Snake oil of the year?

@yage

With apologies to Paul Simon and Mose Allison

“It’s really not my habit to intrude
Furthermore, I hope my meaning
Won’t be lost or misconstrued
But I’ll repeat myself
At the risk of being crude” your gotcha moment ain’t got me dude.

In one word, forgetaboutit.

I watched untill it was clear this was a test of a COMPUTER based signal into a snazzy headphone amp.

Having converted years back from computer streaming to using a streamer, I’ll stay with a streamer, roubust PSU and ethernet cleanup with no switch (filter’s yes).

I’m willing to admit that I don’t know about high end computer audio.

On my rig the JCat is top dog. Naturally I have listened with and without it.

I’m also willing to admit of possible bais with new grear but this snake oil is non toxic and delicious.

“Please don’t talk about me when I’m gone
Though our love has ended from now on
If you can’t say anything real nice
Just don’t talk at all, that’s my advice

You’ll go your way, I’ll go mine
It’s better that we do
Here’s a kiss I hope that this
Brings lots of love to you

Makes no difference how I carry on
Please don’t talk about me when I’m gone.”

Hope you know I’m kidding.

I’m not kidding that better liniear power into a swich, filter, Roon Nucleus, makes a difference to all (2) of my test subjects who I pay to agree with me by the trap of marriage (I digress). If that educational video had fitted either switch maybe with a great PSU that would have cured my ADD rather than caused it

@yage : it’s not about the “data”. Everyone knows that. Basic stuff Sherlock. It’s about other stuff that travels on the Ethernet transmission line for a ride and straight into you equipment. Mainly leakage—both high-impedance and low-impedance—and clock phase-noise.

 Either the data gets to it's destination recoverable or not . If there is to much "other stuff" then the data isn't recoverable. This applies to emails, bill pay through your bank, accessing medical records or music streams all of which go through dozens if not  hundreds of nodes. In audio if the DAC can read the data you're good to go but of course this is all basic stuff Mycroft. 

@thyname 

I'm not sure I follow what you mean by 'leakage'. Do you mean noise?

If so, the minds behind the Ethernet spec thought of this. That's why the cables use twisted pairs of wires and the physical connections are transformer coupled. Additionally, signalling is differential. This is all to reduce noise and ensure error-free data transmission.

Clock phase noise (i.e. jitter) will cause bit errors if at a high enough level. Fortunately, you can check for errors by using the 'netstat -e' command on Windows or the 'netstat -i' command on macOS. On my Macbook Pro, it currently shows zero errors out of ~3.8 M frames received.

@wsrrsw 

I'd like to believe you, but I'm afraid it just doesn't make any sense. If a PSU could improve the performance of a switch, don't you think the Cisco Systems of the world would advertise PSU upgrades for all their switches to get the 'best performance' and sell more product? I'm sure they wouldn't mind the additional revenue.

Here's a test you should try if your family is game - have someone switch out (see what I did there?) your JCAT one day without you knowing. Let them keep track of whether or not you heard a difference over ten trials. Could be fun.

@yage I have done an A/B test. I’m in N Cal and if you are too you are welcome to hear for yourself.