dCS Vivaldi Master Clock

The dCS Vivaldi range redefines state of the art in digital playback representing the pinnacle of our ‘no compromise' approach to product design and setting a new standard for the future of digital audio by delivering an unrivalled in-home musical experience.

Vivaldi Master Clock is a powerful yet simple to use Grade 1 master clock based on our pioneering developments in studio and home audio. Featuring two banks of clock outputs capable of outputting different frequencies, Vivaldi Master Clock uses the latest groundbreaking technology from dCS.

In a digital audio system samples must be accurate in level and time. Jitter, which exists in all digital systems, can result in timing errors in these samples causing the analogue signal to be reconstructed inaccurately. In a dCS system our DACs can act as the system master clock, but listening tests have shown that there is no substitute for a high-quality, dedicated master clock.

dCS were pioneers in the use of external clocks in digital audio systems and our clocking technology has been continually refined so that our latest multi-stage Phase-Locked-Loop (PLL) system sets world-beating standards for accuracy and control of troublesome jitter from the incoming audio stream.

All dCS Master Clocks are subjected to rigorous in-house testing. The crystal oscillators are pre-aged, selected for long term stability and then individually calibrated over a wide temperature range to ensure consistent optimal performance. Vivaldi Master Clock uses a sophisticated microcontroller system to ensure smooth correction as the temperature changes and this approach gives a more stable result than either oven controlled crystal oscillators or even atomic clocks.

All dCS master clocks are designed to generate industry standard Word Clock on 75 ohm co-axial cable. Other manufacturers' equipment that has been designed to accept standard Word Clock can be used with our clocks.

Vivaldi Master Clock may be slaved to an external reference (such as an atomic clock or GPS reference) if increased accuracy is desired. Our sophisticated multi-mode Phase-Locked-Loop (PLL) significantly reduces jitter from the reference source.

The dCS ‘soft' approach to programmable logic allows the user to easily update Vivaldi Master Clock software, whether this is to add new features, improve performance or adapt to changes in digital formats.

Used as part of the Vivaldi digital audio playback system Vivaldi Master Clock improves on an already spectacular sound and takes it into an entirely new domain. With a clock added to a dCS system images snap into sharper focus and the music displays a substantially greater sense of authority and power as well as, most importantly, offering noticably higher resolution of detail.