Giesemann OCXO Ref 10M Master Clock Listening Impression

Thanks to the audiophilestyle, EtherRegen, this forum and the good, friendly advice and helpfulness of Adrian from AfterDark i took the plunge and have the following on order at AfterDark:

- EMPEROR GIESEMANN EVA 75OHM SPECIAL EDITION.
- ClayX Black River Carbon Fiber Woven 75ohm BNC Clock Cable.
- AfterDark. Black Modernize LPS x GIESEMANN OCXO 10M Edition.

- AfterDark. Project ClayX Progressive Carbon Fiber Shielding (CFS) Duelund Audio DC Power Cable 0.8 Meter.

- AfterDark. AudiophileMAT Forest Series 1 4 pieces / Rosewood / Wooden Board
- AudiophileMAT Carbon Fiber for Extreme EMI Shielding.

I went for the highest segment and I am very curious. It is the top flagship model and is very limited supply. This is according to Adrian the best oxco we can get in today technology. Afterdark can only made one per month.

It take a few more weeks before I receive it.

I will keep you informed of the developments and listening impressions. do you guys have any recommendations or tips?

I ordered the same clock and cable at the weekend as @Johnnydev

- EMPEROR GIESEMANN EVA 75OHM SPECIAL EDITION.
- ClayX Black River Carbon Fiber Woven 75ohm BNC Clock Cable.

I just hope I'm ahead in that queue :D

I also have a Farad Super3 on order as well.

Looking forward to hearing how it all sounds. 

On 3/15/2021 at 1:38 PM, Johnnydev said:

Thanks to the audiophilestyle, EtherRegen, this forum and the good, friendly advice and helpfulness of Adrian from AfterDark i took the plunge and have the following on order at AfterDark:

 

- EMPEROR GIESEMANN EVA 75OHM SPECIAL EDITION.
- ClayX Black River Carbon Fiber Woven 75ohm BNC Clock Cable.
- AfterDark. Black Modernize LPS x GIESEMANN OCXO 10M Edition.

- AfterDark. Project ClayX Progressive Carbon Fiber Shielding (CFS) Duelund Audio DC Power Cable 0.8 Meter.

- AfterDark. AudiophileMAT Forest Series 1 4 pieces / Rosewood / Wooden Board
- AudiophileMAT Carbon Fiber for Extreme EMI Shielding.

 

I went for the highest segment and I am very curious. It is the top flagship model and is very limited supply. This is according to Adrian the best oxco we can get in today technology. Afterdark can only made one per month.

 

It take a few more weeks before I receive it.

I will keep you informed of the developments and listening impressions. do you guys have any recommendations or tips?

 

 

I received everything except the AudiophileMAT carbon fiber for extreme EMI Shielding (which Adrian will send on) last Thursday.
Everything neatly, but above all cleverly packaged. ;-)

I also ordered the mini circuit 75 Ohm from Adrian.

Last Friday I installed everything and connected it to my EtherRegen, which is powered with a Farad super3, level 2 copper DC cable and Audioquest Monsoon powercable.
The afterdark black modernize LPS is also powered with an audioquest monsoon powercable. all connected to an audioquest niagara 1200.
 

At first I had some doubts whether it was worth the purchase cost, but I will not anticipate my further observations and will wait for everything to burn in properly.

However, I can now already say that it is going to promise a lot! :-)

OK - I've had my Emperor Double Crown (50 ohm) since Monday.  It has been burning in constantly since then (5 days now).  But, a concentrated A-B-C comparison just now has convinced me that the improvements going from A (no EtherREGEN or Emperor Double Crown Master Clock) to B (EtherREGEN only) to C (with both EtherREGEN and Emperor Double Crown Master Clock) are not subtle and that I could easily rank order A, B, and C configurations in a true double blind test.  I realize that Adrian says that the burn-in period could take up to a month, but I thought it important to get my initial comments out there.

