HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

One of the current buzz things for digital music has been the use of digital re-clockers the most prominent of which is the Mutec 3+USB which has become almost a fetish club in its own right with those that use them being as zealous as early Naim owners about their use.

Now I know that the Mutec was never intended for home use and was designed for a real world studio issue of lots digital items both recorders , instruments and effects boxes all being digital and each having there own digital clocks some often running at different speeds . So the Mutec just takes all the signals and uses its own highly accurate clock and slaves all the other to that one master clock.

What it is used for in Audio is to take the digital signal from a CD Player , streamer etc and then reclock the stream and send it out with reduced jitter and very accurate timing . In theory this should not make a difference but many seem to claim it does.

Now the sad part the Mutec is expensive over £1100 for a new one currently and even used ones are till in the very high hundreds. So I have heard what one can do but out of my limited budget .

A friend at the Wam Show has recently bought a used Mutec but already had the Audio GD DI-2014 unit which is cheaper and does the same thing . So I was very lucky that he has let me take this home and give it a try . Due to honestly being too tired after the Wam Show weekend and then having collected my repaired/upgrade NVA P 60 on Thursday and putting that in to my Quad ESL system on Friday I have not had any chance to give this Audio GD unit a try .

Managed it today and have connected an RCA SPDIF from my Allo Digihat Signature player to the Audio GD and then BNC out from that to the MiniDSP DDRC 22D unit and in to my system . Because of all the cable routing changes there is no real way to be able to hear the difference between the unit being in and out of the chain so not ideal but I not needed . I played the track Cassandra Wilson - Witchita Lineman , then unplugged everything and put the Audio GD in the chain and played the same track . Firstly it does make a difference and for me at least a very positive one . It cleans the notes and textures of the sound and makes the sound stage wider . There is a more natural sound to electronic instruments if that makes sense they have more depth and texture to them and you hear the way they are being modulated while playing.

So in my view there does seem to be a good reason to try and hear one of these devices but there are cheaper ones like the Audio GD which can found used . They may not be as good as the Mutec but at under £200 used they give you quite a bit of the advantages of the more expensive items .

Several guys over at the "TAS" forum use them to reportedly great effect. Too rich for my blood though, and I'd say you need a pretty decent system to start with before a reclocker can make an appreciable/audible) difference.

If you take a digital stream with a sample rate of, say, 44.1 KHz but have a clock running at a less than optimally stable frequency I can see that there might be a problem. Stabilising the clock should therefore eliminate, or mitigate, any such problems. I can also see why such a device might be expensive, a stabilised frequency requires the use of an oven, to keep a crystal at a very steady temperature, and control circuits which aren't manufactured in huge quantities.

I can see why it would work but I can't fully explain it.

@slinger I know exactly what you mean which is why I posted about this one as it is much cheaper and could be tried without too much loss if you have to resell the unit as it does not work for you .

I do not know how they made the Audio GD but it was not hugely expensive unit when it was current but it works well enough for me . The current model has been hiked up to around £600 so now well out of my reach unless used . Part of the reason for this post is that others who may not know about this unit can keep and eye out for a used one and perhaps take chance with it .

Both the Oehlbach XXL Masterclock and Schiit Wyrd USB regen units make a noticeable and cost-effective improvement in my digital setups.

Fretless wrote: ↑Sun Oct 09, 2022 8:29 pm Both the Oehlbach XXL Masterclock and Schiit Wyrd USB regen units make a noticeable and cost-effective improvement in my digital setups.

You're right. I'd forgotten about those. They improved my system too when I was using USB. I have to say, though, I think it sounds even better still using the optical out from the HiFiBerry Digi2 Pro hat on my Pi 4, and a QED Reference Optical Quartz cable to my Vincent DAC. The cable makes a definite difference too, and I've just bought the equivalent (a QED Reference DIGITAL Audio 40 Coaxial) for my newest toy. See, I don't ONLY buy AudioQuest cables.

I use an Oehlbach XXL Masterclock- better with a laptop than my iPhone- I have a jitterbug too which varies between airport express and the TV

Well being using the Audio GD for a couple of days now and the sound has opened out even more and I have already made my mind up this is not going back . In fact I am looking for another one if I can to install in my main system as well .

Denafrips have a DDC called 'Iris' that might be worth considering.

I use a ifi. iPurifier coupled with a Jitterbug. What I found provided the biggest lift in SQ, but costing a lot more, was another passive device, the Network Acoustics Eno filter.