Ethernet switch box

TheOctopus said:
Same here. I just enjoy music. The question of what power cord or interconnect I should get next is simply a non issue for me these days. I am not using a lamp cord or a zip cord by any means but chasing the latest and the greatest just doesn't turn me on like it used to... Having an electronics background myself, it is also enough to know what a power supply does as well as what shielding does to a power cord and how it all ties in with UL listing and fire safety... etc... Let's just say I'd rather hear what John Coltrane was trying to say through his sax than what the latest and greatest power cord of the month is.
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Very true, ya ever noticed that ever year they come out with the latest and greatest, and for the product to be so much better than the one they came with the year before and so for and so for and along with it comes the increase of cost. Good Marketing never fails.

Any way sorry to side track this thread.
 
In my view, measurements are not the ultimate goal for audiophile component. It tremendously helps an engineer, who is not necessarily an audiophile, to start with a good design and make sure it meets all the standards. A design in practice has to be followed by listening tests as well. So its a combination of both. A great example is Matrix Audio Element X DAC which has fabulous measurements, great features along with excellent sound to boot and this is the best Sabre DAC I own. On the contrary a FirstWatt SIT-3 would probably measure horribly but sounds terrific in my system.
 
Confirmation Bias and especially of the group/mass type really helps. Perhaps it doesn't even matter whether there is a meaningful difference or not. If one believes it made the system better, perhaps in some quantum entanglement kind of a way, it really does. No one gets hurt.. well the wallet may get a bit grumpy and upset but it will get over it. :)
 
Puma Cat said:
You'll get a straight answer from John Swenson.

Reduction of jitter (including threshold jitter) and timing errors from phase noise as well as ground plane noise is audible. The benefits of adding a better swtich are just as audible as adding a better clock, and I don't see folks stating that adding a better clock brings doesn't bring an audible improvement. I'm sure some folks here have those nice Cybershaft and Esoteric clocks.

John Swenson has the test equipment. He built it, so he knows how to use it. He used to design Ethernet chips, PHYs, flip-flops, switch components, power supplies for the better part of 40 years at LSI, Inc, Broadcom, Cisco. It's accurate to say he know more about this any of us.
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So I will get a straight answer from someone who is selling audiophile switches? What is your business relationship with Swenson? Are you taking pictures of his gear for free?
 
There are no absolutes in this hobby. Too many variables come into play with the workings of a persons brain possibly the most significant.

Maybe the definition of an Audiophile should be someone who feels the need to tell others that they are/aren't hearing.
 
still-one said:
There are no absolutes in this hobby. Too many variables come into play with the workings of a persons brain possibly the most significant.

Maybe the definition of an Audiophile should be someone who feels the need to tell others that they are/aren't hearing.
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And you have to separate out regular audiophiles from Brand Ambassadors, shills, and gorilla marketers.
 
still-one said:
There are no absolutes in this hobby. Too many variables come into play with the workings of a persons brain possibly the most significant.

Maybe the definition of an Audiophile should be someone who feels the need to tell others that they are/aren't hearing.
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I thought that was a requisite of being an audiophile. One has to tell others they made the wrong choice at least as many times as one mentions that they are personally very happy with their own (insert whatever component here)
 
mep said:
So I will get a straight answer from someone who is selling audiophile switches? What is your business relationship with Swenson? Are you taking pictures of his gear for free?
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some happy people do things because they like to do it
 
I post what I experience, if it helps someone, great.

Somewhat frustrating to read a lot of the negative banter that turns into personal insults, especially coming from the sidelines from arm chair quarter backs not on the field playing the game.

Stillone is right IMO as many other points, there are lot of variables down to the listener and either something works or it doesn’t.

Numbers do cast awareness, but nothing to live or die by and certainly not worth a lick of emotion.

If it sounds good is all that matters, and I hope no one is hesitant doing what they feel is right cause of this type of BS.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
The difficulty in separating useful opinions from trolls and shills is well known by now, and is not a bad reason to be skeptical. Look at Amazon's half-hearted vetting of the product reviews on their site; the well meaning and perhaps necessary attempts at weeding out those posts leads invariably to cries of censorship. Even before the Internet became ubiquitous, similar problems in our little world of high-end audio applied to publications and reviewers; accommodation pricing, pay-to-play reviewing, even reviewing one's own product and hiding the fact all eventually became well-known. If you don't know much (or anything) about a poster it may be hard to take his/her posts seriously if they are significantly at odds with one's own experience.

Posters sharing their experience and opinions, clearly expressed as such is one thing; telling others you are right and they are wrong, and/or couching your opinions as proven facts is another matter entirely. If I have spent any time with a given person listening to the same system at the same time and sharing opinions I have a good idea of what weight I personally should give to that person's opinions; otherwise it's a bit of a crapshoot. That's one thing I like about audio shows, the chance to actually listen simultaneously and share impressions with reviewers and other more mundane audiophiles; that works even if the rooms and equipment are not at their best.
 
UltraFast69 said:
I post what I experience, if it helps someone, great.

