In addition, how is the sound quality of the internal clock of DCS NB? Is it the last in all products of DCS, thank you
Hi,
I don’t see any information regarding what the “other” digital device is that you are looking to sync but unless I have understood you incorrectly then what you are suggesting doing will not work…
I think you are suggesting using the wordclock out from the Network Bridge to sync both your DAC and your “other device” to the NBR wordclock but the Network Bridge will only output a wordclock when it is playing and the wordclock will depend on the sample rate / bitrate of what it is playing at the time and the wordclock will be disrupted by track changes if the tracks that it is playing change sample rates or bit depths…
Best Regards
Phil
You may not understand what I want to express, the transmission of my equipment is like this: dcs NB → digital room processing equipment → DAC, they are all connected using AES digital cable, DCS NB is used as the master clock and outputs BNC to DAC Word clock input port, but my room processing equipment only provides word clock synchronization of Spdif and AES interfaces. At this time, I will use the Spdif output of DCS NB to connect to the Spdif input of my digital room processing equipment, and connect the It is set to Slave mode. At the same time, the two devices behind the DCS NB have been synchronized to the clock of the NB. What I want to know is that the DCS NB’s Spdif 75 ohm is supposed to transmit digital sound signals, is it feasible that I use it as a pure clock sync now? The NB’s clock output BNC 75 ohm port is only used to transmit the clock signal. Are they different in nature?
That is to say, I use the Spdif port of DCS NB as the second clock output, will there be any problem?
Since AES also has a clock signal, I used AES to synchronize my digital room equipment to DCS NB. Now I add a Spdif line, the clock signal and the sound signal are completely separated, so the sound is indeed improved. This is Obvious.
Phil, I believe Nicholas is talking about a platform like the Trinnov ST-HiFi, where it’s able to use an AES input as the primary Clock source.
Actually, there’s a previous discussion on dcs.community about exactly this;
Yes, that’s a coincidence, The digital room processor I’m talking about is exactly the Trinnov st2 hifi
The DCS NB is used as the master clock and outputs signals of three different wires, of which AES is used for signal output, the clock BNC output is used for synchronization with the DAC clock, and the Spdif output is used for synchronization with Trinnov’s clock (although SPDIF is not the same as BNC. Provide clock signal), but Trinnov can choose the input signal and input clock signal from AES or Spdif in the settings, so it is very flexible. In this way, the simultaneous output of AES and Spdif will affect the quality of the AES output signal or interference or the like introduction?Thanks
Thanks Anup! 
P
I would suggest this is something to confirm with the Trinnov guys in so far as what can the Trinnov pull a clock signal from but still I don’t think what you are trying to do is possible …
Certainly the S/PDIF feed cannot be used directly as a word clock into an input that is expecting a word clock (they’re totally different format signals).
The AES feed and the S/PDIF feed do contain identical data and would be synchronised with each other but I would not expect the Trinnov to be able to do any kind of clock sync for the AES feed using the S/PDIF feed and the S/PDIF output of the Network Bridge cannot be switched over to provide an additional word clock feed…
Best Regards
Phil
Hello, Phil, Trinnov’s reply to me is：It’s is possible to “slave” the ST2 HI FI trough the SPDIF instead of BNC, you just have to set it right in the configuration and tell your unit that she has to follow the master signal.
You can either clock on AES or SPDIF, the signal can carry a clock and a audio signal, that’s the difference between those formats and BNC. BNC only carry the synchronization signal.
Both Spdif and AES of DCS NB will send audio signal and clock signal to Trinnov at the same time. At this time, Trinnov can be set as Spdif to receive clock signal and AES to receive audio signal. DCS NB sends SPDIF and AES at the same time, will there be unnecessary interference between them? This is what worries me, thanks
Given that both the AES and S/PDIF outputs are carrying audio data (rather than one carrying audio data and one carrying a word clock) and both are identical then I don’t follow how using the AES as the audio data and having the Trinnov try to extract timing from the (identical) S/PDIF will give a different result to just extracting the same timing from the AES output - as neither are an actual wordclock. If they are able to pull a precise clock from the S/PDIF then they should also be able to pull it from the AES.
