MSB Cascade DAC

[Ermos (Erno)]

@keiserrg

MSB goes further than that. They even dedicate a section of their website to this topic:

“Why external clocks are sub-optimal for digital audio”

Hi Richard,

Thanks, but I doubt that MSB goes further than dCS regarding clocking.

If you did not read it before, please see this:

dCS Ring DAC - A Technical Explanation

Part 1 - The Basics of Clocking Clocking is an integral part of digital audio, and almost all audio products have a clock inside. As discussed in our previous series on digital to analogue conversion, digital audio recordings are made up of a series of samples. An audio product such as a DAC has to know when to do something with the samples it receives at its input, whatever this task might be – and this is where clocks come in. In the context of digital electronics, the term clocking refers t…

dCS Ring DAC - A Technical Explanation

Part 2 - Jitter (intrinsic) There are two main kinds of jitter: intrinsic and interface. Intrinsic jitter refers to jitter which is produced inside of a product like a DAC, through effects like phase noise on the oscillator. Interface jitter refers to jitter which is picked up by the interface(s) used to transfer the audio and clock signals. This could come either as interference picked up by the cable itself, or through the cable essentially acting as a filter for certain frequencies, impactin…

dCS Ring DAC - A Technical Explanation

Part 3 – Jitter (Interface) If a product is locking to the clock signal of an external source, such as a CD transport connected to a DAC, interference picked up by digital audio cables between the products can smear the transition times of the clock data within the signal – essentially, changing the point in time where a 0 changes to a 1, or vice versa. Balanced lines help reduce interference induced in the cables. This is why the AES/EBU format uses 110Ω twisted-pair, shielded cable. This eff…

dCS Ring DAC - A Technical Explanation

Part 4 – Clock Synchronisation There is a problem posed when multiple digital audio devices, each with their own internal clocks, need to work together. Take the example of feeding a CD transport into a DAC. The DAC has a buffer – a section of temporary memory which stores the audio samples it receives from the CD transport. The transport’s clock dictates when a sample is sent out to the DAC, and the DAC’s clock dictates when the sample is used and converted to an analogue voltage. In an ideal…