I am fortunate to have a 3 box Vivaldi apex system. To call it spectacular would be a gross understatement. Being a dedicated listener, I wonder about the external reference for Vivaldi master clock. I have several LPRO rubidium reference standards that were taken from decommissioned telco sites. This oscillator will produce the requisite 10 MHz sine wave signal that the Vivaldi clock is looking for. The oscillator requires that I build a 24 VDC PS at about 2A. That is not a problem. There are several circuit boards available on the web that will plug right into the LPRO and provide lock indications. They sell for about $50. I would need to come up with an enclosure.
This is a long way of asking if anyone has “home brewed” an external reference like this. Rubidium oscillators are readily available on eBay and other hobby sites, so I am hoping someone has taken this approach before. I have looked at the SRS GPS OXCO. It looks great, but if my 2nd hand rubidium will work, I am willing to give it a try.
Fred, there’ve been quite a number of posts over the years on the efficacy of Rubidium Clocks when used with the Vivaldi Master Clock. I would recommend that you search the forum and read up on them. Like this for example;
To your specific question though, yes, I’ve done this years ago, at the time with my Scarlatti stack. At the end of the day, a DIY reference Clock with old-parts can’t really compete with current commercial platforms of the day. Best case you won’t hear any improvement, worse case it’ll make things sound worse.
Thanks. I admit to my disability in search forums, so I just posted the question. Thanks for your response and being kind with regard to my ineptitude.
Echoing Anup, there are a couple detailed discussions on this fascinating topic, and I once went down this rabbit hole myself when I was considering adding a Vivaldi clock to my Rossini. For its part, dCS has previously refused to provide any reference clock recommendations, beyond saying it could make a positive impact. Others on this forum who own the Vivaldi have spoken highly of the reasonably priced SRS Perf 10 and the Kronos, among others. You also can read and find out who, and DM them.