The architecture for a combined universal sample rate converter and a sample clock synchronizer is presented. The universal sample rate converter can be applied, for example, to audio samples created or mixed using any of the standard audio frequencies in the set H={8, 11.025, 22.05, 44.1, 48, 96, and 192} kHz and played back using any other frequency from the set H. The synchronizer can be used where audio data are streamed or otherwise broadcast from, for example, the Internet, along with a system timestamp, and where this timestamp needs to be matched to the local audio clock for proper play-back. The same synchronizer can also be used for audio/video or video only synchronization.