Can someone please explain how a clock can apparently impact sound quality??

Hi,
 
I've seen for years references to the notion that the quality of a clock can impact the sound quality in a DAW.  So at the risk of sounding very naive, can somebody please explain to me why this is?  It's not apparent to me how some incredibly tiny timing variability could have any noticeable impact on the sound quality of a song.   ???
 
Sonic

Great article, thanks !
 
Hmm....seems I've been doing something "wrong" and it may explain why I'm getting some strange sounds (distortions or artifacts) on guitar tracks.  I've got a Kemper Profiler and an RME Fireface.  The Kemper has SPDIF out but demands to be Master.  However, I've come to like the sound of the analog out instead, so it seems leaving the Kemper as master is a mistake in that scenario. 
 
Sonic

bitflipper
Clocking while performing A/D conversion is a separate issue from S/PDIF clocking. There's no problem with your setup, as long as the RME is using its own internal clock for recording.

That's the problem though, if I'm using S/PDIF the Kemper must be master (it can only run S/PDIF that way). So if I'm set to also run analog out of the Kemper and using it as master, that could be a problem in my setup.  Further, I doubt highly the Kemper clock is as quality as the RME.    I initially had RME's auto master/slave detect feature enabled so I could reamp with the Kemper when desired and also be able to choose either SPDIF or Analog out for recording.  But as already mentioned, if I choose analog out of the Kemper while the RME is slaved to the Kemper as master, that's a potential problem.   Looks like I'll have to instead manually select between the Kemper and RME clock depending on my needs.....     I still can't get over the fact the Kemper can only run as master for S/PDIF.  Huge design limitation IMO.  The Kemper is considered one of the top amp sims used in pro studios - yet what pro studio on the planet is going to rely on an amp sim clock for their DAW system!?
 
Sonic

gswitz
I find my rme still sounds awesome even when using another master clock from the spidf input.

Well, I suppose that all depends on the quality of the clock one has the RME slaved to, right?  If it was a clock equal to, or better than, the RME clock then of course the RME will probably still sound awesome.