It seems it does work Arun, at least if this poster over on the Antipodes forum is to be believed. He claims to have successfully connected his dCS Bartók to the K50 clock output (we’ll have to take his word for it that he configured it correctly and wasn’t in fact using the embedded AES word clock).
However it is quite striking the lengths Antipodes goes to to avoid providing information about their clock output. Their website offers no information at all about the clock output other than that it is an output on BNC, and Mark’s answers on the forum only confirm that it is a Word Clock intended to be used as a Master. The Stereophile review of the Oladra (which also notes the incompatibility with the dCS clock architecture) additionally states that the clock output is 75 Ω and TTL (i.e. square wave). Nowhere have I been able to find details of the actual frequencies it provides.
As happenstance would have it Absolute Sounds (our UK distributor) was running a pair of Olandra in their two demo rooms at Ascot Show - I’ll try to get them to send me down one to take a look at as we did experience some setup “quirks” that I’d like to get to the bottom of if I can…
I had ASSUMED that the wordclock output were the same frequency as the sample rate from what I’d read but I hadn’t dug too deeply so obviously I had assumed wrongly!
It’ll be interesting to hear of what you guys learn.
And that’s the logical assumption.
Strangely, it seems Antipodes sees things differently. It’s unclear who they designed that Word Clock output for exactly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any (AES capable) DAC with Word Clock input able to receive a 512FS TTL signal
Sorry I’m late to this thread. I wrote the post about clocking the K50 and Bartok on the Antipodes forum that you linked your post to. A year later here’s an update.
When I wrote my post, I was starting out on my Antipodes clocking journey and wasn’t aware of all the problems. I honestly can’t remember but, looking back at the post, I think I was using my Mutec MC-3+ USB as my DDC, because at the time I clocked my CDT through it. I thought the K50 was working as the Master clock for the Bartok because the Bartok locked ok on Word Clock (W1 or W2).
But you’re right. In fact the Mutec was picking up the embedded clock signal in the K50 audio output and using it as the master. It was only when I did away with the Mutec and connected the K50 clock out directly to the Bartok that I found it wouldn’t lock.
As you have stated, the K50 clock is at 22.05 and 24MHz whereas the Bartok Word Clock inputs are 44.1 to 192kHz. The Bartok specifications state that the data rate must be an exact multiple of the clock rate. Mark Cole of Antipodes says that the K50 clock outputs are (unspecified but 500x) multiples of 44.1 and 48kHz but maybe they’re not exact enough as the Bartok won’t lock.
However I also have a Paganini Upsampler and this will lock onto the K50 clock signal. Phil Harris at dCS explained to me that the Paganini Upsampler has wider acceptable clock signal levels than the Bartok and the K50 lies outside the requirements for the Bartok. Paganini Upsampler to Bartok is no problem.
So now I have the K50 as master to the Paganini which locks displaying the Sync Source WCLK symbol. Then onwards to the Bartok which locks in Word Clock (W1 or W2) mode no problem. My CDT is still clocked through the Mutec, now using the Bartok in Master (M) mode.
A friend was recently at a demonstration of the Varese system in which an Antipodes Oladra was used as the server. Naturally the demonstration used the Varese Master Clock to clock the Oladra. Clocking the other way round wasn’t a topic for discussion! However the fact that dCS used an Oladra may indicate that Antipodes is thinking about cooperating more closely with dCS on clocking. Who knows?
Postscript
My friend has read my post and would like me to correct my loose language (error?) about the Varese demo setup.
The Oladra was used as a “server” only and was connected to the Varese platform via ethernet. The player and its associated user interface was in the Varese User Interface Unit which was clocked with the Varese Master Clock. The “player” part of the Oladra platform was not used.