I could totally get behind using the AES or S/PDIF outputs for carrying audio and feeding a separate wordclock but I don’t get how that works using the S/PDIF audio data as a clock.
Ultimately as this is functionality that is particular to the Trinnov I would take their advice on how to get the best performance from their unit …
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Mainly because Trinnov does not provide an independent BNC word clock interface, so only AES or Spdif can receive or output clock signals. The interface in the figure below is Trinnov’s clock selection interface.
Phil, as I have a Trinnov at home, perhaps I can explain it;
As Nicholas mentioned, the ST2 HiFi consumer version he has has no dedicated Word clock input port. Instead, it can use any incoming AES/SPDIF to extract a clock signal from as the primary clock source for the unit, pretty much the same as Sync Mode = Audio on any dCS DAC.
However, unlike with dCS, on the Trinnov the corresponding incoming music bit-stream can be from a complete separate AES/SPDIF input.
To answer your question; the AES1/2 and SPDIF output ports on the dCS Network Bridge have completely separate output buffer circuits. Simultaneous use of both for separate functions will not impact the quality of ether.
Great, thank you very much for answering my question. After separating the clock signal and the music signal, there is indeed an improvement. I am still considering whether to change one of the interfaces of the Spdif cable to BNC, so that the pure clock signal can be output from the DAC to the Trinnov. . . But it’s not necessary, DCS can do it
Hi Anup,
Thanks for the clarification and yes, I see from what you and Nicholas have described that the Trinnov can derive a clock from an SPDIF input while taking the audio data from an AES input however there are two things that simply make me cautious on this one …
The first is that an S/PDIF bitstream doesn’t have a proper clock embedded in it (although yes, you can derive a clock from it as you would do when playing the bitstream itself but the whole point of having a separate wordclock is that deriving the clock from the S/PDIF bitstream isn’t an exact process whereas a global wordclock is a precise sync).
The main one for me though is that as the AES and S/PDIF outputs on the NBR are duplicates (just in a different physical format) and are not independently generated then any timing errors or timing drifts are going to be duplicated in both the AES and S/PDIF feeds and so unless the Trinnov itself has a performance edge from being fed two identical feeds rather than one it’s just making things overly complicated in setup for no gain … the audio S/PDIF feed that you’re locking the Trinnov to will have the exact same timings (and the same timing errors) as the one that you’re using for extracting the audio from and so there should be no difference as to which one you are using to derive your timing signal from. Do you follow me?
Obviously Nicholas is saying that it gives an improvement in performance from the Trinnov which is interesting … I haven’t spoken with Tom in quite a while but maybe I’ll give him a shout and see if he can lend me one to have a play with for a bit - they’re always fun! 
Phil
Hey Phil，Trinnov connected SPDIF showed AES 3 and 4 first, connected AES showed AES 1 and 2, I suspect, this SPDIF port is modified by AES, according to Trinnov technicians, when I connect SPDIF port , I can use the AES output without worrying about the impedance matching, so can I understand it as two sets of AES inputs, does this improve the SPdIf as a clock connection? Thank you
Hi Nicholas,
I’m really sorry but I don’t understand exactly what you are asking however I think these are questions for the guys at Trinnov to answer as we do not have an ST2 here…
I don’t “get” how they would be able to generate a better clock for their processor from a separate S/PDIF feed than they would from the identical AES feed when neither actually have any kind of clock signal embedded in them.
If Trinnov say that using the ST2 in that way improves performance then all I can suggest is that you compare the performance of the ST2 using an AES feed from the Network Bridge to an S/PDIF feed from the Network Bridge to an AES feed from the Network Bridge with the ST2 deriving the clock from the S/PDIF output … I honestly can’t see how this would be better given that both outputs are identical (in that they are generated using exactly the same input signal) but the proof of the pudding is in the eating or beauty is in the eye of the beholder (or whichever other similar saying) and if one configuration sounds better to you (which is the important thing) then go with that setup.
I’m really sorry that I am unable to answer your questions regarding use with the ST2 but neither the AES nor the S/PDIF outputs from the Network bridge contain a bitstream that can be used to generate an accurate clock so the questions that you are asking really are regarding the functionaity of the ST2 therefore the Trinnov guys would be better placed to give you the information as to how best to use it.
Best Regards
Phil Harris