Word clock input

[Confused]

@Confused and @bernardl from what I remember have been into this topic quite much - right?

What I can say is that subjectively, my preference is to use my Mutec MC3+USB + Mutec REF10 to feed the Devialet via AES/EBU, rather than use AIR for example.

It is quite an expensive "add on" though, and I think a lot depends on the overall system and implementation.

I have to say it is very difficult to understand how adding a Mutec REF10 (or other reference clock) to an EtherRegen actually helps anything, considering that the Ethernet feed is buffered by the Devialet. That said, many claim a subjective improvement for doing this, it is just difficult to rationalise why this might be the case. (some might claim expectation bias, some might mention John Swenson's white paper, some might challenge John Swenson's white paper but get no response)

It is a different story with using a DCC and AES/EBU though, because With AES/EBU the clock is "owned" by the feeding device.

Oddly enough, when I was doing many A/B type experiments with the iFi Zen Stream recently, I ultimately came to the conclusion that the very best "add on" for a Devialet in terms of improving sound quality was the use of HQPlayer, at least in comparison to Roon. Note that I do use my REF10 to feed my own EtherRegen, simply because I can and I already own the REF10 and suitable cables, so why not? But when playing around with the iFi and SOtM kit, there were some occasions that the EtherRegen was out of the chain and I did not miss it that much, but running Roon versus HQPlayer made a more obvious difference to sound quality, with my system and ears at least.

These improvements are relatively modest, but they do work in combination. As an example, the Mutec MC3+USB/ REF10 combo is particularly good at improving bass definition and accuracy, HQPlayer's benefits are more noticeable in the upper mids. (I am going full subjective here)

And exceeding all of the above, I have found that the very very best "add on" to a Devialet is to use Focus Fidelity Filter Designer convolution filters. Although the improvements from this will be very speaker / room dependant.

I have no idea regarding the actual specification of the Devialet's internal clocks other than my earlier observation that the MC3+USB gave a nice uplift in SQ for the old Expert, but added very little for the Pro. So what I suspect is that the Pro has somewhat better clocks than the Expert, which I guess is no surprise as clock specs in general are improving over time.