All digital audio gear requires some kind of timing reference in order to accurately maintain the sample rate. Because of this, every piece of digital gear has an internal clock. When digital communications are desired between devices, allowing each subsequent unit to control its own clock can and will result in degraded audio performance. This can be heard as “smearing” of the audio, loss of accuracy in the high end, degraded stereo imaging, and even clicks & pops. Controlling all of the sample clocks from one master timing reference eliminates jitter (timing irregularities) and assures the integrity of the sample rate, yielding better sounding audio.