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All good clocks use crystals...

AFAIK. So that's not a problem.

My read of the additional circuits on their clocks are that both of them include significant power supply regulation and referencing... better on the premium, but not bad on the micro. Then the premium also has a buffered output (to drive longer cables from the clock) and divided outputs (1/2X, 1/4X) needed in some equipment, but not needed for the Juli@.

But since one of their premium clocks costs about 2x their micro clock with two clock outputs, you'd spend 4x as much to use two of them. And they look to use the exact same crystal module... just better power and optional outputs on the premium module.

I don't doubt their premium clock would be better, but I also have seen Peter D's comments and am looking for a way to try a better clock without breaking the bank in case I decide (like Peter) that I prefer the original clocks.

I also like the size. I'm planning to hang a lot of stuff off the Juli@ for this round of mods... their micro clock should still fit right on the board and give a very short clock signal path. And if I like it, I can do some power supply upgrades that will move it towards the premium clock's level.

And I think the main benefit of going with add-on clocks for the Juli@ is because you'd be powering them with separate power supplies which would be MUCH cleaner than motherboard power and even cleaner than the power on a Juli@ that has separate supplies (due to all the processing that's going on in the Juli@ itself polluting the voltage rails). Providing the clocks with their own cleaner supplies would improve their accuracy, stability, & jitter level. And probably sound better.

As far as selected clocks, my understanding is that clock stability & lack of jitter are more important than the absolute frequency. You don't want them to be far off, but I understand that high-quality crystals are pretty darned close. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Then as for un-soldering chips, I agree that could be a real pain. The devices I want to experiment with removing are the ones associated with the SPDIF output... U6 & U8, PC1 & PC2, J4, and OPT1. The harder ones are U6 with 44 pins & U8 with 14. When I experiment, I will use a 'junker' card & carefully pry up only the power supply pins. That way I can reverse it if there's a problem.

BUT if it works out ok, I'd just plan to cut them out with an X-Acto knife or similar, which shouldn't be too hard. The other devices are all much simpler to remove with most of them being through-hole devices.

Really, the hard part will be soldering on the additional filtering caps.

Later!

Greg in Mississippi
Everything matters!


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  • All good clocks use crystals... - GStew 21:21:52 10/14/11 (0)

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