See, for me the MSB’s detail makes it a bit harsh, not unlike dCS DACs without a clock.
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Funny I found that dCS pulls out more detail while MSB removes “noise” around vocals. I didn’t know it was there ‘till it was gone.
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Removing haze and revealing soundstage is what I heard when I connected the Rossini Clock.
And I hear little discernible difference with my Vivaldi Clock in or out of my stack. Go figure.
Happy to test it for you,
No charge:)
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It’s so interesting that we / our systems are affected (or not!) in such different ways.
There aren’t many components that have made a bigger difference to my enjoyment than a Vivaldi Clock did when I added it to my Bartok.
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Interesting.
I’ve mentioned before that without the Rossini Clock, I wouldn’t have purchased a Rossini, the sound quality didn’t come anywhere close to meeting that of the Wadia S7i I had been using.
It was only with the addition of the Rossini Clock that the combo met and surpassed the sound of the Wadia; without the clock it was a bit harsh, piano was a little metallic and soundstaging was lacking in comparison.
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I had a Wadia S9 which was bettered and replaced by a Meridian 808v6 in a A/B. Then the Meridian was barely surpassed in a A/B in my set-up before being replaced by a Rossini and clock. That lasted about a year before I had the opportunity to move to the Vivaldi stack (sans transport).
S9, nice. You too know how hard it is to find anything that will beat Wadia.
I think that’s part of why the Rossini Clock was required for me; Wadia always did a lot with their ClockLock to achieve tight clock timing so you get used to that sound.
I never got a chance to hear a Meridian so I can’t comment on them.
We all hear everything differently. It’s what makes this hobby both maddening and rabbit-hole enticing. I never found any Wadia rendition particularly convincing. And that’s just me. As between the Vivaldi+Clock and the MSB Select II, I found the MSB slightly more revealing but the Vivaldi more “organic.” I’m not even sure exactly what those terms mean relatively, but they are the words that come to mind when I struggle to compare two excellent DACs. However, with the Kronos reference clock added into the mix, my Vivaldi system seems to have the best of both resolution and realism. Given that my MSB-driven headphone rack has four different amps (including two valve amps) for each of its headphones, while the Vivaldi-driven speaker system has just a single amplification chain into speakers, the comparison is pretty much the opposite of “scientific.” I love them both. And “both” is best.
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Hi Greg, it sounds like you have had experience with several reference clocks for the Vivaldi. I am considering getting a master clock for my Vivaldi. I have the 3 piece stack (no transport) and I actually slightly prefer running it through my Accuphase preamp rather than using the Vivaldi as the preamp, as it sounds a little more musical and slightly less analytical (which is my taste preference). I’m trying to decide on what the best option would be out of the Cybershaft, Srs10 and the Kronos1. It sounds like the Kronos1 is more expensive (more than double the price of the cybershaft clock) and it also requires drilling walls and putting up antennas (which is an area of slight concern to me as I live in a lightning prone area in Florida), but I would be willing to consider it, if it substantially better than the other ones. So, my question is whether Kronos1 provides a substantially better improvement compared to the other two clocks? Thank you
I’ve PM’ed you so as not to derail this thread. There are a number of clock threads here I would recommend reviewing as well.