Anybody want a laugh?


https://www.ebay.com/itm/254589502418

Yes, that’s a network switch marketed to Audiophiles. 
😆😂😆
128x128dougeyjones

Showing 5 responses by cd318

’Fidelizer Etherstream Network Switch - RRP - £395

NEW

EtherStream Network Switch is a modified Cisco SG110D-08 network switch with the following modification:

-Input capacitor upgraded higher capacitance and ultra low ESR tuned for optimal performance
-Safety resistors upgraded on DC input stage, power regulation stage, LAN transformer isolation stage
-Re-energize capacitors upgrade with special type of tantalum capacitor to effectively reduce noise and interference in main processor
-Crystal clock is upgraded with high quality clock from Japan with noise reduction tweaks
-Components are upgraded with very high quality solder providing solid bass and dynamics

It’s the most affordable and most effective network switch upgrade enough for clients to prefer EtherStream over some highend audiophile switch or 10G premium network switch models too. I can guarantee that you will find very satisfying improvements on streaming media for both audio/video.


Please contact us through eBay for more information.’

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Probably the best bit of a rather vague sales pitch is this line. 


’I can guarantee that you will find very satisfying improvements on streaming media for both audio/video.’


Typically whilst nothing concrete is stated, the implications are presented subtly.

There’s also more than a touch of humour around the name too - eliteaudioltd.

Seriously, I wonder how easy it would be to dupe gullible audiophiles? Exactly how big is this unsuspecting market?

Just as an harmless fun experiment perhaps one of us could buy a dozen fuses and then sell them online at a huge premium claiming some quasi magnetic /cryogenic /dark space enhancements?

The only foreseeable problem, moral considerations aside, would be just how to explain the scam to your customers afterwards.

Even worse, what if they then refuse to believe you?

What’s that I hear you say?
Sell them some more??

Can you imagine how designers of genuinely effective products (with tested and measured enhancements) must feel when they such practices?
djones51,

'You think that switch is funny get a load of this thing.

https://www.kevalinaudio.com/product-page/waversa-wrouter'


Waversa WRouter
  
$4,050.00Sale Pri


WROUTER: Ultra Low Noise Audio Grade Router

Although a relative unknown in the Western Hemisphere, the Waversa Systems WRouter has been on the market for some time, and it remains the only audiophile grade router. This unit was a “from the ground up” build, taking advantage of Waversa’s in-house chip design and proprietary signal processing and protocols.


The WRouter achieves what it is designed to accomplish: to present streaming data without tradeoff, with black background, more focus, less tension, improved clarity, dynamics, and detail, all with a noticeable reveal of the intricacies of decay.  

 

The WRouter is designed to handle the most demanding audio files and is capable of streaming different content to different locations simultaneously without compromise. This unit is not a high-speed router or switch. Any step in that direction proved detrimental to overall sonic presentation.  

 

The Waversa WRouter achieves network security by “packet filtering” and, for ease of use, is not configurable by the end-user. However, WiFi Access can be custom labeled and password protected by the end-user.

 

The end user can set up the WRouter as a WiFi router, a switch, or a hotspot. Best overall results occur when the WRouter is separated from non-audio bandwidth by connecting the WRouter to your modem with an isolated ethernet line.

.....

Clean power

Switch mode power supply (SMPS) introduce high frequency noise and voltage spikes to normal sinusoidal alternating current. This noise has been demonstrated to travel retrograde and contaminate other power lines in your home and your neighborhood. Waversa products use either an internal linear power supply or lithium battery power, but switch mode power supply noise generated by other network sources can still pollute the audio signal. This issue has been considered and addressed by the WRouter’s incorporation of two isolated ethernet hubs. The normal LAN ports use linear power and the audio LAN ports are battery powered, providing complete power separation. Switching hub processors in each LAN area provide effective data distribution by separating distribution of music streaming data from distribution of data having nothing to do with music, such as behind the scenes network processing, firmware, LCD display commands, etc.


Large power transformers supply main power

...Linear power supplies are more stable than SMPS power supplies, so distortion is reduced by minimizing jitter and noise.


Battery-powered LAN audio ports

The four audio ports are designed to operate on a lithium-ion battery. By ensuring consistent, clean electrical current, Lithium-ion batteries allow for a more precise data stream. This level of performance is difficult to achieve even with a linear power supply. In addition, the ultra-low impedance characteristics of lithium-ion batteries absorb and remove even the smallest noise signals transmitted through connected signal lines to achieve noise-free performance.

