Re: Tice clock

On Mon, 5 May 2008 21:47:30 -0400, Soundhaspriority <nowhere@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:

>"AZ Nomad" <aznomad.3@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
>news:slrng1v7cd.dmk.aznomad.3@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> On Mon, 05 May 2008 16:11:55 -0700, Jenn
<jennconductsREMOVETHIS@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
>> wrote:
>>>If not, are they all worthless?
>>
>> Oh no.  They're just wonderful for rationalizing spending two thousand
>> dollars too much on gear that is mostly an empty box with engineering
>> quality like that of a high school student science fair project.
>>
>> I still get a giggle over the stereophile review that thought the tice
>> clock really worked.

>I seem to recall that it was finally established that Stereophile never 
>reviewed it.

>Bob Morein
>(310) 237-6511 

Jack English commented on the effect of the Tice Clock in February 1993
(Vol.16
No.2):

 After hours and hours, the 1.2 upgrade to my Versa Model 1 turntable was
completed and the final adjustments made. The most obvious change
surprised me
considerably: there was simply far less sound coming out of the Versa.
Everything was much quieter. To achieve the former volume levels, I had to
substantially increase the preamp's gain setting. What was gone was a
significant layer of very low level grundge and noise. Backgrounds had
less
filler; the music was presented in stark relief. The upgrade had removed a
very
significant veil from the music. While I hadn't been aware of RF in my
system,
the upgrade had eliminated an entire layer of it.

But as the hours rolled on, I became more and more aware of a slight new
harshness. My system, while not sounding harsh per se, did sound harsher
than
before the upgrade, record after record confirming my suspicions. Two
possible
explanations came to mind: the upgrade might have introduced the added
harshness, or was now allowing me to hear for the first time something
that had
been in my system all along. Hoping for the latter, I made a number of
changes,
including interconnects, speaker cables, and cleaning all my contact
surfaces.
With each change, the new harshness remained.

Retracing all the power connections I'd made in solving the hum problem, I
flip-flopped my power connections. No change. I went over every detail of
my
setup before and after the change, including what was and wasn't connected
to my
dual Tice Power Blocks and Titans. No change. I even went so far as to
ensure
that each component was plugged into the same outlet it had been
originally,
with the same plug orientation. No change.

Then it hit me\u2014one formerly filled plug was empty. At John Bicht's
insistence, I'd plugged the control unit directly into one of my dedicated
wall
sockets, which left vacant a socket in the Power Block. But that wall
socket
hadn't been empty when I started: a Tice TPT clock used to be plugged in
there.
In fact, it had been there for a long time. Though I hadn't heard any
change
when I put it in, I'd simply left it there. I reconnected the control unit
to
the Power Block and plugged the clock back into the wall. After a half
hour or
so, the harshness vanished.

When I'd first done a series of A/B tests with and without the clock, I
hadn't
heard any differences. However, I'd left the clock plugged in for a long
time.
Obviously I'd become accustomed to what the clock did, but remained
consciously
unaware of its effects, never noticing them until the clock was removed
and the
modified Versa's lowered noise floor made the disappearance of the clock's
relatively modest improvements more audible. Once this improvement was
taken
away, a very slight harshness crept back into my system. Reinstating the
clock
removed the harshness. Much to my surprise, the TPT-treated clock did have
a
positive effect in my system. It's back in and staying in.\u2014Jack
English