AfterDark. Nocturnes Giesemann U1 USB Card

The design is based on the unique material on shielding layer, selection on Carbon Fiber, the product research and development on Giesemann OCXO product since 2021. AfterDark. take a further step to design the world's first audiophile USB card which can accepting 10M Master Clock input for Audiophiles who would like to paid extraordinary attention to the master clock arragements (as well as providing developed clocksync and external reference clock options for EtherREGEN) to minimize timing error to unprecedented levels.   

The quality of the USB Card is crucial to deliver the optimal sounding for USB DAC or USB DDC, which ensure the intergrity of music data with prefect bit to bit transfer via USB. The Nocturnes Giesemann USB Card is modified with the best USB Card for industrial and military sectors a well respected company called Teledyne FLIR.

The Nocturnes Giesemann USB Card designed along with the mind that temperature perturbation, vibration shock, and electromagnetic interference (EMI) may cause some effect on high precision OCXO inside a Music Servers. The chassis inside the Music Server is heavily polluted by EMI noises from CPU, RAM, SSD. So the ultimate solution is to separate the OCXO physically in a separate chassis if possible. 

The Giesemann Clock Sync motherboard is located at the the end of the card and mounted on Carbon Fiber audiophileMAT to maximise the performance for Giesemann Clock Sync Module (GCSM) for Nocturnes Giesemann USB Card. The grounding arrangement and 5V DC port slot is located on the bottom of the PCIe card to provide the best electronic contact for the clock module. 

The Nocturnes Giesemann U1 USB Card is balance in sounding, beautiful and lush midrange and bass. The mid-range is sweet and background is full of darkness with trace of micro details. Soundstage is deep and instrument opened up nicely on music, the bass is just right. Overall Nocturnes Giesemann USB Card is very musical, airly and provide the state of art resolution in music. Highly recommended.  

What is special about U1?

• The USB Card is tailor made to use 10M Master Clock to optimise sounding.  Audiophile can make use of their 10M Master Clock to provide the master sync for the audiophile system. Using the single Master Clocking system can achieve the best possible sound quality for both USB DAC and USB devices. Improves music playback from Roon (Tidal, Qobuz) and files on local network. 

• 10M Master Clock Signal can be either Square Wave or Sine Wave
  • Full supports for all AfterDark. Giesemann Master Clock, Mutec Master Clock and Cybershaft Master Clock 
  • 50 ohms or 75 ohms input version can be choose when order.   

• The Standard Version of BNC port is used to input external 10M Master Clock. This arrangement and design would ensure Audiophile can use their very best exotic BNC Clock cable without any BNC to SMA adaptor which may caused loss of information in clock signals. Incredible sound quality improvements for any music server.   

• The Industrial level high quality USB Controller is used. The USB chipset is made from Renesas, made with the new generations of TELEDYNE FLIR Integrated Imaging Solutions, the heat is much lower and lower powered. Lower heat means lower noise floor and smoother sounding. The hardware of FLIR is well known to provide much better stability and this can provide the best support for operating system: Windows (all editions and Linux of UBuntu, Snakeoil). Plug and Play of any PC with PCIe slot.  

• Audio Grade Electrolytic electrolytic is used for sound tuning  

• The power section of Gisemann Clock Sync Module (GCSM) is separated power by external LPS at 5V 2A. It eliminates computer as source of powers. For lowest noise and best sounding using Farad Super 3 power supplies. 

• Two audiophile grade network ports supports up to 1Gbit connection speed.  Audiophile can make use of software network bridge function to connect one port for incoming data from router and other port to connect the music streamer directly. The noise floor will be much quieter and details on background will improves.  

Why use OCXO Master Clock? 

You will get an improvement in dynamic's, a lower noise floor and more natural flow in the sound.

• For us a OCXO Master Clock is one of the most important factor's in ensuring the best possible sonic platform for any hifi system!

• The Giesemann Master Clock is designed for high precision audio equipment to enhance the integrity of the signal, the top of the line Giesemann OCXO ensure the accuracy of the master clock prodvide a time domain reference for reading data, its transfer and decoding. As a result, the Master Clock could minimize jitter and ensure the improvement on sounding.

• The Giesemann EVA OCXO Master Clock is designed to generate a very accurate, ultra low phase noise 10M Master Clock signal that delivers more accurate transfer and conversion of digital signals.

• The addition of the external 10M Master Clock can improve the soundstage and details of the Music Server, the extraction of details from the background is just amazing and help to achieve optimal music playback with enhanced timbre, full tone, and escpecially pace, rhythm and timing. 

Technical Specification: 

• Ultra - Low Noise Linear LT3042 Regulators and filters eliminate the noise interferences from a PC
• Duelund Silver Cable is used to connecting the DC power to Giesemann Clock Sync Module (GCSM)  
• DC Port at 2.1mm (Germany Made) 
• Required to power with external LPS rated at 5V 2A
• Audio Grade Electrolytic is used for sound tuning 
• 10M Master Clock input of BNC is required to connect to the board for full operation. 
• Master Clock accepts either Square Wave or Sine Wave 
• Choice of impedance of 75 ohms or 50 ohms to choose for 10M input 
• Superior OCXO signal isolation, industrial grade IPEX cable for signal transmittion to motherboard. 1st Layer of aluminum foils for High Frequency (HF) Effective shielding. SFS-PE (Foam-Skin Polyethylene) insulated and 2nd layer of copper wire braiding. This will prevent external noise from getting to the signal conductors, shields the shield of the cable to further prevent the ingress of noise (RFI, etc.) into the signal wires.
• Layer of Carbon Fiber Shielding (CFS) for EMI shielding, Carbon Fiber protection provide the highest standard of shielding material which mainly used for industrial and most demanding engineer on special project.  
• “Extra Arrangement on Grounding Wire” the grounding braid outside of the 10M cable was connected by IPEX connector for best connectivity on clock signal witin industrial standard. 
• Industrial Version of USB Controller made by Renesas from FLIR Integrated Imaging Solutions 
• Support all music formats and Hi-RES sample rates 
• Highest Industrial Grade with wide range of extreme operating temperature -40C to +85C.  
• Gold Plated high performance EMI Shielded USB connectors.
• All Windows editions, Linux , Mac OS (10.14 or later) Supports 
• All x1 - x16 lane PCIe 2.0 to 4.0 slots supported
• All modification hand made in Hong Kong by AfterDark.