Somewhat frustrating to read a lot of the negative banter that turns into personal insults, especially coming from the sidelines from arm chair quarter backs not on the field playing the game.

Stillone is right IMO as many other points, there are lot of variables down to the listener and either something works or it doesn’t.

Numbers do cast awareness, but nothing to live or die by and certainly not worth a lick of emotion.

If it sounds good is all that matters, and I hope no one is hesitant doing what they feel is right cause of this type of BS.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
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At the end of the day, we all post our experiences. And when you snipe about armchair quarterbacks not on the field playing the game, I guess you need to identify the game you are playing. I have a rack dedicated to my digital gear. I have my own network in my dedicated stereo room. I paid an electrician to run Cat 8 cable from the room downstairs where the router/modem is located to my stereo room upstairs. My Netgear router is plugged into the wall jack my electrician installed next to my digital rack. Both my Roon Nucleus+ and my DSJ are plugged into the Netgear router. I have subscriptions to both Tidal and Quobuz.

I’m happy with the performance of my digital rig. I have zero noise issues. I don’t suffer from dropouts when streaming. So, I’m in the game, but some of us are playing different games. I’m a believer in keeping your network as simple as possible so that’s the digital game I’m playing.
 
If your digital rig is connected to the network, it actually helps tremendously optimizing it, unless you have a component designed from ground up to have no effect on Ethernet.
 
Devg said:
If your digital rig is connected to the network, it actually helps tremendously optimizing it, unless you have a component designed from ground up to have no effect on Ethernet.
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If you are primarily streaming with your digital rig, it has to be connected to the network. What does “have no effect on Ethernet” mean?
 
mep said:
If you are primarily streaming with your digital rig, it has to be connected to the network. What does “have no effect on Ethernet” mean?
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It means the device is devoid of all hash/gremlins that comes as part of network connectivity - both physical (ground noise, etc) and from network protocol perspective. Ethernet phys are transformer coupled but somehow still noise gets in, so how do you deal with this at the physical aspect - one solution is to use fiber. The other comes from packet processing aspect that happens inside the device. A simple network event causes a ton of churn within which is very detrimental to sound. Segregating and isolating network at different levels (routers, switches, protocol configuration, playback software, OS optimization, coalescing, core isolation, etc) is the key to get good digital audio for streaming devices, more so than an expensive use of USB cable.
 
Devg said:
It means the device is devoid of all hash/gremlins that comes as part of network connectivity - both physical (ground noise, etc) and from network protocol perspective. Ethernet phys are transformer coupled but somehow still noise gets in, so how do you deal with this at the physical aspect - one solution is to use fiber. The other comes from packet processing aspect that happens inside the device. A simple network event causes a ton of churn within which is very detrimental to sound. Segregating and isolating network at different levels (routers, switches, protocol configuration, playback software, OS optimization, coalescing, core isolation, etc) is the key to get good digital audio for streaming devices, more so than an expensive use of USB cable.
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What a great argument for not streaming ;)
 
mep said:
At the end of the day, we all post our experiences. And when you snipe about armchair quarterbacks not on the field playing the game, I guess you need to identify the game you are playing. I have a rack dedicated to my digital gear. I have my own network in my dedicated stereo room. I paid an electrician to run Cat 8 cable from the room downstairs where the router/modem is located to my stereo room upstairs. My Netgear router is plugged into the wall jack my electrician installed next to my digital rack. Both my Roon Nucleus+ and my DSJ are plugged into the Netgear router. I have subscriptions to both Tidal and Quobuz.

I’m happy with the performance of my digital rig. I have zero noise issues. I don’t suffer from dropouts when streaming. So, I’m in the game, but some of us are playing different games. I’m a believer in keeping your network as simple as possible so that’s the digital game I’m playing.
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Your not getting everything out of your digital you could be. Your digital backbone is not as good as it could be. Its solid. It sounds well done. But is could be better.
 
Puma Cat, nice article. I did not know that was you. I read it today.

I just read the Audio Science review Mike posted the link too. An interesting point was made by the author and something I have found testing switches. The buffer is so large when you go and swap cables to change the switch, you are still listening to the original data from the first switch. The only way to really hear what a switch is doing is to stop the music. Close it out to kill the buffer which may be the entire song. Change the cables, then reload the song.

I have heard Ultrafast system many times. I have also come to appreciate UltraF has a golden ear. He catches subtle detail others miss. He was at my house one day with some toys to show me, and he was much quicker at identifying the changes than I was. But I did hear what he heard and in the end changed out a bunch of footers to a large benefit in my setup. What I am saying is, he is spot on when he tells you the EtherREGEN works. But it does not stop at a stock EtherREGEN. Your still leaving performance on the table. The Power Supply matters. The footers under the unit matter. The base the unit sits on matters. The cables tying the network together matter. It all matters if you want to get the best sound. But the EtherREGEN is a good start as a stand alone product. It will take away digital artifacts that make you cringe at times with digital.

Something to remember about digital, the sum whole of great digital is made up of many small applications that support each other.
 
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