 

LAN ports with Isolation and Noise Filtering

...In addition, two transformers are strategically placed to eliminate high-frequency noise, one between the two hardware network switch chips that communicate between the three ‘dirty’ side LAN ports near the power supply and the four ‘clean’ side battery-powered LAN ports connected to the audiophile components. The second is located after the switch chip for audio data. The four audio LAN ethernet ports have an additional filter so the signal to the audiophile devices is filtered twice.

 .....

Separate Internal Parallel Switches

The WRouter’s audio LAN ports and normal LAN ports are designed to be completely separated, using parallel internal switches. This separation of processors reduces latency relative to use of a single processor, reducing the chance of jitter due to overloading. This design also prevents internally processed packets from being delivered to the audio ports, thus improving the throughput of audio data.

 

Whole-cut duralumin chassis

The WRouter’s solid, CNC cut duralumin chassis minimizes the effects of vibration. In addition, the inside and outside are partitioned to a thickness of about 5 ~ 8mm, so that noise, whether generated externally or internally, does not interfere with the audio signal.

 

Floating structure design resistant to vibration

While the basic exterior armature is built to resist vibration, the structure itself is also designed to “float”, providing even more effective vibration suppression. This airborne structure makes it almost impossible to transfer vibrations, so there is no sound distortion due to vibration.


------------


All in all a decent stab at pointing the well-heeled yet unsuspecting audiophile towards pulling the trigger on what might appear to be a credible unit to an uncritical eye; albeit one priced at $4K.

For good measure a couple of graphs are thrown in alongside snaps of some of the hardware contained therein. The usual emphasis on filtration and implications of signal purity are tossed into the mix plentifully.

Leaving no stone unturned, great emphasis is also placed upon the importance of isolating against the harm caused by structural and airborne vibration control which seems to have now become the new hunting ground in snake oil audio.

The bait fixed, the trap duly set ; the rest is just a case of waiting for a bite.


Some might say that this kind of practice is harmless in itself. They might argue that anyone who falls for such an obvious scam dues so deservedly. Just another example of the free market at work. 

Fair enough if that's your view, but I'm more concerned of the harmful effect this kind of fraudulent behaviour will have upon the future of the high-end and the associated dealerships.

The high-end is already a veritable 'wild west' festooned with overpriced products of unsubstantiated quality often assembled by designers of unknown repute. You only have to see the back pages of any magazine to what lurks there.

For every Roy Gandy and Sean Casey there seems to be a thousand charlatans out there.

Dealers, no doubt faced with increasing financial pressures, who might be prepared to join in with this charade are risking their business becoming a laughing stock.

What a choice!  Who'd want to be a dealer today?

Only for love.
rixthetrick,

'And do you suppose that it cannot possibly be improved upon, in any way by anybody?'


No one is going to argue with that. Specifications and tolerances can always be improved. However, transmitting audio signals over Wi-Fi is not considered particularly challenging nowadays, is it?

It wasn't too long ago that wired connections were considered advisable for 4K etc but now most routers can manage it wirelessly. The demands required for streaming high definition audio should easily be well within the wireless capabilities of any router anywhere, shouldn't they?

Therefore shouldn't we be primarily concerned whether these improvements are of any actual sonic use to us, or are they merely just another marketing ploy to add another zero or 2 (or maybe even 3) to the price demanded?

That's the problem here, isn't it? The perennial problem facing all audiophiles; the fact that anyone, anywhere can sell anything regardless of whether it has any discernible effect for any price they choose. All they seemingly have to do is to imply some quasi-nebulous sonic improvement, and they have a mandate.

As many of us may have already fallen for this tactic previously, what does this say about us a group? Are we really so gullible and so easily led?

If so, then how should we protect ourselves against such devious attempts to hoodwink us?

The one thing that might help us would be the demand for more double blind testing, but that is usually met with much hostility and resistance by almost all sides. 

Alan Shaw once offered a free pair of Harbeth's top of the range M40 loudspeakers to anyone who was able to come down and successfully identify a sonic difference between 2 level matched amplifiers under such conditions at his factory. 

Guess what happened? No one took him up on his offer. Not even after years and years of debating and arguing the point!

Even more recently Gene Della Salla of Audioholics fame got into a Facebook spat with his sometimes sparring partner, none other than Michael Fremer, over the worth of power conditioners (see Audioholics Community).

Needless to say Fremer's responses so far have been far from convincing, merely reactionary and defensive. In previous times Michael was not always adverse to double blind testing.

