Hello myself and northeast Audio club have done a lot of testing ,
a simple switch is very noisy , I own both uptone audio ,Ether regen ,around $5-650 as well as Sonore deluxe. Both of these needs high quality Linear Power Supply to truly be optimum ,by far the best best built and sonically is the Linear Tube Audio is a great buy and over 6 pounds with a very good Dc cable modt chsrge $150 extra the only upgrade That works is fuse to synergistic purple and put a decent power cord a solid 10% improvement still the Linear Tube Audio LPS is $750
one company in Hong Kong by friend tried Ediscreation - extreme is pretty decent but at $1800 Waay over priced s Hong Kong dollar very over priced, and if any issue send back to Hong Kong ,very $$
by far the best I have heard is the Synergistic Ethernet switch which comes with the $200 purple fuse,a $500 power cord it Retails $2200 but can be bought around $1700 and built in high end power supply ,this is actually a excellent product your streaming is much much more analog and detailed ,my brother owns one and that may be my next purchase. in my system it made a nice improvement and I already have a Denafrips Hermes DDC that cleans up digital noise very well . Each product mentioned above works to cleanup noise coming after the router, which BTW
I bought a LPS 12v up to 8amp from little green computer for $299 and put a Pangea sig power cord with a synergistic Orange fuse. Got rid of the noisy junk wall wart plug , a noticeable improvement and made even wifi signal to TV better, yes these are tweaks but, being a Audiophile nothing is off the table to try .I just wanted to mention this ,and see what others maybe using , Enjoy you 🎶 music 🎼
Fredrik222 just because others may have a lot of hype,there are some verygood switches out there , the SW8 for the money is a solid investment for under $600
if you have not owned it ,then you speak with-0 credibility.
the innuos Ethernet switch is the best IHave heard built from the ground up at $3500 it makes a statement my brother owns it and imaysave for one .
theJaysAudio SW8 is solid ,add a decent power cord and Synergistic purple fuse itsa nice increase in fidelity .I do agree with you on many synergistic products
but their fuses do deliver ,there are many people and reviews to back That up
For the average Audiophile as I mentioned yesterday most people know JaysAudio
for there nice digital transports He has a new line the LHY SR8 iwill say it’s built very well it has Linear power supplies, regulators even a high quality over clock for under $600 a great buy , forsure you will hear the improvements .thst being said this over clock needs a solid 300 hour runin ,and to gains solid additional 5+%
a decent aftermarket power-cord we used the Pangea sg ,mk2-awg14 ,as with any piece of gear , and the crappy stock buzz fuse,to a synergistic purple fuse . I bought mine after testing a-bunch at our audio get together .I owned the Sonore and uptone compared them using a external7 v SBooster LPS . The reviewer below did a credible review, but no idea how many hours he put on it and I personally spoke with Jays audio via email 300 hours for the Oven clock, and he didnot have the synergistic purple fuse, nor decent power-cord theSonore ,or uptone are over $1k with a decent LPS this unit almost $1k with add ones which I feel a solid 10-12% vs a stock switch , steady 6% just doing nothing but breakin ,check it out.. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NTqmCfq8TP8
Regarding the Best Swiss for your $$ spent Jays Audio this below is his brand,which has a bunch of quality in it ,by friend bought his before me , this has a Over controlled lock ,linear power supplies, fully regulated ,I see a couple reviews . This stays on always and take a solid 2 weeks to fully run in and absolutely works ,smoother ,quieter and more natural, that being said and myself being into testing modding for years 2 guaranteed upgrades , 1. But a pangea awg 14 sigmk2 power cord ,far better then junk stock cord ,and upgrade junk steel zinc buzz fuse remove the bottlenecks synergistic purple fuse 1.25amp 20 mm slow blow fuse these two
made a very nice improvement the switch itself vs cheap switch at least a 5% improvement in every area ,and much blacker background and more natural .IMO the fuse, is essential as well as the power cord ,they both directly effect the incoming power ,remove the bottle necks this gives it a solid 12% increase in musicality,the fuse a solid 250 hours ,synergistic states in the instructions 2-300 hours it is pretty spot on . We tested his after breakin with 7 people and several switches including the Sonore,and uptone , then with fuse and power cord allowing 1 hr to warm up , 6 out of 7 said without question , the Sonore and uptone had a Sbooster LPS . It’s a very good buy IMO.
