Topic: Which oscillator in RME ADI-2 DAC

Anyone know which oscillator (brand, frequency etc) is used in the DAC?

I could open it up, but I think I still got warrant left :-)

2 (edited by ning 2020-06-04 00:45:04)

Re: Which oscillator in RME ADI-2 DAC

25MHz. The oscillator together with the FPGA chip on the right side makes a PLL loop that feeds the DAC/ADC chip.

https://i.ibb.co/FsNk7YV/Screen-Shot-2020-06-04-at-8-40-52-AM.png

Re: Which oscillator in RME ADI-2 DAC

Thanks, hard to make out brand or any other info though.

But isn't 25 mhz a strange frequency for a DAC clock? How do you generate accurate 44.1/48 khz and multiples from 25 mhz?

Re: Which oscillator in RME ADI-2 DAC

This one looks very similar (but not identical):
https://www.ndk.com/en/products/search/ … _1433.html

5 (edited by ning 2020-06-04 12:19:19)

Re: Which oscillator in RME ADI-2 DAC

MagnusH wrote:

Thanks, hard to make out brand or any other info though.

But isn't 25 mhz a strange frequency for a DAC clock? How do you generate accurate 44.1/48 khz and multiples from 25 mhz?

as I said the oscillator work with the FPGA on the right, and together they form a PLL. RME market this as their SteadyClock FS technology. With PLL, you get whatever frequency you want with super high accuracy (as long as the low frequency clock, 25mhz here, is accurate).

The 25mhz clock is not meant to be a clock signal to control AD/DA chip. Rather it acts as a error correction for a much higher frequency but unstable clock (up to GHz) for the FPGA. So the FPGA will now have an accurate GHz clock after the correction. so it can create multiple accurate clocks for anything with much lower frequencies (such as 44.1khz)

This is a much better/cheaper clock source than multiples of 44.1/48. Their FPGA can create multiple PLLs with this 25mhz clock. For instance one for DA/AD chips, the other to correct SRC input signal, etc.  The latter (in ADI-2 Pro, it's whatever clock the SRC chips accepts, that is, 28-200khz) may not be a 44.1/48 multiple --- you just cannot do that with traditional technologies.

Google PLL to learn more.

Re: Which oscillator in RME ADI-2 DAC

Cheers for the explanation, I had a feeling it related to FPGA but I am not that familar with how it works.

Re: Which oscillator in RME ADI-2 DAC

Hi, a little late, and a slightly off topic question:
The HDSP 9632 has a 50Mhz clock, which, by it's age, is certainly not "femto". Is it, frequency wyse, possible, thanks to PLL, to replace this inbuild oscillator by a more modern and ultra-low-jitter oscillator, but which may oscillate at a more easily obtainable 49.152MHz? Or must this oscillator output 50Mhz and nothing else?

8 (edited by MagnusH 2020-07-10 13:51:34)

Re: Which oscillator in RME ADI-2 DAC

daihedz wrote:

Hi, a little late, and a slightly off topic question:
The HDSP 9632 has a 50Mhz clock, which, by it's age, is certainly not "femto". Is it, frequency wyse, possible, thanks to PLL, to replace this inbuild oscillator by a more modern and ultra-low-jitter oscillator, but which may oscillate at a more easily obtainable 49.152MHz? Or must this oscillator output 50Mhz and nothing else?

I don't know about the HDSP, but I changed the clock in my microRendu to a Crystek CCHD 575 (same frequency) which improved the sound noticeable. Beware though that its not easy, especially removing the old clock is a pain, and they are very small.

I don't think you want to change the frequency though, that sounds like a bad idea to me. But change to a better clock with same pins and form factor is doable.

For clocks in audio equipment, long term accuracy is not that important though, but low phase noise is apparently very important (which is why Crystek CCHD 575 and the best NDK NZ2520SDA is often used in audio).

For you, this might work and is very good for audio (from what I have read):
https://www.mouser.se/ProductDetail/Cry … dkYw%3D%3D