Thread: Latest Ethernet / Digital Goodies Burning in for Reviews

OK Guys,

Coming up in the next week we're going to have a video finishing up the results on our Affordable Switch Shootout.

Following we're going to have reviews on the Paul Pang QUAD switch ($2,000), GigaFoil, a multitude of Ethernet cables/brands (currently burning in) and this photo tease of some Ethernet goodies currently burning in from price $1,000 - $7,000:

IMG_2093.JPG

Originally Posted by nicoff

You are considering a $1k switch to be affordable?! 😮

Don't you?


j/k


Per my other post/video I did a shootout of $30-$100 switches.

Originally Posted by nicoff

Not sure what you mean by “denier”. If “denier” means that you don’t need to spend a thousand dollars for an Ethernet switch to get “better” sound, then I am in!

I once owned a “managed” switch. You could prioritize what ports had priority (audio, video, gaming, etc) when facing broadband limitations. Very low latency and flexibility and only $100 bucks!
But… It got toasted during a lightning storm and decided to go back to a normal (i.e., not-managed) switch (($40 bucks maybe?).
YMMV

In my extensive testing I found 2 of the $30 D-Links back-to-back sound much better than some of the $500-800 "audiophile" switches. Of course there are expensive switches that sound amazing as well. But you don't need to spend a lot of money to get great sound. To be fair thought there is no amount of D-Link switches that sound as good as my PPA QUAD switch which is $2K. BUT, put the 2-3 D-Links I list in my video with an AudioQuest 3 power conditioner for them and you're all in for ~$400 and it will be KILLER sound that will require considerably more be spent to better.

I'm also going to be testing a $50-$600 Ethernet cables along with some stupid-expensive ones. Again - some of the lower prices once do quite well and some don't. As is true with the expensive one.

So regardless of what someones budget is, they can get very good sound.

There is a LOT I don't know about in audio. And I don't pretend to be technical by any stretch of the imagination, but I have spent hundreds of hours experimenting with switches, cables, and everything in between and I've learned a LOT.

To think 5 months ago I wasn't sure an Ethernet cable or switch would even make a difference till I decided to ignore all the forums and start testing on my own. LOL

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

They still won't sound as good as an EtherREGEN, SOtM, or a Paul Peng, though.

Yup - the ones you mentioned will all sound better than my triple switch mix. I have heard some people say the SOtM can sound rather thin though.

So I did about 4 hours of listening and experimenting with some new Ethernet products today. VERY nice sound upgrades that simplify the number of boxes, power supplies and cables in the system while still moving the sound forwards.

I believe I may the first to do a video review on these in North America.

So if you haven't already, be sure you are subscribed to the YouTube channel to be notified when these videos get posted and go live!

Here is the link to the previous Ethernet Audio video which will be have an updated video within a week: Audiophile Streaming Tweaks for Tidal and Qobuz! PT. 2 - YouTube

Mike-

just watched you videos. Lots of straight forward information with no sense of any one brand "shilling."
Thank you for taking the time to do these experiments and sharing the results.
Can't wait for the next!

John

Originally Posted by JohnJ

Mike-

just watched you videos. Lots of straight forward information with no sense of any one brand "shilling."
Thank you for taking the time to do these experiments and sharing the results.
Can't wait for the next!

John

Thanks so much, John. Really do appreciate the kind words. I spend so much time producing these.

I pretty much call things as I see them and I have a short attention span. I don't have the patience to watch videos or read reviews with a lot of "fluff", so I make my videos pretty straight to the point.

The advantage of me not trying to fill pages with advertisements, and the fact I make zero money off my channel allows me to be honest about what I think of the gear. Having said that, I do believe just because I don't care for how something sounds (the Pass Labs was a good example), does not mean it's a "bad" piece of gear. It just means it either didn't have synergy in my system or it is not a sound I like - but others may.

Originally Posted by vert

Audiophile switches and network filters have come and gone and I still use a Gigafoil.

I also noticed the more power supplies for network devices I add, the more these power supplies interact with sound quality of my streaming setup. And these are all linear power supplies.

So I keep it simple and try to minimize the power supplies for network devices.

Sounds like you are doing it the right way - experimenting and finding what works best in your system to your ear.

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

They still won't sound as good as an EtherREGEN...

I had an ER clocked to my 10MHz Esoteric clock. My Pakedge 5 port SE series unmanaged switch was much better. No comparison. The ER went back to the dealer.

After some power supply experiments, I have settled with an ifi elite powersupply for my Melco S100 switch, by far the best result in my system, I am amazed how much difference a power supply can bring for a switch. (Non of the lineair power supplies I tried had a good result !!)

Originally Posted by imprezap2

After some power supply experiments, I have settled with an ifi elite powersupply for my Melco S100 switch, by far the best result in my system, I am amazed how much difference a power supply can bring for a switch. (Non of the lineair power supplies I tried had a good result !!)

I use the same power supplies on my switches and the positive result was such that I haven't bothered investigating linear power supplies.