OCXO oscillator input theme

[zdenes]

I don't know any technical details of how the Devialet processes the input signal but I know that Devialet's chief engineer confirmed that the best input would be AES/EBU, followed by spdif, and lastly USB. He said that Devialet doesn't have such a high-quality clock as some of those streamers today (OCXO). This is not something I read on the internet but I was there at the "manufacturer meets users" event in Munich during the high-end show but at a different location, when we asked this question. About 6-7 of us were there from this forum. (CI board was not discussed then). They said that when Devialet was in the design phase OCXO clocks would have been too expensive to implement. 

I can also confirm that my SOtM SMS-200 ultra streamer sounds better if reclocked by a Mutec MC3+USB which also converts the SOtM's USB output to AES/EBU. Both are clocked by a Mutec Ref 10 OCXO 10Mhz reference clock. I'm just replacing the MC3+USB with a Denafrips GAIA which has two OCXO clocks for 44.1 and 48kHz and multiples of those and is considerably better than the MC3+USB. 

So all I can say is: get the best possible OCXO clocked source or DDC and use the AES/EBU input.

Hello

I am very interested to know your opinion about the Denafrips GAIA vs Mutec MC3+USB.
Please share when you can.

Thanks

Well, the Denafrips GAIA is so much better than the Mutec MC3+USB with linear power supply (Uptone Audio JS-2) and even clocked with the Mutec Ref10 that I already bought one and removed the Mutec from my system. I left the Ref10 still in as it is also clocking the SOtM SMS-200 ultra and the Uptone Etherregen switch. 
With the GAIA, everything sounds more life-like. Timbre and tone improved the most and made the system sound a bit warmer which is a really good thing with the Devialet and the YG Acoustics speakers. Over 30 years into this hobby, I have gone through hundreds of A/B testing of all sorts of things. Sometimes I had to go back and forth a few times to be able to fully evaluate differences and decide which one I like better. Not this time. 30 secs into one of my test tracks, I knew that it was so much better, that I didn't even need to test it longer. Well, the Mutec gave me a similar 'wow' factor when I first put in between the streamer and the Devialet. The GAIA is probably better because it has two OCXO clocks inside that provide all audio frequencies (x1024, so it can do DSD1024 theoretically, practically DSD512) and there is no complicated PLL needed as in the Mutec. MSB explains it very well:
https://www.msbtechnology.com/dacs/clock-options/