Reference Clock for Vivaldi Master Clock

[James (James Cook)]

@ChrisK

because if adding such a clock to the Vivaldi clock sounds better, than it shall be also interesting to see how dCS upgrade their products in a near future.

Take a quick read of the below linked post - the type of performance you’re looking for in a reference clock is quite different to that of a Master Clock for controlling a DAC.

A reference clock potentially improving the sound quality via a Vivaldi Clock isn’t a comment on the Vivaldi Clock’s capability as a Master Clock controlling a DAC.

Similarly, hypothetically connecting the Norvus to a Vivaldi DAC (ignoring the fact it uses an incompatible 10MHz signal for a moment) would probably be somewhat underwhelming as at least from the looks of it, it is designed for long term stability over short-term jitter performance (as it should be). Good to connect to a Vivaldi Clock, bad to connect to a Vivaldi DAC DAC.

The functions the two clocks are designed for are quite different, but a reference clock improving sound through the Vivaldi Clock doesn’t necessarily speak to the Vivaldi Clock’s capabilities - if you catch my drift?

Dcs clock jitter specs

Yes, both of these points are correct. If you are connecting a reference clock to the Vivaldi Clock, it has to be more accurate than the Vivaldi Clock in the long term for it to have any positive impact. So, the accuracy needs to be higher than +/- 0.1 parts per million over time. Jitter (and subsequently phase noise) on a reference clock going into the Vivaldi Clock is largely irrelevant as in essence the Vivaldi Clock doesn’t respond to fast changes on the reference input - it has a slow ac…