1 (edited by paulnajar 2022-02-22 00:02:41)

Topic: Clocking and SteadyClock

Out of necessity I have quite a few devices synced together. The best clock I have is my ADI-2 Pro FS R BE. It's connected in both directions to an original UFX. The UFX however is not my audio interface. It's connected via Adat to a MADI system of Madiface USB and ADI-648.

My clocking signal flow is:
ADI-2 Pro FS R is master clock > UFX AES in
UFX Word Clock out > Madiface USB Word clock in
Madiface USB MADI out > ADI-648 MADI in

My question is to do with the UFX and RME SteadyClock. Because UFX  SteadyClock is an earlier generation to ADI-2 Pro SteadyClock, is the UFX Word Clock output sending an inferior quality clock due to UFX SteadyClock interaction on clock signal before passing to it's word clock output?

Is there any way to turn off steadyClock in UFX if the answer to previous question is yes?

I've read other manufacturers stating that a clock over MADI is more jitter prone to a clock over BNC word clock. Does RME think this as well?

Also in a similar way is a clock passed over Adat optical cables more jitter prone than a clock signal over BNC word clock?

Kind regards

__________________________
Paul Najar
Jaminajar Music Production
www.jaminajar.com

2

Re: Clocking and SteadyClock

Hi Paul,

which unit clocks which unit does not make any difference in your setup. The difference between SteadyClock and FS is INTERNAL clocking quality. Sending such a clock over whatever interface will always decrease quality. And that is why we have SteadyClock, that cleans the incoming clock and removes any issues.

As you might have seen in an ADI thread SteadyClock FS has been updated to reject jitter down to 1 Hz. This is nice to have, but completely irrelevant in your use case. All your clocks are 'clean', that reduced jitter reduction never comes into play because there is no such jitter to begin with - in your setup.

Statements about jitter on different formats have to be precise, and also read precisely. MADI has much more inherent jitter than ADAT, and ADAT has more than word clock. But none of this matters. Using our devices with SteadyClock there is no jitter difference, not digitally and not where it counts - at the AD/DA conversion.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

Re: Clocking and SteadyClock

Thanks Matthias.
That's clear. I also have 3 separate 8 channel ADDA converters connected over Adat to ADI-648 which also receives their clock via Adat. From what you say it seems like they may benefit from using some word clock BNC cables for their clocking given those devices have no such SteadyClock technology.

Kind regards

__________________________
Paul Najar
Jaminajar Music Production
www.jaminajar.com