I would like to mention I had the with Ethernet to fiber optic converter going to
a Sonore deluxe yes it cleaned up the signal but bleached the integrity of the music
innuos $$ fantastic Ethernet hub even stated they tried everything Copper still the best if totally isolated ,uptone too all these need a respectable separate LPS to make them sound good which is over $1k+ a decent powercord, and remove the junk steel zinc Buzz fuse ,which I did all the above the Synergistic purple parts connecxion 20% off sale $160 vs $200 makes a very good upgrade with a inexpensive Pangea power cord which together at least a 5-7% improvement
Here up is one very good upgrade that many people overlook when streaming
I bought a 12v up to 8 amp Linear Power Supply for my router from little green computer $295 , most have a modem-router combo this makes a noticeable upgrade ,I added a Pangea power cord and started with a Synergistic blue fuse,
pThe purple fuse through parts connecxion with 20% off sale Va very nice Sonic improvement if you stream it is essential for at bare minimum a 5% improvement
I also bough5 a upgraded DC cable from LPS to the router, if you just run music from a hard drive ,then not worth it ,but for streaming a must.
I bought a Motorola 8702 which has the latest docsis 3.1 ,many still has 3.0
3.1 has a 4 core processor 4x faster,bigger buffer and Wifi is even better for Roku on tv.
I promised the MFG that I would give it 250 + hours or so before stating my thoughts .these oven clocks take a solid 300 hours from my experience at minimum. the upgraded cable, and synergistic purple fuse is my choosing for
most everyone knows a decent quality power cord makes improvements ,
as well as the many reviews on the Synergistic purple fuse ,which I feel well worth the extra $300 +595 on the switch . To some 5-7% is not a big enough improvement ,if you have $500+ powercords to put on any Ethernet or LPS will be
a noticeable improvement vs the 💩 crappy stock power cord. And I own
the Sonore ,and uptone audio Ethernet converters ,stay tuned .
Currently I am auditioning a very well built Audiophile Ethernet switch under $600
with very good regulation and a very rare for the rice over controlled clock .
as usual I always max out it’s potential ,a inexpensive Pangea power cord $150
is a noticeable increase in fidelity and a synergistic Purple fuse discounted $160
to gain a solid 7+% is a bargain in Audiophile terms .I give this unit 250:hours before stating the results .the competition requires a external power supply ,this has a LPS plus regulated power supplies . In the $600 range with Built in $600
Is within the reach of most everyone and the fuse and power cord can be added later and still reap most of the rewards.I just received it 2 days ago.
@cleedshow much ridicule can you take? Even after Qobuz 110% contradicted what you said about Qobuz, you continued. Laughs all around.
Logicial fallacy: ad hominem.
We’re talking about digital audio and ethernet here. Many users report hearing differences after installing an ethernet switch or making other network improvements. Let’s please keep it on topic.
I'll probably go with the Networks Acoustics filter, cable, switch solution. The SR switch and the SR Ethernet cable look interesting also - reports are multiple switches bring incremental improvements.
Back when freddy and I danced, he admitted he had tried some ethernet stuff and couldn’t hear a difference. That says it all right there. Keep this up and he’ll write out all those ethernet protocols again.
It is sad that some only show up to throw mud. A different tack may be to give some of these items a try. If your system is fairly resolving, you'll be able to hear the improvement, and then you'll also be able to comment on what they do and if it is worth it to you.
My experience with improving my digital signal feeding my dCS Vivaldi upsampler and DAC with incremental hardware improvements includes: Etherregen, 4 different CAT cables, Farad LPS with SR fuse and their best cables, AfterDark mid tier ($1300) 10 Mhz clock and premium cables, a second full Farad LPS set up like the first, installed fiber to the Etherregen so I could go back and forth between copper and glass. I had created a $4000 house of cards that did in fact produce better sounding music out of my Vivaldi digital system. I then replaced the dCS upsampler with a Grimm MU1 streamer/server. I tested each piece of kit with the Grimm and none of it made better music than the cheap builder grade CAT 6 feeding directly into the Grimm. I also had to get to a Sigma V2 to better the standard supplied cheapo power cord.
My point is that as streaming matures companies like Grimm are adding jitter and noise reducing technology inside their boxes. They also engineered their power supplies so you don't have to buy exotic cords to get great sound. By my own ears I know the additive boxes and cables discussed in this forum do improve many systems, but in the longer run they will be built into more streamers in the future. And yes, I hope there will be tweaks for the next generation of streamers as well.
