sonic differences due to External clocking on prosumer devices?

[nwright]

I was talking to the studio owner where I rehearse/freelance, and we got to talking about the studios gear. He uses a BLA clock with his PTHD setup, and he said there was a noticeable sonic difference when using it over the 96K's clock he was using previously.

I know what a clock does, but still don't really "get" how differing clocks and tech can make big sonic differences, but he said it would have been noticeable for me as much as it was him.

Extrapolating that to the idea of the home studio, would using a device like the BLA Micro Clock be a worthwhile investment when using traditional 600-1K priced firewire interfaces?

I know it's common to talk about preamps and converters at the prosumer level, but clocks aren't discussed nearly as much.

What's your take on the sonic differences among different word clocks?

 

[slashvanyoung]

I guess you know about frequency drift?

Here's an interesting video, comparing different word clocks:

 

[nwright]

Yes, when we were talking about it, we discussed a few different things, but it's still new to me.

 

[slashvanyoung]

The quality of the (internal) clocks on prosumer interfaces vary quite a lot. A less good clock will cause non-synchronicity between the sending and receiving element of a digital audio chain, which means that the received samples won't be aligned at the right position thus creating jitter/frequency drift which can result in audible artefacts like clicks or pops.

If you're interface is basically your only digital external device in your chain than you don't have to worry about the clock too much. But if you're using lots of digital outboard equipment, a good external, dedicated clock can make quite a difference.

 

[nwright]

thats interesting. So, using ONLY the firewire interface I have now (Profire 2626), you don't think there would be a noticeable difference just in changing the clock? I'd like to take the BLA home just to test, but I don't know if it would be worth the time/effort.

 

[slashvanyoung]

Unless you have digital outboard gear in your chain (connected via S/PDIF, AES/EBU, ADAT etc.), just analog signals going in and out the interface, it won't make a difference.