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julian.david

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  1. Sorry this took a while, but we didn't forget about you. Here are some measurement taken from a regular production REF 10 with τ = 1 second. TIE: 6.07e-12 MTIE: 1.41e-11 TDEV: 1.66e-13 MDEV: 2.88e-13 ADEV: 3.62e-13 TMD: 2.44e-13 TTD: 1.41e-13 Honestly, while i generally understand what these measurements stand for, I personally don't have a lot of insights into how to interpret and evaluate them. But hopefully this works for you ? Best regards, Julian
  2. Hi all, As some of you may have already noticed, MUTEC has changed its U.S. distribution to TransAudio Group, a very seasoned and highly respected distributor of pro audio gear. They also are the exclusive distributor for ATC loudspeakers in the audiophile world. As a consequence it has unfortunately been inevitable to raise prices a little bit, but there are some real benefits for U.S. customers, too: MUTEC products like the REF 10, MC-3+ and MC-3+USB are now available and in stock at Sweetwater with free shipping and financing. So any last-minute Christmas shopping will be taken care of immediately! Also, you'll see MUTEC represented at more trade shows in 2019, which means that you can talk to real people in person and try out the equipment on your own. Alright, back to the tech talk ? Julian
  3. Hi all, As some of you may have already noticed, MUTEC has changed its U.S. distribution to TransAudio Group, a very seasoned and highly respected distributor of pro audio gear. They also are the exclusive distributor for ATC loudspeakers in the audiophile world. As a consequence it has unfortunately been inevitable to raise prices a little bit, but there are some real benefits for U.S. customers, too: MUTEC products like the REF 10, MC-3+ and MC-3+USB are now available and in stock at Sweetwater with free shipping and financing. So any last-minute Christmas shopping will be taken care of immediately! Also, you'll see MUTEC represented at more trade shows in 2019, which means that you can talk to real people in person and try out the equipment on your own. Alright, back to the gear talk ? Julian
  4. Of course there are no guarantees. Any component can potentially fail sooner that its expected live cycle. But your example is like saying that buying a used car with all the latest check-ups is the same as buying a brand new car. I personally tend to disagree with that, but each to their own. As I said before, it never hurts to have options to choose from depending on your budget and expectations.
  5. Haven't forgotten you folks in this regard, but we've been on the road for AES New York. I'll have those answers for you early next week!
  6. Hi there, While it’s true that some of Cybershaft’s latest 10 MHz clocks match the phase noise performance of the REF 10 at 1 Hz offset at a lower price, I think it’s also worth pointing out that these OCXOs are used, recycled oscillators with potentially questionable long-term performance. This is no secret as Cybershaft themselves note it in the fine print of these product pages. We’ve been doing quite a bit of research in this field at MUTEC prior to the launch of the REF 10. Our main developer has inside knowledge of the second-hand oscillator market and how these oscillators are handled in the process. So for us at MUTEC there were and still are a lot of reasons why we stay away from these predominantly Chinese-sourced recycled OCXOs. Sure, there’s a 2-year warranty but a performance decay and functional unreliability may easily slip in unnoticed over time. Buying a REF 10 guarantees a brand-new, carefully tested German-made OCXO that will provide excellent performance for many years to come. I personally believe there’s a real value in having the peace of mind that your newly bought equipment performs at its peak. But ultimately the great thing about competition is that everybody can make those decision on their own depending on their preference and budget. BTW, this discussion is probably better suited to take place in the REF 10 thread but I still thought it'd be worth chiming in here. Hope this helps, Julian
  7. Hmm, this is quite a bit outside of my technical comfort zone. I'm going to have to discuss this with Christian Peters, who will be back from vacation next week. Please stand by... Julian
  8. I can't really give you answers to all those very specific technical questions, but I also think you're imaging the design process to be simpler than it really is. There is not a single parameter or value you can look at to rate the performance. As John already pointed out, you have to look at the phase noise as a function of the offset from the carrier in the graph. Tweaking one parameter may cause another parameter to change. More often than not product design (at least in my experience) is a matter of compromise and weighing pros and cons. The MC-3+USB is also a pretty diverse product with clock generation and distribution, re-clocking, and USB-interface components. I don't even know if an objective internal phase noise performance increase would have the same effect on all these components, but I'm sure Christian Peters has looked into that. At the end of the day though, just because something looks good on paper, still doesn't tell you if it actually sounds good. The challenging, but also fascinating part in audio product design is that you have the technical evaluation and the listening tests that you have to somehow reconcile to come up with a great product.
