Rubidium Clock

Hey Zephyr,

I just had to...... Thanks Zephyr for contributing Cybershaft's excellent OCXO at affordable prices!

Just received from Kenji an option 16, -116db/1 Hz OCXO hand selected/tested from many OCXO's.

The packaging was 1st class all the way, just beautifully well packaged and delivery was just too fast, i hadnt even expected it for another 2-3days. 

I have to run it in, nut off the bat, coming from a Quartzlock rubidium 110db/1 Hz into a G-02, what i am experiencing  exactly echos your comments from switch from rubidium to OCXO.

" I had precision in many ways but not the beauty and naturalness I am experiencing with the lower phase-noise OCXO-based presentation."

The Rubidium has maybe better sparkle or "brightness", not in a really bad way and a bit more pyrotechnics in the bass... I would term it a hardness and some glare which i did not really find distracting with careful tweaks and room adjustments. Rubidium thus lends to a brighter, showy or flashy presentation.

Cybershaft's OCXO is just so much more grounded in the mid regions  and has zero brightness that i can tell so far from any genre's of music now, even "poorer" commercial recordings.

Hi Custodian, i appreciate your comment now of low phase noise from your BVA 8607..."Zero digital glare" from discussion from another forum.

I am not certain is this an combined artifact of low phase noise and also character OCXO as opposed to a rubidium unit.

I guess i have fueled my quest of experiment with clocks. Thanks to all, a most excellent resource in this discussion.

You are very welcome....it was a very lucky stroke to have come upon this company and their products via HiFiShark and then following over to Yahoo Japan.  Kenji and his team are consummate professionals and have done their best by a few of us who have taken up one or the other of their top clock models into our systems. As Kenji explained to me, the most precise clock is not the end-all/be-all for an audio or video high-quality system; he explains that alot of hardcore testing and real world use cases have proven to him and his team that the best strategy is to come as close as possible to the clocking standard and precision of the original recording. He has also further explained the fallacy (which I was guilty of same as others) of only focusing on "ppm" or "ppb" accuracy to evaluate our purchases of master clocks and to instead look at all the aspects of a clock's performance including Allen Deviation, Phase Noise, etc....to truly evaluate how that clock will perform.  Suffice it to say I've learned alot more in the process than I had ever picked up on before and I am glad that what I am hearing insofar as audible differences in my system with the clock is also being enjoyed by yourself and several others who all write about very similar positive experiences with this fine company's products.   Have a great day and Enjoy The Music!

Is the UPOCXO-01-SS clock (OCXO only) equal performance wise to  RBOCXO-01 when in OCXO mode ?

For the standalone OCXO clocks as I understand it from a couple friends who have ordered the Ultra Premium/Premium versions, the answer is that in terms of phase noise being lower, etc...it is superior to the Rb-only clock in terms of overall musical presentation.  I cannot speak to their individual results as I was not in their rooms to hear but for my system, with the dual-clock unit using the same parts, power suppliers, etc...and itself and Ultra Premium level unit, I can tell you that I do love what the Rb side does for the system on many discs, however for my ears and most of the discs on my shelves, the OCXO provides a more musical presentation without sacrificing the imaging improvements and other things related to higher-precision clocking. Write on in-mail if you want to talk via phone or email more directly. Apologies for the delayed response as I've been off the forums due to work and life for a few days....

Thanks. I went ahead and ordered the UPOCXO-01-SSSS clock for my friend. We will try it with his Vivaldi stack, on top of the Vivaldi clock.

If it goes well, he may consider the UPOCXO-RK01-OP17 Ultra model, which is triple the price, but also offers 7 dBc/Hz lower phase noise level at 1Hz (-110 dBc/Hz vs -117 dBc/Hz) .