Hallo Adamdea
For me it seams so that with the 170.3 you get no added value.
You are not sure if the clock lock works.
My understanding is that you don't note a better sound.
So with MDAC1 what is you practical thought about the 170.3?
don't get me wrong, I am also interested in the 170.3. But I seams to be an invest in a uncertain benefit with the mdac2 in the future.
what are your thoughts?
regards
f.s.
Fred I think you may be asking the wrong person for veil lifting, inky blackness reports. My guess is that it is working because the results vary (as to whether it works) depending on the clock back. The 170.3 is a very solidly engineered piece of work. It appears looking at the service manual as though someone has really tried to design a proper transport. It appears that its internal clock is pretty accurate*. In terms of detecting differences with clock locking, that could, ironically, be its weakness
I have not noticed any great sonic change with the clock link back in place, but I haven't tried very hard either. Most of my listening at the moment is through very unsatisfactory speakers.
My own position on this is simply that I think that it's the correct way of connecting a CD transport to a dac. If you are going to connect a CD transport to a dac, it's the way to do it. I regard it is an insurance policy against things going wrong not a guarantor of better sound quality. Same reason I use toslink to connect my dac and why, if I do use coax connection, I use a lead designed for the purpose not a coathanger. I have never heard the difference between any two transports or connection methods into any dac I have owned, although it is possible that I just haven't learnt how to. Equally if CD transports do sound different then I can't see how any CD transport could realistically be any better than a clock-locked one and optically isolated one.
But that's just me. I am considering offering this up for some sort of bakeoff to see whether more sensitive and highly evolved people than me who can hear differences between transports can detect this one, or even better teach me how to. I will not be able to host though as I will have building work for the next 6 months at least. Alternatively I would be happy to send it off to John if he wants to play with it or perhaps to others.
With the M-dac 2 a clock locked transport will make more sense and/or be more demonstrable because
1) it will be possible to take out the ASRC I believe.
2) it will be possible to measure the jitter
No doubt John will correct me if I have got this wrong.
* as a matter of interest John, is it possible for the M-dac reading of actual sample rate to have resolution below 1Hz? Just wondering, since the 170.3 reads 44,100 whether clock locked or not.