  9. Ah ok, I get your point now. Well, the clock is more than just a crystal so implementing a more sophisticated clock in the MC-3+USB is pretty involved. You have to look at all the components involved including the power supply. So at that point it's a complete re-design pretty much from scratch. If we did that as an Empyreal Class product, then that would cannibalize a lot of the appeal of the REF 10 as an upgrade option for an MC-3+USB. I can't lay out MUTEC's entire product strategy here, but we're very happy with the performance of the MC-3+USB as is, especially when combined with the REF 10.
  10. Hi, I'm not quite sure I fully understand your question. If it is whether or not the REF 10 can improve the MC-3+USB then the answer is yes, absolutely. That's what the external re-clock mode in the MC-3+USB is for and one of the reasons we even made the REF 10. In fact, our trade show demo system has in the past consisted of an MC-3+USB playing back audio from Roon on a laptop to a headphone DAC. As part of the demo we would switch from re-clocking based on the internal clock of the MC-3+USB to the external clock reference from the REF 10. The effects could be quite easily discerned by booth visitors despite the pretty noisy show floor. Does that answer your question or did I somehow misinterpret it? Julian
  11. It's not going to be in the next 90 days and then we're hitting Christmas time, so let's say we're shooting for early 2019. But let me also say that any major roadblock could easily set us back. You guys here will definitely be among the first to learn about it.
  12. Thanks a lot John for all your insights! While I'm personally an audio engineer by trade, my focus at MUTEC is marketing so I'm by no means on the same level of technical understanding as you are when it comes to OCXOs and phase noise. That said, I had the chance to discuss the matter with MUTEC's chief oscillator guru and I think it's safe to say that we agree on pretty much all counts. I'm adding his responses to some sub-questions of various folks inline below: First of all, the ambient temperature doesn't affect the aging of the OCXO because the crystal is operated at a much higher temperature. So this is not something to worry about. As John also pointed out the absolute frequency of the OCXO doesn't affect the phase noise and hence the audio performance. There is a small age-related drift that occurs, but it's a non-issue. Theoretically you could compensate for this drift with a super precise time-reference such as a GPS or atomic reference, but again, it's not necessary. The age-related frequency drift typically follows an asymptotic curve, meaning that it gets smaller over time. So as the crystal gets older, the rate of frequency change get lower and lower. After just a few years, the rate of change is then typically lower than the original spec for the fresh oscillator. You can argue that the frequent changes in temperature that the components of a device like the REF 10 are exposed to due to frequent power cycles accelerate the aging process. This would mean that it's better to leave the device powered up. At the same time though, the life cycle of the electrolytic capacitors are finite, which then would suggest it's better to turn it off for longer breaks. But in the case of the REF 10 the electrolytic caps are operated at temperatures much below than the temperatures used to estimate their life cycles so this also shouldn't be an issue in any reasonable time frame. So in general, our recommendation would be to leave the REF 10 on except for very long breaks like a whole week as @Confused is mentioning. By the way, drifts in the power grid voltage are a non-issue because they get compensated by the internal power regulation of the REF 10 and won't affect the audio performance. Generally, the power supply of the REF 10 has been designed very conservatively so that the critical components don't get too hot even on warm days and when the REF 10 is mounted within a rack. That is at least as long as the housing vents are not blocked and proper air circulation is ensured. Hope this all helps! Julian
  13. It's something we're still looking into, but progress has been a little slow because we're currently focused on a much bigger, and (I think) more exciting project... I'll let you know as soon as there's news on the cable front though. Julian
  14. Hi Andresz, I got your PM about this. Let me do some research please and get back to you ASAP. Thanks, Julian
  15. Look, MUTEC is a small company without a call center in India. Instead you get an actual response from a human being and quite often from the CEO himself. Chris takes very little vacation, but every once in a while he takes a week or 10 days and that does in fact mean that the office is closed. That has absolutely nothing to do with ignoring customers.
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