For all DCS gear
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Didn’t expect impressions from zach but this thing looks sweet…
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Interesting commentary from Zach around the filter capabilities.
Wolfgang (known for his headphone addiction) from Musicalhead also published a great, lengthy article about LINA.
Translate in english…
For him also the ultimate headset rack he ever tested, but pricewise (€33k) he is sceptical 
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Does anyone have experience with dCS gear with an external clock? I decided to pick up a dCS elgar plus and purcell combo cause it looked interesting and was thinking about whether I should consider a external clock. I currently have the audiobyte hydra z but someone suggested an antelope pure 2 as a way to convert and clock source.
I don’t have that much experience with the older DCS, but in a lot of the newer DCS setups I’ve heard with the dac + reclocker config, having a good clock was pretty important overall. I’d assume that you could just clock the 2 together and be fine for the time being, since you already have it on the way, might as well try the hydra z and see how that changes things and if it improves enough then potentially consider a nicer word clock
I think the older DCS only have 44/48 wordclock and not 10mhz reference clock correct?
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Yeah I believe so. So there’s stuff in the manual where the purcell upscaler can connect to the dac using 1394 for DSD and then you would use a BNC to connect the clock. But one thing I’m curious about is using something outside the upscaler and dac to provide the clock since I would assume clocks nowadays are better than 20 years ago.
The antelope pure 2 seems like the perfect solution since it can accept USB and then output AES and multiple word clocks that would go into the upscaler and the dac to provide the clock signal. I’ve only seen one person mention that during my research so was curious if anyone else had clocks.
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I wouldn’t make that assumption. It’s not a technology that’s fundamentally changed.
But my understanding is that DCS does the “right” thing with external clocks, so it could well be a win.
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This is correct as I’ve been looking to see if there’s a point to me leveraging the clock in the dCS bridge to sync with the clock in the EtherRegen, no can do.
The dCS Network Bridge is the best digital source I’ve ever heard. It’s a shame this thing is no longer being made. First impression after a few hours of throwing songs at it, it has allowed my chain to further scale. An across the board improvement and it’s brought the presentation slightly forward which has been a welcomed change. There’s zero harshness, everything is right, a hint of smoothness but with all of the detail and nuanced information.
It’s the best I’ve ever heard the LTA/Omega pairing sound.
What else is there to say really, a digital source is just there. The rest of the chain is doing the work, this thing has simply allowed the rest of the components to sound better.
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Nice nice, yeah it’s a really good overall streamer, not many good alternatives to it
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This stuff is def getting harder to describe huh? It’s just better
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My wallet and my retirement fund both appreciate me staying at the mid level of the Holy Shit scale. FYI since you continue to expand the scale, and I continue to hunt the link down every single time. Edit your original post on the Short High End DAC comparison to include all of the parts and the Shit Scale for easy reference.
Anyway, due or die for the Phillies now and I’ve been a bit bummed so I stayed up late last night listening to music. Thinking about the conversation we had a bit back on design aesthetics and form following function or just design being used as part of cost justification.
The dCS Network Bridge is a black box with a blue led in the middle of the front fascia. Yeah it’s a heavy thick gauge anodized aluminum throughout but man, talk about utilitarian. LOL
I’ll use M0N’s rationalization that all the money must have gone into the tech and components inside. 
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Are you using any of the clock function from the bridge or just the streaming capability?
Only the streaming, the clock sync, I don’t have a DAC with a word clock input.
It’s only Ethernet right?
dang I’m hoping someone had some experience with clock inputs. I’m not sure if I should go full send with the antelope as my DDC/Clock source for my DAC. If I get it and i change DACs, there’s not really a point to the clock anymore.
That’s the rub. I’m near the end of my tether anyway, I can see myself changing speakers further down the road but mostly just getting excited about a new cable or room tweat. From an amp and digital source standpoint I’m good after I wind up with my next DAC.
Some functionality on the high end is brand specific. High end clocks help most to get that last bit in the high end. For the most part at the level I’m in, the internal clocks or good enough to not be the bottle neck.
The dCS has a feature where it will do balanced AES, effectively giving you PCM at 384. I don’t know of a DAC that has balanced AES input. But I’m sure some dCS offering that I’d never consider buying even if I could afford it has balanced AES input.
@orrman It’s got WiFi input as well as Ethernet. Given the money I’ve spent on improving the Ethernet side on my network, the WiFi input has remained capped.
Oh nice I thought it was cable only for sme reason. Interesting upgrade path from my Auralic I guess.
The way you describe it sounds like it’s well worth the ~$1.5K upgrade. I think there are a few things I need to get first but good to know.
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Focus on your speaker first!