Just fitted Trichord Clock 4

steve parker · 23-02-2009, 7:26 PM

I've got a Roksan Attessa CD Transport feeding a Chord DAC64 DAC, going to Audio Research pre & power and Focal floorstanders. All cables Audio Note silver, balanced from DAC through to amps.
I just had my transport modified by Trichord with Clock 4, with Never Connected power supply for the clock, and a Bybee filter on the output stage. (I can't tell which bit is doing what, but it's interesting that Trichord recommended a cheaper clock and the NC power supply rather than the more more expensive Clock 4 with no power supply).
Anyway.....from day 1 there's a real and significant improvement. The soundstage is a lot more clear, detailed and 3D. It's actually quite startling when sounds emerge clearly from off centre stage on albums I'm quite familiar with.
The basic sound is the same. There's been no degradation or change in character. The big improvement is imaging. There is now space and silence in between instruments on the stage, which makes my unmodded transport sound smeared.
Second benefit is a deeper more defined bass. There's bass notes there now which were not there before.
It's supposed to get better in 3 weeks, but day 4 sounds like day 1 to me, and I'm happy!

Mr_Sukebe · 24-02-2009, 8:17 AM

Steve>
You'd better whisper your findings. Some here don't believe that clocks can make any difference.

rwtomkins · 24-02-2009, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr_Sukebe

Steve>
You'd better whisper your findings. Some here don't believe that clocks can make any difference.

Oh no! Here we go again!

The trouble with this kind of mod is that it doesn't lend itself to side-by-testing, meaning you can't do a side-by-side test of your modded player against your unmodded one. For what it's worth, I once had two identical players and modded one and compared it with the remaining unmodded one and couldn't hear any difference. But hey, who knows, I may just have insensitive hearing and I'm not claiming any special insights. I'm on the fence on this one.

steve parker · 24-02-2009, 8:29 PM

Surely some technician could come round to my house with his 3D ImagingOmeter, and his Realisticnote analyser and verify that my player does sound better than a stock unit.

But even if he couldn't, I'm happy, and this upgrade is a star.

To put it into perspective:
in the last 18 mths I've bought 2 different DACS and 1 upsampler. Not better than my current setup. I've tried a different, newer and supposedly better Audio Research pre. I've bought, tried and rejected 3 power amps (1 valve, 2 solid state) I've tried 2 different integrated CD players, with both solid state and valve outputs, and one had upsampling options. I've had various cables, including 1 set specially hand made by a guru in California from pure silver, that had about 1000 recommendations on various forums. All of them had slightly different effects. All of them were no better than my current setup, and all of them finished up being sold again.
The only other things to be bought and kept were my current Focal speakers,and some Audio Note silver interconnects.

When you have a system of a certain quality, then it becomes quite hard to find that extra improvement. And the cost can rise horribly. Almost all of the things I've tried were priced between £500 and £4000 each and none made the grade except for the Focals and AN cables.

So imagine my pleasure when I get a big improvement from this clock/PSU/filter modification, for less money than the cost of one AN interconnect.

Everything I try, I approach in the hope that it will work well. If it sounds better it survives. If it sounds same or worse, it goes back on Ebay! I base the choice purely on how it sounds. I don't care how it works or how it measures.
This is an audio hobby. If it consistently sounds better, it is better, no matter what the measurements say.

(Sorry - I've had a horrible day, so may I add IMHO to the end of every sentence above, and apologies to all the scientists out there?)

deaf cat · 24-02-2009, 9:44 PM

Steve you mean your trying to please your ears! and not a scope!

Shame on you

A different league I know, but a linear psu I bought for my Squeexebox took about a month to burn in, resulting in a much nicer sound than after the initial plug in, so you never know,

steve parker · 24-02-2009, 9:54 PM

Sorry.

I'm not scopophobic, but sometimes you just have to go with the things attached to your own head. "Your own ears for your own head", as Gordon Brown famously said, before he realised that any Euro based ears had to be taken into account .

trailer · 24-02-2009, 10:55 PM

In my experience a lot of this is system dependent. I had a Trichord clock mod ( the full Clock/PSU/Digital Ouptut Board) done years ago and it was very worthwhile. Mind you the CD player itself was an older Micromega Logic which probably didn't have the best of clocks in it in the first place. Older CD players/transports will probably benefit from this more so.

I'm sure something like the Chord64 would also be revealing of any "improvement" in the source.

steve parker · 24-02-2009, 11:45 PM

"improvement"?

