A/B with the Antelope which I plan to do later in the week along with trying the Cybershaft 50 ohm cable. My gut tells me over all it's keeper. More to come
It's great to hear back from you and to hear that all is going well; I had similar experiences with my clock even in the first 24-48 hours and it kept getting better over the first 2 weeks (about 300-350 hours) of continuous break-in. I did not however hear any thinning effect in the mid-range so try other material rich in mids that you know well and double-check that. I think in the end that you will wind up being very happy with what it will add to your system. Enjoy!
Listened last night after 10 days break - in and it was significantly better than after the initial 3 days. What's interesting to me is the improvements were not in all areas I stated above. Some continued improvements (as above) in bass definition and further clarity of instruments in complex passages. However the biggest increase was in overall dimension of instruments/"musical realism". It had me pulling out CDs and SACDs to 2x verify what I heard and I was pretty transfixed. And oh, no mid thinness, not sure if it went away with break-in or I was imagining it earlier.
FYR, below is Kenji's performance over time estimates. In my opinion performance gains are more linear at least from what I can tell from my ~10 day assessment. Curious to hear it after a month when I assume it will have leveled out if not sooner.
The performance becomes maximum in approximately 20-30 days.
If I express ability with a value vs days
1day:75% 3days:85% 7days:95% 20-30days:100%
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