It's About Time...
For years audio professionals have been asking when Apogee was going to make their legendary clocking technology available as a stand-alone master clock. Well, there's no time like the present. Introducing, Big Ben, a radical new studio timepiece that will set the pace for all master clocks to come.
A Cure for the Jitters – Apogee's new "C777" Clock
At the heart of any word clock regeneration is a phase lock loop (PLL). Currently, and most commonly in audio applications, the PLL is a combination of analog and digital elements without the ability to dynamically adapt to the nature of the external clocks. That's where Apogee's new C777 clock comes in. The C777 utilizes an entirely digital process, that Apogee has developed using the most advanced Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS) technology available along with DSP based digital filtering. The result? The most aggressive jitter reduction ever. With a stable, crystal based digital PLL ticking away as it's heart, Big Ben is able to intelligently manipulate incoming signals and adapt to them accordingly.
Added Flexibility with Format Conversion
Not that you would expect it from a master clock, Big Ben gives you the option of real-time format conversion. Use Big Ben's intuitive digital display to go from S/PDIF to AES, AES to ADAT, ADAT to S/PDIF, etc.
Firewire for the Future
With an eye toward future connectivity standards, Big Ben has room to grow with a Firewire card option that will provide clocking and format conversion functionality to Firewire equipped devices.
Intelligent Clocking with Apogee's "Adaptive Loop Filtering" (ALF)
ALF maximizes Big Ben's clocking ability with an intelligent low pass filter. Because the C777 has made all incoming signals into data (1's and 0's) Big Ben is able to dynamically compensate for excessive jitter and even improve already acceptable clock signals to levels unattainable until now. No matter what your input looks like, ALF can adapt and overcome all obstacles to create a stable, reliable, low jitter clock source.
"SureLock"... Your Drop out Defense
So, Big Ben is masterfully handling external clock signals and all of their anomalies and you've got your jitters under control. What if Big Ben encounters the ultimate disturbance in clocking, a dropped signal? Not to worry, with “SureLock” Big Ben will compensate by remaining locked on the last relevant frequency sent by the delinquent device. When the signal resumes, Big Ben will gradually, and smoothly re-synchronize without interruption.
Termination Issues... A Thing of the Past
Very often in an elaborate audio chain word clock signals are improperly terminated. Big Ben will chime in with a visual indication of over or under termination on it's digital display for each word clock output, allowing you to troubleshoot more quickly and get back to business.
Features:
• AES, S/PDIF, Optical I/O - Word Clock/Video In - 6 Word Clock
Outs
• Optional Firewire connection to facilitate clocking and format
conversion with other Firewire devices
• Realtime format conversion between all digital formats
• Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS) using Apogee´s C777 Clock
Technology up to 192kHz
• Adaptive Loop Filtering (ALF) to optimize clock performance and
minimize jitter
• Three stage Termination Sensing for each word clock output
Inputs:
• 2 x AES-EBU on XLR 44.1k-192k single-wide and 88.2 k–192k
double-wide.
• S/PDIF optical on TOS-LINK 44.1-48k
• S/PDIF coaxial on RCA 44.1-192k
• ADAT 44.1-48k
• ADAT/SMUX II for 88.2-96k
• ADAT/SMUX IV for 176.4-192k
• Word Clock BNC 44.1 –192k
• Video
• Optional Firewire
Outputs:
• 2 x AES-EBU on XLR single or double wide 44.1-192k
• S/PDIF coaxial 44.1-192k
• S/PDIF optical on TOS-LINK 44.1-48k
• 6 x BNC Word Clock 44.1-192k (of which 2 can output 256fs at low
sample rates)
• ADAT
• SMUX II
• SMUX IV
• Optional Firewire
Specifications:
• Sample rates: 44.1/48-88.2-96-176-192 . All +/- 10%
• Video: PAL/NTSC/60Hz
• "SuperClock" (256fs)
• Pull up/down 0.1% and 4% from any sample rate
• Apogee´s new Ultra Low Jitter C777 clock
• Three stage termination indicator (under/correct/over) on each
Word Clock output:
• "SureLock" technology for drop out prevention
• 4 digit numeric true sample rate indication
• Universal power: 15 W 90-250 VAC 50-60 HZ
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