Here is my system as a key point of reference:

WAN (direct from router - no other switches in signal path) or LAN (NAS) > Uptone Audio EtherRegen powered by Uptone Audio LPS 1.2 @12v with AfterDark Emperor Double Crown 10 MHz External Master Clock powered by AfterDark Modernize LPS > RPi4b/Pi2AES running Volumio as end point using Spotify Desktop App or JRiver > I2S over ethernet UTP > Metrum Onyx NOS DAC > balanced AES/EBU > PS Audio SGC Preamp > balanced AES/EBU > Parasound A23 > NHT Classic Towers with dual sealed NHT subwoofers using miniDSP digital xover  My listening room has very good acoustical qualities with almost a constant 400 ms reverberation time versus frequency and few room resonances which need to be controlled.

I believe my system is somewhat unique in that I use a RPi4 with a Pi2AES add-on card as my streamer with I2S native output to a non-oversampling ladder DAC.  See a review of the RPi4/Pi2AES here:  https://youtu.be/Jvu_doQfAI0

What I hear when I add the AfterDark Emperor Double Crown Master Clock to my EtherREGEN: 

- reverb and soundstage are better defined, wider and deeper.  Vocalists in reverberant spaces are easier to separate and locate.

- bass is tighter and more defined.  Some bass passages have a texture that wasn't noticed before.

- pianos have improved timbre, sound more resonant, sound more "natural"

- I find that brass instruments, which have suffered the most from digital harshness to my ears, are now non-irritating and very natural sounding

- Overly hot and harsh sounding cymbals are now tamed in some recordings

- I can now play music at lower levels without seeming to lose clarity and definition

- I can now play music at higher volumes without being turned back by glare and harshness

- This is a strange one - I can now listen to music playing while I am in other rooms of my house and it still sounds great.  I guess that improved fidelity and musicality are true regardless of distance.

In general, the Emperor Double Crown significantly (noticeably) improves on all things that the EtherREGEN by itself improves.

Normally I am not one to risk being on the "bleeding edge" of technology, but I took a chance with my AfterDark Master Clock purchase in spite of relatively few reviews to go by.  However, as you can see from my comments above, I, for one, am very pleased with my Emperor Double Crown purchase.  Your mileage may vary- depending on your system, its setup, room acoustics, musical preferences, hearing abilities, etc., etc.

I do not have the Mini-Circuit filter yet.  It is on back order.  I will report later if I find that it makes a difference.

I agree with some of the key improvements listed above.

Particularly acoustics and natural note decay, bass texture, cymbal shimmer, sibilance on voice, striking percussive dynamics. All are indications of a reduced noise floor from a low phase noise clock.

Now that my Giesemann King has got a week on it, these are my system impressions with the AfterDark feeding my Mutec and the ER (temporarily) set to internal clock.

Every piece of familiar music I've played since hooking it up sounds different. The key areas that strike me are the incredibly fluid and dynamic portrayal of voice, which is more focussed than before but pops into my room, uncannily real on some recordings. Sibilance on voice is just history now, except where it was present in a recording that's been too closely mic'd.

Very natural soundstaging and imaging that has had me looking around, thinking that someone had entered the room. Last night there was a triangle almost to the right of me. With my eyes closed, I pointed to it and then looked. It was way outside of the right-hand speaker. Most uncanny.

The detail and delicacy within instruments is wonderful. I hear taps on cymbals and long shimmer on standard 16/44 material, never mind hi-res, that had never been apparent before.

Bass is so tight and potent that I've found air pressures in songs I hadn't realised contained much bass information at all. There is no need whatsoever to turn up the volume. Room shaking comes as standard on some material without stressing the amp unduly.

Percussive dynamics are apparent in many songs and it is this that has surprised me the most. Even great songs that contain mostly a wash of sound (e.g. Mazzy Star's Fade Into You) are full of strummed guitar and tambourine detail that make it sound like a remaster. On more blatantly rhythmic material, the boogie factor is off the scale.

I've been so impressed with the King that I have decided to order an Emperor Triple Crown, which will feed the Mutec while I move the King to feeding the ER.