Wyred4Sound - Do clocks age?

Which is why I always drive fast! :)

I just found out something I wish I had known before ordering.  The W4S Remedy isn''t really a reclocker, it's a sample rate converter with a good clock. That's not at all what I wanted.  I'll still give it a listen.

Erik

@almarg I'd be surprised if clocks got all that much better over 2 years though. The Auralic jitter specs, at least for the SE version, are outstanding, around 80 femto-seconds, while the published measurements for the W4S are around 87 picoseconds. Over 1,000 times worse, but still much better than Apple TV.

In fact, the Remedy in this case may add jitter. :)

I really should read specs better, and not buy products after drinking sake.

Erik 

I answered my own question. Yes, oscillators and clocks do age. :) 

Crystrek oscillators seem very stable per year, but the ageing is not 0. Others maybe not so much.

Best,

Erik

Mine should arrive tomorrow.  I probably should get my ARC DAC 8 out and start warming it up.

My test bed will be using a Logitech Squeezebox Touch to the ARC.  Based on Hi Fi, the ARC is quite sensiutive to jitter except in the USB portion. We'll see if I hear anything.

I really regret ordering it, right now the Mytek DAC's are on sale and I should have ordered one instead. :)  Well, I'm sure I'll have it on Audiogon soon. :)

Best,


Erik

Mine has just arrived. My DAC has been cold for weeks, so it's hard to tell. At the very least it does not suck. I'm listening to my local classical station via the Squeezebox. 

The direct connection is via coax, while the W4S is via opticals.  I looked inside, it uses one of the best Crystek oscillators.   Considering the overall price point not bad.

Erik

Found the DAC remote. So far there’s a noticeable improvement of the overtones in strings and brass. I’m a little worried it’s a level change, but I don’t think so.

The string attacks are also just a touch more pronounced. At first I thought the treble was hard.  But the units are barely warm.  More later.

So my final conclusion is that the W4S Remedy does work, but that it's benefit is related to the source.  On low resolution Internet radio the benefits to depth, and low level linearity are most pronounced. On a station like Toronto Jazz with a 96kHz signal it's benefit is less.

The one area which I felt things went for the worst, but hard to tell with Internet radio, was mass strings. It seemed to me that in these cases the strings got very confused.

For the record, I'm using a Logitech Squeezebox Touch with TerraDAC linear supply, Audio Research DAC 8 and plain Toslink between the three.  I'm also using a Wireworld 75 Ohm digital cable direct from the SB to the ARC so I can compare signals nearly immediately.