Re-clockers

tonyb
tonyb Posts: 32,902
Who's using one, what kind, and what have you experienced in your sound ?

Met up with Brian last night and he added one to his system and really is digging what it did for his sound. I won't steal his thunder on other aspects we talked about, he'll post his own thoughts. I know Phil had one in his system, anyone else using one ? Good, bad, little difference ?

Seems to me for the relatively cheap price these things go for, might be a worthy investment since digital playback is more mainstream now. So...who's using one ?
HT SYSTEM-
Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds

Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable

Kitchen

Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's

Comments

  • heiney9
    heiney9 Posts: 25,050
    What are you talking about?

    You mean swapping out the clock in your digital device? Like a Dexa - D Neutrino clock. At $200 that's not inexpensive.

    Or are you talking something like Monarchy DIP, an outboard component that re-clocks the signal you feed to it from your digital device and then re-transmits it? A bit more expensive than the above, but it's plug-n-play for every device.

    H9
    "Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul!
  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 32,902
    edited January 2017
    https://www.amazon.com/Wyred-Sound-Remedy-Digital-Reclocker/dp/B00MX84PNU

    Something like this Brock. I'm well aware that reclocking devices run the gammit price wise, but many others have come out with some at reasonable prices. To me anyway, anything under 5 bones is reasonable considering what we spend on cables.
    HT SYSTEM-
    Sony 850c 4k
    Pioneer elite vhx 21
    Sony 4k BRP
    SVS SB-2000
    Polk Sig. 20's
    Polk FX500 surrounds

    Cables-
    Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
    Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
    Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
    Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable

    Kitchen

    Sonos zp90
    Grant Fidelity tube dac
    B&k 1420
    lsi 9's
  • heiney9
    heiney9 Posts: 25,050
    edited January 2017
    5 bones isn't bad for a complete component, I just meant swapping internal clocks can be a bit pricey for the part.

    These seem to be more common now. I for one would think (just guessing) that if you have a dac that's a top performer and costs a bit more then these things are moot. But that's a very large assumption on my part as some of these aftermarket add on's perform quite well.

    My assumption has always followed the thought that a device like these can improve more modest set-ups where some corners were cut to hit a price point vs. a more expensive unit that doesn't cut many or any corners. Or much older digital devices that aren't up to date with the latest. I know it's as slippery slope because we all define "expensive" differently.

    But, until I hear one, I can only assume, and we know how that can turn out.

    I've always wanted to add the Monarchy DIP to my rig, but honestly I think the EE Dac Plus should already be at that level or higher when it comes to clock/signal isolation and transfer.

    H9
    "Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul!
  • heiney9
    heiney9 Posts: 25,050
    Looking at the Amazon page for the device you linked it looks like it's aimed just as I suspected.............for lesser digital devices. Apple TV, Sonos Connect, Airport Express, iPods, etc.

    It probably can help those types of devices.

    H9
    "Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul!
  • erniejade
    erniejade Posts: 6,288
    On my laptop rig, I have tried everything from an expensive usb cable on down to try to get wav / flac to sound as good as my cd player going to the same dac as the laptop. The single biggest difference on the sound is when the Wyerd 4 Sound Recovery with an IFI power supply got put in the chain. The top end became more airy, faster, tighter, the music had a heck of a lot more texture to it and finally sounded better vs CD.

    While looking on other boards like computer audiophile, I keep looking at peoples signatures and while everyone had a ton of different components, the one thing that a lot of them seem to have in their signature was either a W4S recovery or W4s reclocker. I am sure there is probably other brands that will do the same thing but, on the sites I was looking at, they both were in a lot of peoples systems / signatures. People were running them everything from a laptop to a MicroRenu on down to Aires. I started asking around if you had to choose to one tweak in your system, what would it be? Again, a lot of them said either the recovery or reclocker from W4S.

    On my rig, the difference was night and day. On some others I talked to, they said it was a slight difference but, some of them were not using a computer and using an actual dedicated music server to an MicroRenu or Aries, and put the recovery just before the dac.

