Of course James is correct. However your question is :
The answer depends upon what you consider to be significant. Lower jitter may
only manifest itself audibly subtly. Several contributors here have said that they cannot hear any difference. Yes an external clock can make a difference but if “significant” means to you an immediately clear improvement to those audiophile criteria like bass, detail, soundstage etc. then
there is no sure answer. Naturalness to the musical experience may be a more appropriate description but you may or may not consider this “significant”.
James advises:
Which seems to me to be 100% on target. However if you are unable to arrange a convincing demonstration then it may be prudent to avoid the risk unless you are happy to write off the cost if it doesn’t ring any bells for you.
I have always struggled to explain how I experience the effects of the clock on the sound (you’ll find several examples of poor attempts I posted as @struts001) principally because my left brain can’t wrap itself around the apparent paradox of the presentation being at the same time more focused and more relaxed. However when I met him at the factory @James summed it up with the perfect simile. “It’s like glasses for your ears”.
For me that hits the nail on the head. I have typical age-related presbyopia and struggle to read small text in poor light without reading glasses. I can do it, but it is blurry and my brain has to work harder. if I do it for long enough I get a headache. When I put reading glasses on everything snaps into focus and my brain can relax as it is not having to work to compensate. That is exactly how I experience the effects of the clock. Thanks James!
I should probably clarify that while I find the effect identical in nature it is definitely not identical in magnitude. I don’t get a headache if I listen without the clock for long periods.
As i have said before, what i found is that, when adding a clock, i didn’t hear anything different at all.
But i left it in anyway.
But what i found is when i accidentally forgot to put it out of standby one evening, i got the feeling off something not right, it just sounded off. I actually turned it sllboff again and went to watch tv instead, that was how much i found i didn’t like it.
It was only the following day that i went back to listen and realised what i had done, as i did the same once again.
This was with my rossini and clock.
But you just need to try it for yourself as it doesn’t add anything, but at the same time it just makes things come together much better and also easier to follow.
I guess your brain just finds it’s easier and so you just get to enjoy the music more.
But it’s certainly a strange one.
I added the clock last in my vivaldi 3 piece stack as i feel the upsampler brings a much bigger upgrade, plus obviously adds streaming. But the 3 work so well together.
Cheers dunc