Maybe times have changed and once more the scam continues as the cartel  continues to protect itself.

Fair enough, they all want to keep their jobs, but how do we audiophiles protect ourselves?
djones51,

’Anyone read that drive by advertisement by a shill?’



Unfortunately I did.

Both millercarbon and mahgister seem to know their way around what might best be (kindly) defined as environmentally determined psycho-acoustic effects.

Fair enough, if that’s their thing. In my case I haven’t experienced any room issues that I’m aware of, but then I’ve never had speakers with enough low bass that could trigger booming issues so it’s never been a problem.

My current speakers need a minimum of 8 inches behind them or else the sound can start to get thick, slow, muddy etc.

So I think we all understand about the need for a little experimenting with speaker positioning, as well as the importance of getting the tweeters up to ear height, especially for those speakers which may have narrower dispersion.

Most of us will also have some idea that the difference between direct sound and reflected sound will depend upon things like speaker placement/ toe in etc, the distance we are sitting from them, the volume we are listening at, and possibly the shape of the room and its surfaces.

Some of us might prefer a more lively/reflective room (bare walls, hard surfaces) and some might want a more acoustically dead room (furnishings, carpets, curtains, bookshelves etc).

I’m pretty certain none of us would want to listen in a echoey cave or an anechoic chamber.

I have a large glass window (4ft by 6ft)  close behind my listening position and sometimes I might prefer to close the curtains, but sometimes I might not. The effect is only barely perceptible either way.

I admit I can’t get my head around the mathematics needed for optimum acoustics but I’m not bothered. If the likes of the Floyd Toole and Siegfried Linkwitz say that we shouldn’t get too obsessed about room acoustics, well that’s good enough for me.

The likes of millercarbon and mahgister may disagree. Good for them.
janehamble,

’My philosophy about these things...if I need to ’blind test’ or switch the product in and out of my system, to double-check if it’s really improving anything - then it’s not doing enough for me.’


Does not compute.

If it’s so stunningly obvious to you then surely you’d welcome any comparison - sighted or unsighted.

Wouldn’t you?

For many years I also ’knew’ my Marantz CD player was better than my Sony MP3 player as a source for my main system.

Then one day, just for easy access to 64GB of stored music/playlists and unwillingness to keep getting up to change discs I wired up the MP3 player to my Creek amplifier with a bog standard RCA to to Sony connector (as that was all that was available).

All went well but I was a little concerned with the sound quality. It somehow sounded flat and dull to my ears.

To console myself that I shouldn’t be expecting too much from a mere £100 MP3 player I decided to compare some tracks with those ripped from the original CDs. I think they were mostly Doors tracks taken from Morrison Hotel and LA Woman and maybe a few from U2s Achtung Baby.

The next 15 minutes left me feeling very strange indeed.

Each and every comparison between the CD and MP3 output, with levels matched by ear, proved to be indistinguishable from one another.

I kind of felt sick and confused for a while. This was going in the face of everything I knew about audio - and I thought after 20 years I knew a few things.

I even tried to alter the EQ settings on the portable device but they had no effect on the feed going to the amplifier.

Then I remembered some of the stuff that I’d seen mentioned occasionally hidden away in the margins of the audio press. One such name was the writer / enthusiast Peter Aczel.

I managed to find some pdf copies of his magazine The Audio Critic, and then began to take a closer look.

That was my first steps on the road to Damascus, or at least its audio equivalent.

It was shocking, it was heretical, and it was disturbing. It was worse than Proust’s Marcel finding out his girlfriend was a lesbian and that his macho uncle a masochistic homosexual. Ok, maybe quite not that bad, but on the same page.

Yet some 10 years later I still have to find something he wrote that I know to be a falsehood.

Sadly it’s unsurprisingly getting harder and harder to access those magazines now, far too many vested interests who’d wish the name Peter Aczel to disappear from history, but you can still find the odd reference here and there.

In a perfect world I’d love to see decent reviewers such as Steve Guttenberg, who must have known Peter, at least discuss his writings and opinions, but I guess the business politics of the industry doesn’t work that way.

Aczel doesn’t seem to have made many friends in the audio press and in a world drowning in euphemism, he wasn’t one to pull his punches.

Here’s just a snippet of Aczel’s work. Once again calling out the lies that seem to pervade the world of consumer audio.

https://www.ecoustics.com/articles/ten-biggest-lies-audio/


https://www.biline.ca/audio_critic/audio_critic.htm