Nordost announces QNET switch

Mike

Mike

Audioshark
Staff member
Joined
Apr 2, 2013
Messages
30,552
Location
Sarasota, FL
2d0421d3b0e076a75a6c097ed461fc37.jpg


328237ef9d026318900e179237cdc6ce.jpg

b05d48ce5c3be31dfe92f72abcbef5b5.jpg


What they told us dealers:

“Our “from-the-ground-up” design is, quite frankly, the best switch to hit the marketplace, period. We didn’t buy an OEM standard switch and simply make improvements to either the power supply or oscillators as several competitors have. We are building this unit totally from scratch ourselves with six dedicated power supplies, a superior, low noise, stable oscillator, a high speed multilayered impedance-controlled layout, etc., all encased in an extremely durable round aluminum housing. As the attached brochure states, the housing acts as a heatsink and, due to its round shape, provides physical separation for the five independent ports so you can use very high quality ethernet cables like our Valhalla 2, Heimdall and Blue Heaven. This unit is guaranteed to outperform any competitive switch, dramatically improving sound quality. We will begin shipping after the first of February. We are building these units completely in-house; populating the circuit boards ourselves (we invested in component-picker machines and associated manufacturing gear). It is a completely Nordost-designed component! No bog standard switch with minor modifications here!”

$3199.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Can't wait to follow follow the Roon Community thread on Switches and Ethernet Cables as this gets noticed. I go there whenever my blood pressure gets low. :D
 
still-one said:
Can't wait to follow follow the Roon Community thread on Switches and Ethernet Cables as this gets noticed. I go there whenever my blood pressure gets low. :D
Click to expand...

The Roon community doesn’t have the best record for noticing anything to do with sound quality.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Mike said:
The Roon community doesn’t have the best record for noticing anything to do with sound quality.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Click to expand...

They are just typical of the entire Internet.

On a more serious note. I surprised if they started from scratch why didn't they add a Optical Port(s).
 
still-one said:
They are just typical of the entire Internet.

On a more serious note. I surprised if they started from scratch why didn't they add a Optical Port(s).
Click to expand...

They did start from scratch. Optical is Not used. Hardly used. I’ll ask.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Kingsrule said:
LMAO

What a money grab
Click to expand...

No switch is the best switch. But if you must use one, the after market ones are gaining in popularity. I’m interested to try this one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
As more and more migrate or enter the hobby with file and streaming based playback as their main and perhaps primary source. I think these products should be welcomed and not scorned.

Remember, years ago, when using a laptop was ideal? And now we have dedicated streamers.

Maybe in a few years we will look back and say, wow I can't believe I used a Netgear, Linksys, etc... on my high end hi-fi system.

Looking to see how Shunyata , AudioQuest and others will compete with this offering from Nordost.
 
Mike said:
They did start from scratch. Optical is Not used. Hardly used. I’ll ask.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Click to expand...

Ironic timing that you say that, cause I was just about to post on another thread that I don't understand why more streamer manufacturers havent moved to a SFP port rather than old-school copper ethernet. I kind of wonder the same thing for a modern, ground-up design switch.

Give us the port, we'll add the SFP (copper or fiber) that meets our needs. Just seems a more flexible and more audiophile-centric approach. Among a variety of reasons it's one I chose Lumin's X1.
 
In my opinion not having an SFP port is a big miss. I have been working on my digital distribution system and adding an optical break has made the most noticeable difference in sound quality.
 
W9TR said:
In my opinion not having an SFP port is a big miss. I have been working on my digital distribution system and adding an optical break has made the most noticeable difference in sound quality.
Click to expand...

I don’t agree. I think the fiber thing is different, but not better. We tried it here with the X1, and my reaction was “meh”. Different, not better. We went back to Ethernet as we thought it was more organic.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
I guess it’s one of those ‘it depends’ things where every system can be optimized in a different way. Fun stuff for sure.
 
W9TR said:
I guess it’s one of those ‘it depends’ things where every system can be optimized in a different way. Fun stuff for sure.
Click to expand...

Agree. I had a positive difference after going to fiber. Why I said flexibility would be best imo, to fit user/system circumstances and preferences.

With my setup it's difficult to arrange cables so they're not basically piled up on each other, so not having the data stream affected by whatever contamination could affect a copper cable in close proximity to power, speaker, ICs etc, probably is why I saw a difference. With Mike's system I'm guessing that his cables are laid out properly, so there's less impact on his data stream due to cable interferences. It's also a bit easier for me to run fiber from my switch to where my system is.
 
Again, how many DAC’s or network transports have a fiber input? Very few and it doesn’t seem to be growing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
W9TR said:
I guess it’s one of those ‘it depends’ things where every system can be optimized in a different way. Fun stuff for sure.
Click to expand...

it's definitely one of those situations. In my set-up, running fiber from the location the music server is located to my audio rack 35 feet away in another room, it made a significant improvement. One of the advantages of fiber is that it will not pass high-source leakage impedance current, which puts noise on the ground plane, and which results in threshold jitter, the impact of which is audible.

If one is coming in with a short run of fiber from a server just nearby the audio rack, there may be no practically significant difference compared to a quality copper Ethernet cable, e.g. Shunyata Sigma or Omega, etc.
 
Mike said:
Again, how many DAC’s or network transports have a fiber input? Very few and it doesn’t seem to be growing.
Click to expand...

I still use TOSLink to get my video feed through the system.

I would agree though, less units with TOSLink, more HDMI now a days on DACs and streamers.

HDMI standards keep changing (with continued changes in both TV screen resolution, and surround standards) so fast, that a long term audio unit goes out of date in the HDMI section.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top