Hi All! About two years ago I purchased a Vivaldi One that was thoroughly “burned in” from my dealer and had it in my system for a few weeks. Not surprisingly it greatly elevated my listening experience. I had been using a Burmester 089 CD player but did not stream music. I then added a Vivaldi Clock which produced a significant boost to the SQ, i.e., more meat on the bones, richer tonality, greater detail and separation between instruments. For some time I had been reading on a couple of websites about the success Vivaldi owners were having by adding a 10mhz clock (mostly Cybershaft or Mutec) to their Vivaldi clocks. After communicating with a few of them I decided to go with the Cybershaft OP21-A with their external power supply. After a week of great anticipation waiting for delivery I introduced it into my system. Virtually all that have the Cybershaft clock noted immediate improvement but I was underwhelmed and had a big “uh-oh” moment. I should have known better given my experience with settling/burn in time for new components. I left it on and went to bed hopeful but concerned. The next day I fired up my system and was delighted (whew!) by what I heard, much in the same way I was with the addition of the Vivaldi clock. Incidentally, I was using a Blue Jeans BNC cable while waiting for a BNC cable from a German company called Habst. This cable has also proved to be a welcome SQ enhancer. Jesse Luna, a delightful extremely knowledgeable gent who due to relative abode proximity has been to our home a couple of times, will be visiting again post covid-lockdown for a contrast & compare listening session. Any dCS component owners, developers, employees, etc. have a standing invitation to come by for same when visiting northern CA. I am truly grateful to be a part of the dCS family!
I am curious about your possible experimentation with various clock Cables. I have a Rossini Master Clock and am currently using Apogee Wyde Eye cables which are highly recommended on this forum. They are cheap. I am curious about what better cables can do - as long as their price is relative compared to the cost of the Master Clock. In other words I do not want to spend $7k on Transparent Cables for a clock which costs $7k.
Jesse has recommended a few cables to me in the past which are in the $4k per pair range - expensive but more in line relatively speaking with the price of the Rossini clock.
I like the Cardas Clear Digital cables; $600 US each for 1m with BNCs (so you would need at least two for $1200 US.)
My experience with BNC cables is very limited (Habst, Nordhost, Blue Jeans). There is a strong high end audio contingent in Hong Kong (prayers for the people who live there) that gets together and have amazing listening session/shoot outs with the latest in network related components (switches, clocks, etc.) and digital cables. That is where I heard about Habst. For 1m it was a little north of $1,000 and I’m very happy with it as music immediately sounded clearer and more lively. The BNC cables between my Vivaldi One and Vivaldi clock are Nordost Valhalla One which sound just fine. At this point funds are limited otherwise I might have looked at cables further up the sonic food chain (Dalby, Shunyata, Vertere). As you probably know The Cable Company is a good source for try before you buy. Peter has an excellent selection and is a pleasure to work with although given the current situation I’m not sure if his lending library is open for biz…
Hasegawa-san from Cybershaft has stated that it takes at least a few days for his clocks to reach their specified performance after being powered off.
You’ll note that on the test results provided with the clock testing was performed 72 hours after power up, so you can look forward to continued improvements!
I am inclined to say, when it comes to Cybershaft products and their performance, Kenji Hasegawa knows all! And based on the email interaction we had he could not be more forthcoming or patient. Thanks for the info, Jeff, do you have one in your system?
I recently received my OP20A with external power supply!
It’s still in the first few days of operation so I have not done any critical listening yet, but I’ve been very impressed with the entire Cybershaft experience so far.
Fantastic! What other components do you have in your system?
Happy to see someone associated with New Orleans culture on the forum!
Thanks, Mark, do you have ties there or have you been?
I have my op21a since one month and it replaces an op13. Huge improvement. Now I use a 75ohm cable instead of a 50ohm, and it’s better too. This is one of the big advantage with the previous one as you can choose between 50 and 75 ohm👍
We live in the greater New Orleans area and have been here since 1978.
Regards
Mark
I play drums and lived in NOLA from 91-99. I had the time of my life playing on Bourbon Street, and with Anders Osborne, Waylon Thibodeaux, Juanita Brooks, etc. It was such a great experience on so many levels! What part do you live in, Mark?
Excited for you, Mr. Spock! Which cable(s) do you use?
Wow, that was a time for sure! We live in Covington, on the northshore now, previously on west bank, metairie, new orleans east.
Love the North Shore, I sleepily drove home via the causeway after a night at Ruby’s Roadhouse many times! Does that place still exist?
First I used a 50ohm cable from cybershaft. Now it’s a DIY 75ohm , so without adaptator.
I’m using the Vivaldi upsampler + DAC along with a Japanese word clock to convert the 10MHz signal to 441/48. My big amps are in for service right now so I’m actually running a Leben CS300 integrated into Sony SS-AR1s. It works way better than it should! Cables are all Acrolink/Esoteric, except the four clock cables to the Vivaldi, which are Apogee Wyde Eyes.
My ears have witnessed that more than once!
Vivaldi DAC/Upsampler/Clock
Cybershaft OP21A Reference Clock
BJC/Geistnote (Apogee Wide Eye)/Van Damme 75Ω 1.5M Cables
At the moment, BJC are in my system. Probably going to stay there.