Rubidium Clock

Hi Zephyr,

Thanks for your info on the Cybershaft, i have read the specifications, most impressive, seems 2nd only to the 6X more costly non commercial BVA OCXO which is an end of life product.

It looks to be very impressive where the Rakon's OCXO phase noise surpasses any commercial audio clock!

As to your P-02 / D-02 units, a Masterclock option will likely be  more superior, it believe it is the output feeding of either the P-02 to D-02 or vice versa as your units can act as a Masterclock to feed other units (as such, you will not need to feed 2 separate clock signals to both units).

Are you finding that you are liking the Rubidium output over the OCXO output from the Cybershaft unit?

Thank you for checking all that out and letting me know your thoughts!

I have only been using the Rb 10Mhz output thus far and like it very much. It ups the ante on 'meat/substance" around each note and the overall musical presence.  It's a not so subtle improvement over what the P-02/D-02 with the D-02 set to MCK (22.xx Mhz) output to drive itself and the P-02 are capable of.

I have things setup as follows:

Cybershaft RBOCXO-01 (10Mhz, 50ohm output) into D-02 10Mhz 50ohm input
D-02 set for WORD IN of 10Mz
D-02 set for WORD OUT (75ohm) of "MCK", so 22.xx Mhz
P-02 set for WORD IN (75-ohm), so it gets a Direct MCK pulse from the D-02

Near as I can tell, even with the higher phase noise of a typical Rb circuit baselining the
operation of the D-02 with an atomic-reference/rock-solid 10Mhz pulse is the jump I was
looking for.

I have not tried the super-accurate/low-phase noise OCXO circuit (10Mhz, 50ohm) on the Cybershaft as yet. As the unit has crossed 350 hours as of late tonight, I will switch over and see which config I like best.

I had two Esoteric clocks over the years;

G-0s: Amazing and super-accurate overall system presentation driving the P-03U and D-03 but a touch analytic
G-03x: Not so analytic, accurate sound-staging, etc....just enough precision for my ears

I never drove the G-0s or G-03x with a separate 10Mhz reference pulse clock device....

I later found when I got the D-02/P-02 combo that the D-02 has an improved clock over the G-03x so I parted ways temporarily with a separate clock.

The combination of the 10Mhz Cybershaft and the much improved Direct MCK 22.xx Mhz operational mode of the D-02 driving the P-02 leaves me with the best overall sound I've heard out of any my systems, ever.  

More later as I listen to more combinations!

Good Morning! In the way of any update,....the Cybershaft has well over a 1500 hours on it at this point (and the RB and OCXO clock outputs are equally broken in) and I've done a lot of testing over a wide variety of material (CD, XRCD, SACD) and alot of different recordings.  During this time I've spent several days at a time with the Cybershaft Rb and then the OCX outputs; over the past month I have found myself using only the OCX output circuit for 10Mhz 50ohm output as sonically, it is a much better match for the widest variety of recordings and things simply sound their best over and above what the Rb-based 10Mhz output circuit provides.  At this point, I think it is safe to say that assuming no other changes to the system, that I will be sticking with the current config and using the OCX output over the Rb for playback of 90-95% of all material.  Questions...please let me know.

Justubes2: Thank you once again for highlighting the lower phase noise/etc...on the OCXO side of my Cybershaft clock. The difference in terms of satisfying musical presentation of every note, more precise and natural imaging, etc...once I switched over and have been using that circuit as my 10Mhz baseline is not only noticeable but dramatically better! With the Rb circuit (as with my experiences a few years ago with the Esoteric G-0s Rb clock), I had precision in many ways but not the beauty and naturalness I am experiencing with the lower phase-noise OCXO-based presentation.  Thank you again!!!

Thanks for your posting on the Cybershaft zephyr24069. Nice to know your experience continues to be positive. I have a Premium OCXO in route.