I'm so glad you clarified the clock mess. I wasn't sold on the hype either. Ain't getting one!

Yup. Guys, seriously, do

This information is very new to me. Thanks Mikey!!

Yes, that is MSB's ideology as well: the clock must be as close to the DAC chip as possible, and never outside the DAC chassis, due to loss of precision over long wires. dCS, of course, takes the opposite approach, believing that more separate boxes are better. Perhaps this is why I rarely find dCS-based systems to sound natural.

I'm stuck in the past as I recall the very first known digital recording was in the 60's. RCA / PHILLIPS laser disc for NASA. Here ET'S , learn everything about this planet Earth. Fast forward to the early 80's and the first studio digital audio recordings were done. They used 3/4 inch UMATIC Video Tape macines along with TBC ( TIME BASED CORRECTORS). Nowadays , I will only care when I'll get tons of money to blow on this digital stuff$$$$. Educating one self is always important and thanks for sharing.

Thank you for this informative video. You spoke at length the varies types of the clock in the DAC. From my experience, the quality of the DC power feeding the clock is equally if not more important that the clock itself. I don't know of any DAC (including PBD MPD-8) that the clock has it's own dedicated PS separate isolated from the rest of the PS circuit.

I was almost disappointed that I just bought $180 SC cut oscillators to replace those in my streamer, then I saw the Rubidium oscillators are $2000+ each. That justifies the price of the playback designs dac in my mind, a great selling point.

I'm wondering how many people can really tell the difference between all these different clocks in a blind test?

The only clock I use is the big one around my neck: Flava Flav!

Hey Mike. Thank you for this explanation. As always 💯% Mike. And now it's time for a good cup of coffee. Greetings from the Netherlands Limburg Maastricht and of course continue what you do for all of us on 🌍 earth... Peace and love.

I’ve been told that when using USB from source to DAC, that stream uses the clocks in the DAC, but with Digital coax, toslink, I2S, the clocks from the source are being used. Now, we are back to a long run from clock to DAC chip. I’m new to all this, so would love to understand it more.

Thanks ! Very helpful ! So if I have high quality Transport/Server and separate high quality DAC no need for external Clock either?

as always very informative and of course lets remove all snake oil

Another great video. Thanks!

Just build a ROLEX clock in my dac-best i ever heard.

I use a TCXO DDC for my USB2 audio to s/pdif conversion, I consider it good technical housekeeping it should keep the PLL happy and hopefully files are sampled at the correct time for correct pitch and low jitter.

It's a pretty good argument

clear and simple explanations, love that Mikey!

Where are the Rubidium Clocks located? I am looking at pictures of the inside and only see 1 clock, between the reset button and the USB input, and that one is of the cheaper crystal variety.

Distortion and Clipping, then Wow and flutter, joined of late by by Jitter and now this…et voila!, another revenue stream is born 🎉