Article: dCS Network Bridge Review

[rikhav]

Hi Chris 

As usual well done review 

So essentially this can be a uogarde to sms200s and micro renedu?

 

Agree that it can breathe some much needed life Into a old dac which sounds very good till date 

 

Any idea if the data got from the ethernet input is reclocked

 

[rikhav]

3 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Thanks for the kind words.

 

I believe I know the answer to your question about reclocking but lets ask @AMP

 

Does he own one ?

[rikhav]

34 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

He works for dCS.

My bad

 

Yes so I am also very keeb to hear from him 

[rikhav]

4 hours ago, flummoxe said:

A great review Chris and the Network Bridge is on my radar for the next upgrade.

 

I use Roon on an Innuos Zenith SE, but I'm unclear if the Ethernet or USB out put will work with the NB?

 

Any thought would be appreciated.i

Sorry did not read question properly before 

The NB I think has no usb input for audio so ethernet is the best way to make it work it with the innous

[rikhav]

5 hours ago, AMP said:

 

Reclocking is one of those words that is so overused in marketing fluff that it's tough to determine what it actually means. In fact, it's a made-up word that has no meaning at all

 

Network data (audio or otherwise) is transmitted asynchronously which by definition means that it is not dependent on any clocking reference that corresponds to any other clock. "Clocking" in the digital audio sense is only an applicable term when we're talking about synchronous transfer mechanisms like AES, SPDIF, SDIF, TOS, I2S, etc. While the physical layer of Ethernet relies on an oscillator to time pulses on the wire, that clock has no relation whatsoever to the clock in the DAC.

 

Furthermore, all network streaming devices (really all network devices) make use of memory buffers to temporarily hold the data packets and either re-packetize them for transfer back over the network or hold them for reassembly. In the case of a streaming device there's a memory buffer that's filled to a safe level from the network and metered out according to the audio clock rate. In the case of the network bridge the clock reference used to roll data out of that buffer is either one of the internal oscillators or an external word clock.

 

The "clock" in the audio sense doesn't come into play until the data is moved out of the network buffer an is prepared for transmission to the DAC. At that point it becomes synchronous, is processed in real-time, and the clock becomes incredibly important.

 

The vast majority of the "reclockers" on the market (network or otherwise) are simple store-and-forward buffers. Nothing magic about them and, frankly, they're likely to do more harm than good. Remember, you can never make bit-perfect data more perfect, but you can sure as hell screw it up!

 

Thank you so much sir for making us understand the technicalities 

It was surely an eye opener for me 

So the preferred connection should ideally be the network input for streaming of data with the way it's implemented