I think you meant improvement

steve parker · 10-03-2009, 8:09 PM

I've been away for a week, and left the transport switched on. Graham at Trichord predicted that the upgrade would need 3 weeks to fully bed in, although I was very impressed even on day 1. It's had its 3 weeks now, so does it sound good?
Well, it still sounds excellent. I had an Audio Research VS100 for a few weeks that cost £4K new (I got it for £1500 second hand private) that made a similar level of difference to this Trichord mod (in terms of extra detail), but it lost some musicality so I sold it again. The clock 4 and power supply equal that amp upgrade in terms of detail, but adds more depth and realism and still stays musical/easy to enjoy. For value for money in a fairly hi end system, this mod is great.
I understand that you can't A to B this mod, and I can't say whether it will upgrade any transport or CD, but wow....it's working for me!
Out of interest, the clock in my (originally very expensive) transport was about the size of my little finger nail, and ran off the main power supply, and the new clock filled a 2 inch square circuit board and had a similar sized dedicated power supply.
For understandable reasons, I've always argued that size isn't everything, but the original components were so diddy! They weren't a man's clock. The new stuff is definitely awe inspiring by comparison.

Cable Monkey · 11-03-2009, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rwtomkins

Oh no! Here we go again!

The trouble with this kind of mod is that it doesn't lend itself to side-by-testing, meaning you can't do a side-by-side test of your modded player against your unmodded one. For what it's worth, I once had two identical players and modded one and compared it with the remaining unmodded one and couldn't hear any difference. But hey, who knows, I may just have insensitive hearing and I'm not claiming any special insights. I'm on the fence on this one.

When I modified my DVD 2900 player I purchased 2 and compared them side by side. I am happy that what I did made a difference to me which justified what I paid. Obviously I can't speak for the effectiveness of every kind of mod in every player but certainly I think well chosen mods can make changes where you might want them in a players presentation. What I will say is that NC power would produce a big leap in performance by itself. The clock is almost incidental!

A controversial view I know but in my experience it is all about power. Get that right and a lot of other things become less of an issue.

karkus30 · 11-03-2009, 2:12 PM

Go read a book called The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene. Once you realise the principles that are going on with Quantum mechanics, string theory, relativity and the more esoteric stuff like Holographic universes, you will begin to doubt everything.

It's a great read by the way and explains those principles and theories that ordinarily just put a blank expression on your face.

Nice worked examples using the Simpsons and a good dose of humour mixed with solid scientific facts. Well recommended.

Anyway, you will believe anything makes a difference, or not

-Ad- · 11-03-2009, 2:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr_Sukebe

Steve>
You'd better whisper your findings. Some here don't believe that clocks can make any difference.

Remember when I put a superclock 2 with dedicated PSU into my CD-63 the day after I received it (I fried my previous one).

The difference was astounding, especially when the HDAM circuitry and output caps/muting transistors were also removed. Further audiocom V Regs (x2 12V for output stage, x2 5V for DAC+Decoder) and a load of new caps, realy completed the player then.

Not sounding bad considering it cost me £12 inc del

Enjoy the music

trailer · 11-03-2009, 2:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by karkus30

Anyway, you will believe anything makes a difference, or not

Is that a quote from Confucius?

rwtomkins · 13-03-2009, 4:05 PM

Just out of curiosity, do expensive up-market CD players normally incorporate clocks? If so, that would be a vote of confidence by the manufacturers. If not, why not?

trailer · 13-03-2009, 4:09 PM

All CD players have/need a clock.

The idea is that these superclocks are more "precise"

Bit like a Breitling vs a Swatch.

rwtomkins · 14-03-2009, 8:27 AM

That makes sense. So the more expensive the player, the better the clock, probably. Is there a point where there's no point in fitting a "superclock" because it wouldn't represent a significant improvement over the original clock? And how can owners know if their player's clock is already good enough?

trailer · 14-03-2009, 8:33 AM

There's a fair bit more information here:

Trichord Research Clock 4 CD Upgrades

It really does vary player to player (and listener to listener) from what I have read. The older players would probably benefit more from this modification.

Mr_Sukebe · 14-03-2009, 9:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trailer

All CD players have/need a clock.

The idea is that these superclocks are more "precise"

Bit like a Breitling vs a Swatch.

Probably not a good analogy. I have a supposedly "fairly accurate" automatic watch, and most cheapy quartz units still show how bad it is.

trailer · 14-03-2009, 9:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr_Sukebe

Probably not a good analogy. I have a supposedly "fairly accurate" automatic watch, and most cheapy quartz units still show how bad it is.

Aye, but you get the gist.

karkus30 · 14-03-2009, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trailer

All CD players have/need a clock.

The idea is that these superclocks are more "precise"

Bit like a Breitling vs a Swatch.

You got me lookin at precision watches with that comment. I was suprised to find that the most accurate watch made was by Citizen

(thats outside of atomic radio controlled watches that rely on radio waves to set the time accurately). The Citize as its known is available in Japan and sells for just under £2000.