    Tweaking the Tweak? Many also say changing the 6" stock cord out with a Curious usb 200mm Regen Link also brings it to another level. I have not picked one up yet. I am still using the stock 6" usb cord that came with it. I did check out the stock power cord vs the 50$ IfI adapter and IfI did make a nice positive difference.
    Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista 300, Audioquest Thunderbird Zero Speaker Cable, Tyler Highland H2, Audioquest Thunderbird Interconnect, Innuos Zen MK3 W4S recovery, Revolution Audio Labs USB & Ethernet, Border Patrol SE-I, Audioquest Niagara 5000 & Thunder, Cullen Crossover II PC's.
  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 32,902
    I hear ya Brock you'd think the better dacs out there should handle that reclocking just as well if not better. I believe Phil, Pearsall....is using an Empirical audio syncro mesh reclocker between his Sonos and dac

    That's why I couldn't remember it last night Brian, anything with more than 2 words to the name is lost on my old brain. lol
    HT SYSTEM-
    Sony 850c 4k
    Pioneer elite vhx 21
    Sony 4k BRP
    SVS SB-2000
    Polk Sig. 20's
    Polk FX500 surrounds

    Cables-
    Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
    Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
    Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
    Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable

    Kitchen

    Sonos zp90
    Grant Fidelity tube dac
    B&k 1420
    lsi 9's
  • Nightfall
    Nightfall Posts: 10,042
    Is that Wyred 4 Sound really taking in a 192kHz signal and down converting it to 96kHz? For $400?
    • 96kHz output sampling frequency
    • Digital inputs support up to 24/192kHz
    afterburnt wrote: »
    They didn't speak a word of English, they were from South Carolina.

    Village Idiot of Club Polk
  • erniejade
    erniejade Posts: 6,288
    @Nightfall on the reclocker, I am not sure. Give them a call and see. They are very knowledgeable on the phone even if your not going to buy. I have called them a few times over the past.
    Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista 300, Audioquest Thunderbird Zero Speaker Cable, Tyler Highland H2, Audioquest Thunderbird Interconnect, Innuos Zen MK3 W4S recovery, Revolution Audio Labs USB & Ethernet, Border Patrol SE-I, Audioquest Niagara 5000 & Thunder, Cullen Crossover II PC's.
  • FTGV
    FTGV Posts: 3,649
    Nightfall wrote: »
    Is that Wyred 4 Sound really taking in a 192kHz signal and down converting it to 96kHz? For $400?
    • 96kHz output sampling frequency
    • Digital inputs support up to 24/192kHz
    Yes upsample or downsample to a fixed 96k.And they will throw in a nice switch mode walwart power supply to boot. :o:)


  • pitdogg2
    pitdogg2 Posts: 24,474
    FTGV wrote: »
    Nightfall wrote: »
    Is that Wyred 4 Sound really taking in a 192kHz signal and down converting it to 96kHz? For $400?
    • 96kHz output sampling frequency
    • Digital inputs support up to 24/192kHz
    Yes upsample or downsample to a fixed 96k

    Whats the point of this Fred? Why would this be considered a good thing? Seems to me if I'm putting in a 192kHz I kind of want to get 192kHz out.

  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 10,716
    edited January 2017
    ...because it is easier and cheaper to deal with 96k.
    That is to say the jitter is in the modulation.
  • FTGV
    FTGV Posts: 3,649
    edited January 2017
    They chose to use only one hi quality clock so had to fix the sample rate for that specific clock.It appears they are marketing this more for lower bit rate and sample rate devices that tend have more jitter at their outputs.These devices are likely to benifit from some jitter attenuation.The 192k compatability is part of the hardware and not likely the intended purpose.Although in theory depending reclocked/ resampled 192k to 96k file "may" be a sonic improvement.
    IMO these type of outboard reclocker/upsamplers can provide some improvement ,it is limited by the added SPDIF transmission interface to the following DAC.Greater benefits are had if it is implimented right in the DAC itself.