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Shenzhen SIAS SMSL announce their new Clock G1
- Thread starter oberon
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Soria Moria
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Will it wake me up on time?
JSmith
Master Contributor
It's a bit disappointing to see SMSL go down this path.
JSmith
JSmith
proves wasn’t the verb used. For a bunch of good reasons. Selling fairy dust requires faith not science.
boxerfan88
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Nice! 
JSmith
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ChenHui
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https://smsl.shop/products/g1
Now that this product is available for purchase, is anyone interested in testing it? I'm curious if this type of product actually works.
Now that this product is available for purchase, is anyone interested in testing it? I'm curious if this type of product actually works.
JSmith
Master Contributor
Can someone explain what is the purpose of this? As far as I can tell it only outputs a 10MHz clock, and in the example they provide they use it in between a cd transport and a DAC.... I can see the point in complex systems but here, wouldn't the DAC recover the clock from the spdif input anyways?
At least it provides multiple outputs so in theory might be useful where you do have a system that requires multiple digital processors to be perfectly synced - this is a valid use for this product.
What they also try to sell you is that this might improve you single DAC system….again in theory it could do if you existing clock has a huge amount of jitter. In reality even the cheapest crystal clocks can produce systems with jitter at inaudible levels assuming reasonable design…without reasonable design an external clock ain’t going to help anyway. As for clock accuracy/drift, that is pretty irrelevant for a single DAC music system.
What they also try to sell you is that this might improve you single DAC system….again in theory it could do if you existing clock has a huge amount of jitter. In reality even the cheapest crystal clocks can produce systems with jitter at inaudible levels assuming reasonable design…without reasonable design an external clock ain’t going to help anyway. As for clock accuracy/drift, that is pretty irrelevant for a single DAC music system.
respice finem
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I initially misread "Clock" as "Glock" - this sure wakes people up if near enough
respice finem
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But revenue is also important, so why not "harvest" the subjectivist market too?
Every consumer gear manufacturer does this, more or less.
Create demand, and then satisfy it.
boxerfan88
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This external clock concept came from the broadcasting world, where there are so many conversion and processing equipment strewn all over the facility, if they are not synchronized to a master clock, their audio & video streams passing through so many different processing equipment could go out of sync. Example of master clock:- https://evertz.com/products/5601MSC/ The 10MHz clock has been a long-standing industry standard for reference distribution.
Honestly, in my opinion, there is no need for a master clock device for home HiFi system. Why? Because for stereo listening, we are mainly processing 1 stereo audio stream. There isn't another concurrent stream, or parallel device/equipment where we need to keep in sync. The internal clocks built into DACs these days are already of very high quality.
The use case in the home HiFi setting that I personally came across whereby I would have needed an external master clock was when I was experimenting with 2 DACs, one for mains, one for subwoofer. A master clock is needed to keep both DACs in sync, otherwise there will be phasing issues caused by both DAC's clock drifting. I think I posted about this before somewhere, either in ASR, or maybe at the REW forum. I evaluated the master clock solution and concluded it was too expensive and complex, the most cost effective solution was to buy a 8-channel DAC, which I did - I bought the Topping DM7. Totally solved my 2xDAC clock drifting problem.
Hope this helps.
EDIT: found the clock drifting post in ASR
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Last edited:
totti1965
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Now it is also aviable in Europe -at audiophonics:
www.audiophonics.fr
SMSL G1 Master Clock OCXO 10MHz
With the G1, SMSL presents its very first high-performance master clock. This clock features an SC-Cut OCXO crystal oscillator.
www.audiophonics.fr
totti1965
Addicted to Fun and Learning
But maybe there are some usecases, in which it makes sense!
Few of us need it, but
@boxerfan88 mentioned this link: clock drifting post in ASR
And to spend just $550 for this clock is better than to buy a $2.200 or even more expensive one which does the exact same job.
David has made a clock drifting test just 3 days ago:
No worse than buying a wristwatch with a tourbillon. Some people just like complications. The problem of course is with the dishonest marketing.
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