RE: GPS audio master clock

Posted by Tony Lauck (A) on July 25, 2012 at 06:23:53

In Reply to: GPS audio master clock posted by eduardoo on July 25, 2012 at 03:16:00:

Except for a few (rare) broadcast applications there is absolutely no benefit to using a GPS clock or atomic clock for audio. There is no need for playback to take place at the exactly correct rate and pitch, as it wasn't recorded that way and a tolerance of 0.1% is more than adequate.

The devices are made for laboratory purposes and output 10 MHz. This requires using a frequency synthesizer (including a phase lock loop) to generate the clocks commonly needed for audio. This process will unavoidably add jitter compared to a local free running clock, and hence sound quality will be degraded through use of these clocks.

About the only exception might be streaming applications for continuous operation where low latency is required, such as broadcast audio of sports events. If the streaming source and the receivers were both locked to the same time base then it would be possible to avoid an occasional buffer glitch every few hours. In practice, there would still be glitches caused by Internet glitches, so this "improvement" might not even be noticed.

Tony Lauck

"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - GPS audio master clock - eduardoo 03:16:00 07/25/12 (14)

Clock specs - John Swenson 14:18:10 07/27/12 (1)

RE: Clock specs - AbeCollins 13:20:43 08/03/12 (0)

RE: GPS audio master clock - Tony Lauck 06:23:53 07/25/12 (4)

RE: GPS audio master clock - eduardoo 19:51:48 07/26/12 (3)

RE: GPS audio master clock - Tony Lauck 19:57:42 07/26/12 (2)

RE: GPS audio master clock - eduardoo 22:57:25 07/26/12 (1)

RE: GPS audio master clock - Tony Lauck 06:19:30 07/27/12 (0)

get your own atomic clock chip for half that price - kh6idf 06:23:38 07/25/12 (6)

RE: get your own atomic clock chip for half that price - eduardoo 19:49:41 07/26/12 (0)

RE: get your own atomic clock chip for half that price - pictureguy 12:41:14 07/25/12 (4)

It's actually WWVB at 60KHz long wave..... - AbeCollins 21:33:28 07/28/12 (3)

RE: It's actually WWVB at 60KHz long wave..... - pictureguy 08:54:51 07/29/12 (2)

RE: It's actually WWVB at 60KHz long wave..... - Tony Lauck 17:38:54 07/30/12 (1)

RE: It's actually WWVB at 60KHz long wave..... - pictureguy 08:55:15 07/31/12 (0)

Follow Ups

RE: GPS audio master clock - Tony Lauck 06:23:53 07/25/12 (4)

RE: GPS audio master clock - eduardoo 19:51:48 07/26/12 (3)

RE: GPS audio master clock - Tony Lauck 19:57:42 07/26/12 (2)

RE: GPS audio master clock - eduardoo 22:57:25 07/26/12 (1)

RE: GPS audio master clock - Tony Lauck 06:19:30 07/27/12 (0)

RE: GPS audio master clock

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