A lot but not all of the noise people refer to in digital systems is of frequencies beyond the audible range. Both this noise and noise that’s within the audible range has a distorting effect on the purity of the signal, and the audible effects of this distortion is what people can identify by ear, not necessarily the noise itself. Tube hiss, ground loop hum, crackling, buzzing, or rattling are usually a different type of noise than is referred to.
I never heard 'noise' in my streaming system. I just heard better sound with the upgraded switch. Was it 'blacker' or 'quieter'? Perhaps, but it sure sounded better to my ears.
Maybe I’m just lucky, but I haven’t had any noise problems with my last two homes. And as some of you may know, I purchased a couple of those TP Eithernet to Optical boxes a ten dollar cable to see if I could hear a difference and I did not. I’ve been using Spectrum internet to their modem to a Netgear Blackhawk router.
Here we go again. A switch will not do anything, at all, ever, for sound quality.
Yes, and you repeating your claim over and over won't make it true.
...as for synergistic research, the owner, Ted Denney, has posted online how he makes money of fools buying his products that doesn’t do anything. So there is that.
That's just fiction. Why not just stick to the facts?
Hello @audioman58, I have done many things to maximize the sound of my streaming. I have no fibre.
All network cables upgraded to Supra Cat8. not expensive. There are other options discussed by @lalitkfor upgrading ethernet cables at reasonable cost.
Network Acoustics Muon Pro System. noticeable improvement.
JCAT M12 Gold Switch with JCAT Optimo 3 power supply. Big improvement, I needed a switch anyway, and this one sounds fantastic. I tried Bonn 8 but it was not impressive. I first had only the M12, and I easily heard the upgrade. Then I added the power supply and it was even a bigger difference. Both are up for sale on US Audiomart from someone.
I formerly had EtherRegen, but the switch and the Muon easily made this obsolete.
Also the addition of the M12, with it's included cables replaced the short Supra cables. I
Anyone who has said the switch makes no difference has likely not heard the impact of the M12 with good Power Supply in a resolving system.
I own an Aurender N200 and they claim they have Double Isolated LAN ports that provide two layers of transformer-based isolation to filter noise out of Ethernet connection. How exactly would a Audiophile switch improve on this and would the improvement even be noticeable or worth the money, To me it's similar to these power conditioning devices. Some people notice HUGE improvements, and some notice no improvements. The degree of dirty power everyone has is different and the degree of how well it will improve their audio equipment will depend on the quality of the built in power supplies and the quality of their existing equipment. In my opinion this is a YMMV to the extreme. My Opinion is completely based on what others have said and tried and I have no practical experience with this myself. With this being said I've never tried Audiophile grade switches or any devices claiming to reduce noise on my ethernet, so I continue to read posts like this and POSSIBLY try something someday.
I didn’t see anyone addressing yet another source of noise in the internet collection of devices. The internet source itself. Especially if you are getting TV over your cable also, like with Xfinity. I put an inexpensive PS Audio, ’HUMZERO’ on the input line to my modem and that eliminates all but the internet itself by way of creating an airgapped situation for your modem and router. it. Simple problem, simple solution. Now that Xfinity has installed Fiberoptic into my neighborhood even that has been reduced to only a slight concern now.
OMG did I just say something nice about XFINITY? I'm' sorry.
I had my ISP route the cable signal to the coax in my listening room. Bought my own Modem and separate router. I run optical from the router to a LHY SW-8 network switch (fiber media converters with 5 Volt LPS’s) and out of the SW-8 to my music server. The fiber optic link was the biggest bang for the buck for me. The SW-8 and Pangea Ethernet cables in between improved the sound even further.
Added benefit: I ran an Ethernet cable from the SW-8 to my TV. Large improvement in picture quality when streaming.
I feel that we are doing with streaming the same as we did some years ago: to add and add and add tweaks, small devices, big devices, LPS everywhere.
I think that as happened with DACs this have to be solved and provided by the streamer manufacturer. Probably the state of the art for streaming is not mature what leave us several options: to wait till technology matures, keeping a not very good streamer, to add all these devices and to spend hundreds if not thousands of $, to use this money to buy now a better streamer.
I prefer the first option and save for the future despite of losing the pleasure of testing new and strange devices.
Seems to be a great value for its construction and quality.
