Afterdark Master Clock for Uptone EtherRegen

[lyndonlim]

After reading Martin T's review i ordered my AD Emperor Signature on Monday evening. It arrived at 12 noon today in Melbourne, Australia!!! 3 days after i ordered.  I am cooking it now for 4 hrs. I am using a 30cm apogee clock cable. I'll let you know what my impressions are vs the Chinese clock into the ER feeding into a DCS network bridge then into my Lampizator level 4 dac. 

[lyndonlim]

After 4 hrs of burn in, the emperor signature presentation sounds more closed in with less definition vs ER alone and vs. ER with the cheap Chinese clock. Music presentation just sounds dull. 

[lyndonlim]

3 minutes ago, Mjw21a said:

To be expected with just 4 hours. Give it 30 days.

Thanks for the feedback. I am a big believer in equipment needing to 'burn in' but i still go through the feeling of thinking "oh crap what have i spent my money on" at the start of the process. :) 

[lyndonlim]

37 minutes ago, Mjw21a said:

 

In your experience with the AD clock, is the burn in period shorter if you switch it off say after 30 days of burn in? 

 

Please don't tell me we have to do another 30 days if accidently turn off or there is a power cut. 

[lyndonlim]

2 hours ago, Mjw21a said:

Best clock cables I’ve run are custom Duelund pure silver, double shielded by Aurealis Audio. Just spectacular. Very lifelike presentation.

Good tip. I've checked his website and he doesn't seem to have those listed. He only had the furutech bnc cables. 

[lyndonlim]

3 hours ago, GryphonGuy said:

Don't under-estimate the apogee clock cable making your music sound blahhh. Are they the pink/lilac cables? They were designed to run at 44,000 up to 192,000 Hz not 10,000,000 hertz. Even at 96kHz they take the top end off the signal but give a slightly bloated mid-bass but overall softer than desired transients.

 

Check the this site and the web for arguably better sounding clock cables specifically at 10MHz. Hint: They are not as cheap as Apogee cables.

Very valid observation. One of the biggest uplift in sq i have experienced was when i swapped out my audioquest vodka ethernet cable for a sablon ethernet. Wham! Everything seemed to snap into focus... more detail and less etched sibilant artifacts. Its only 1 and 0s huh :) 

[lyndonlim]

I also have very positive experience with dhlabs d-750 spdif cable running between my dcs nb to the lampizator. I compared this cable against many other higher priced cable. So i am assuming the dhlabs would also make a decent clock cable? 

[lyndonlim]

On 12/18/2021 at 10:36 AM, GryphonGuy said:

Don't under-estimate the apogee clock cable making your music sound blahhh. Are they the pink/lilac cables? They were designed to run at 44,000 up to 192,000 Hz not 10,000,000 hertz. Even at 96kHz they take the top end off the signal but give a slightly bloated mid-bass but overall softer than desired transients.

 

Check the this site and the web for arguably better sounding clock cables specifically at 10MHz. Hint: They are not as cheap as Apogee cables.

Day 3 and things are starting to open up. I believe i am starting to hear what you have described about the Apogee cables sounding dull and rolled off. I just swapped in the thin 1 metre cables After Dark provided with the clock, the soundstage seem to open up to a airier presentation. What clock cable do you currently use and what would you recommend? 

 

I am thinking if a cheap after dark bnc can sound so much better than the apogee in my system then what if i spend a bit more coin? 

[lyndonlim]

Have any of you guys tried the long black bnc cables provided foc by AD? It actually sounds very decent vs the apogee cable. 

 

Listening to a few more tracks i  am picking more soundstage depth and musical layering without any additional harshness or sibilance. 

[lyndonlim]

Swapped back to the apogee cables again listening to the same James Horner Legends of the Fall goodbyes track. A more lush and richer mid tone presentation returns in favor of the slightly airier but less rich sounding AD stock bnc cable. The jury is still out on this one. I am not throwing my apogee cables out just yet. 

 

 

[lyndonlim]

Swapped back to AD cable for the last test of the night.  i feel the apogee cable music presentation compresses the soundstage depth too much in my system. I can 'hear' the recording quite a bit more with the AD stock cable. 

 

The AD stock cable is straight out of the box not burnt in at all. I was actually going to give it away until Gryphonguy prompted me to question the quality of the very popular Apogee Wyde cable. 

[lyndonlim]

Adrian's feedback on the AD stock cable:

 

 

This cable is hand teminated with Neutirk BNC plug with BELDEN 1895a cable. Thanks for your positive feedback.

[lyndonlim]

13 minutes ago, Nikko1960 said:

Maybe I missed something on the cable discussion.  But if (like me) you have the AD clock, why not (also like me) buy their top cable?

 

https://www.adark.co/products/afterdark-project-clayx-black-river-carbon-fiber-woven-xlr-cable

Thanks for the suggestion but $500 Aud is too much coin for a clock cable for atm. I would like to explore more affordable options first around the $250 mark. 

[lyndonlim]

29 minutes ago, R1200CL said:

Something to test out. 
 

22512168 - ENVIROFLEX_142

Website link to ecatalog datasheet:

Product document download (ENVIROFLEX_142) (hubersuhner.com)

 

84057576 - 11_BNC-50-3-86/133_NE 

Website link to ecatalog datasheet:

Product document download (11_BNC-50-3-86/133_NE, 11_BNC-50-3-86/133_N) (hubersuhner.com)

 

This option is cheap enough to try. Thanks. 

 

[lyndonlim]

Wow.. Martin T was right this AD clock does bring a lot to table. I was quite sceptical initially not about the product itself but more about how much an external clock for an ethernet switch could improve SQ. The sq difference i am now starting to hear is significant.. more detail, more analog, instruments seem to have more shape and lower frequency in the music which was once inaudible can now be picked up. 

 

This is a mad and addictive hobby! Thanks for sharing your experiences as it really allows the community to optimize our hard earned cash! 

[lyndonlim]

The Afterdark proposition is a crazy 'good value' for the customers. Okay no doubt their profit margin is probably massive but at the end of the day those little boxes do deliver the sonic goods. 

The deal is you can upgrade to higher levels with the full price of the product you bought going towards the upgraded model. On top of that, they offer a 10 year warranty on their products and throw in a bloody decent bnc cable. They deserve every success they get imo! 

 

Now i am tempted to get the AD clock offering to run my ER and my DCS network bridge. I wonder how much upside there is to using an external clock for the dcs network bridge. 

 

These  AD crew seem to know what they are doing. 

 

 

 

[lyndonlim]

On 12/21/2021 at 1:00 AM, lyndonlim said:

Adrian's feedback on the AD stock cable:

 

 

This cable is hand teminated with Neutirk BNC plug with BELDEN 1895a cable. Thanks for your positive feedback.

After 25 days of the AD clock running, i would like to report that i prefer the Apogee Wyde 30cm cable over the Belden complimentary cable. The Belden cable presentation seems to lack body, attack and snap in the presentation vs.apogee cable. After returning from overseas i thought something had broken in my system as it was sounding so mediocre with the Belden clock cable. The weird part was the Belden sounded more detailed and open on day 5 of the AD running vs. the apogee wide. 

 

I have ordered 30cm of duelund silver bnc clock cable from Geoff of Aurealis Audio so that should make an interesting comparison.