German mastering engineer Alex Kloss has added a Mutec MC-3+ Smart Clock USB to his high-end facility in Cologne, where is it demonstrating its versatility on audiophile projects.
With more than 15 years’ expertise and an A-list roster of German pop and rock clients, Kloss opened his facility in Cologne Maarweg Studios (home to Maarwegstudio2, Tinseltown Music, Rain Productions, Monkee Music, among others) two years ago, Here, his work he relies on premium gear from Sontec, Avalon Design, Manley Labs, api, Tube-Tech and Smart Research. Conversion duties are handled by Lavry Gold and DCS converters followed by a top-notch Lipinski monitoring set-up.
The MC-3+ Smart Clock USB, Mutec’s exceptional audio interface, re-clocker, and master clock has impressed him with its ‘workhorse’ qualities: ‘The MC-3+ Smart Clock USB is a digital Swiss Army knife with audiophile aspirations for me,’ he says. ‘At the moment, I mostly use it as a USB-to-AES interface for clients who like to bring their production laptop to the mastering session.
‘As such the MC-3+USB provides a convenient, highest-grade integration with my system. It also provides a clear sonic benefit when used as a re-clocking unit in the signal path to the D/A converter. In general, the MC-3+USB has proven useful in a variety of applications based around clocking and syncing.’
The MC-3+ Smart Clock USB acts a class-compatible audio device on Apple Mac computers and requires no additional driver installation. A low footprint, high stability driver is quickly installed for operation with Windows PCs. As a result the MC-3+USB is ready to go in no time and with great ease of use.
To eliminate disturbance from audio computers and other IT devices, Mutec developed a new signal-isolating, asynchronous USB interface for the MC-3+ Smart Clock USB. It has been designed as a dedicated building block with a power supply that’s independent from the main board of the unit. In addition, the USB interface is galvanically isolated from the other parts of the circuitry and employs its own ultra-low noise audio oscillators that once again are autonomous and isolated from the other processes.
In addition, the proprietary Revive Re-Clocking that Kloss favours is unique in its implementation. Extreme oversampling of incoming data allows the audio to be recombined and merged with a newly generated ultra-low jitter 1G-Clock signal at ultimate precision, enhancing the re-clocked audio with unparalleled richness of details, spatiality and musicality.
More: www.mutec-net.com