Using a Fiio LPS for my streamer that cost only (about) $130. This was another marked improvement to the sound quality over a switching supply, even if only by virtue of removing potential noise from my Chang Lightspeed power bar.
Im currently using these filters on either side of my Ethernet cable:
I have the DX Engineering filters between every network component and definitely hear a positive difference.
The "rabbit hole" reference above made me think of the Down The Rabbit Hole: Network Tweaks & Streamer DIY blog at TMR which has become my go-to reference for network enhancements. The featured contributor who goes by "Nenon" in other forums describes modding and stacking several Buffalo BS-GS2016 switches with good results. I am cost conscious so now only have two Cisco WS-C2960-8TC-S switches for $30 each stacked before my EtherRegen, short cabling (Supra Cat 8), stand alone modem near the rig, linear power supplies, fiber isolating the wifi as Nenon suggests - I'm one of the few it seems who don't like fiber as much as copper right in the audio path, maybe because of the converter noises people have mentioned.
Anyway, I've been pleased with the results by following the guidance in the article. When most every network tweak can be heard, I have little doubt the various switches mentioned here make a difference. Worth considering optimizing each component and connection along the way as an alternative to a single magic-bullet box. I just swapped out the last crappy ethernet cable near the modem to Supra and that really was a massive improvement.
Here we go again. A switch will not do anything, at all, ever, for sound quality.
and as for synergistic research, the owner, Ted Denney, has posted online how he makes money of fools buying his products that doesn’t do anything. So there is that.
and, John Swenson of UpTone, Etherregen producer, has been ridiculed for making up terms which he admitted was to fool laymen.
I run my Etherregen on a Ferrum Hypsos hybrid power supply, purple SR fuse and an external clock on a long dog audio LPS with an orange fuse. Upgraded power cords an word clock cable. it's fed by fibre and exits via short AQ vodka directly into my digital streaming amp.
I used to run Ethernet through power line at the start.
My system sounds totally different now to then.
I think the switch is key because I use the Lyngdorf TDAI3400 built in streamer. If I ran a separate high quality streamer I think the switch would be far less critical.
However, I don't think it's a rabbit hole. I think it depends on your system and your situation.
May be for you, the network is the weakest point. But for someone else, it's NOT. We trying our best to improve the weakness parts, to make the system tonal balance. Spending a lot of money on one thing helps less IMO.
I personally enjoy the ideas and experience shared in the forum. It helped a lot and some times I just them in another way. And it did make my system better and better, at least for me and some friends came a lot.
I use EERO mesh network and a Network Acoustics Eno Streaming System (Ethernet cable and passive filter) from EERO into my Bricasti M3 DAC. Tried a D-Link switch between the EERO and Eno, didn’t like it.
That’s good most modern systems have a Modem-router combo
this still means 2 respectable Ethernet cables the most important is at the end point
these cables can get pricy I spent $750,and $1k
and that is mid grade by Audiophile standards , thsts why the Ethernet quality hub is that much more important , I also a DDC before the dac that cleans up the usb signal , top dacs don’t need it , the T+A 200 dac is on my Xmas gift to myself which is around $7k has galvanic isolation and a bunch of cutting edge technologie.
it’s a Best Buy dac even vs dacs over $12k it’s that good ,Thst being said
the Synergistic Research Ethernet hub will change your mind about streaming .
Best $100 I ever spent was 2 Media converters and using fibre between router to rack, then a short shielded cat6 cable to streamer. All noise from ethernet gear “went away”.
You are using Sigma Ethernet cable which uses a pair of CMode filters. In theory, you don’t need any additional switches between the wall and your streamer. Sigma is doing its job of filtering noise. As an alternative, you could bring Network Acoustics Muon Pro kit which comes with their excellent Muon Ethernet cable on both ends. The cost is similar to Sigma Ethernet cable but you may hear an improvement with Muon Pro passive filter over the Sigma. As you know, Muon comes with 30 days money back guarantee and Rich at N.A. is a straight shooter. Give it a try!
I did notice that for some time you have had lots of Synergistic Research on your virtual system. I’m game for upgrading my Ethernet, or maybe adding a new power supply, but just added $13K of gear to my gym without wife’s approval and the dog house is not air conditioned. I’ve got the same purchasing issues with all my buying in that I don’t buy the best, but I go for 80% of the best before the really steep buying curve.
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