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Firewire: jitter-resistant or clock-quality-dependant?

Posted by jwitzsch (A) on August 31, 2006 at 00:14:08

Hello

I got a question about jitter & quality of the clocks, that are built into a computer. I know, how much you can improve a CD-player's performance by upgrading its clock with a good & stable one (TENT clock for example). Does this also apply to computers? Is there an upgradeable clock-circuit somewhere on the board?
Let's go a bit further: I can imagine, that the computer's clock does have immediate effects on the built-in soundcard and it's SPDIF-performance.
But what happens, if I use ASIO-drivers and an external FireWire DAC with an excellent clock? To be able to play back the different formats my files have (from 44.1/16 to 192/24), I must set my DAC in slave-mode. As far as I understand that very DACs concept (RME Fireface) it has an ultrastable clock and it reduces jitter by processing the incoming signal.
So my questions are:
- when I connect my computer via Firewire, can I slave my computer to the DACs ultrastable (master)clock instead of having to slave the DAC to the computer?
- does ASIO / FireWire make use / is influenced in any way of/by the quality of the computer's clock?
- can I upgrade the computer's clock in any way?
- or am I fine off, since I use Firewire?

Thanks
Joerg

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