Network Switches

Things can always be more faithfully reproduced. You won't see the endgame for most faithfully reproduced in our lifetimes.

All the best,
Nonoise

jason_k2017 11-3-2019
Why would I install something which will change the audio that the studio took so much care to create, and my DAC has taken so much care to faithfully reproduce? It just doesn’t make any sense to me. Have I misunderstood what the switch manufacturers, and some of the posters on here, have stated a switch will do to my digital audio? I though a switch was a device that simply connected point a to point b.

Understandably you may not have read all of the posts in this lengthy thread. Please see the various posts in the thread by me and by Atdavid, which have offered technically-based explanations consistent with the many experience-based anecdotal reports that have been provided in recent years by highly experienced and very highly respected long-time members (such as David_Ten, Grannyring, and the two members I referred to in my initial post in this thread, among others), to the effect that network switches can significantly affect sonics. Begin with the first of my posts in this thread dated 10-29-2019.

As you’ll see, the reasons have nothing whatsoever to do with "changing the audio," and have nothing whatsoever to do with improving the accuracy with which bits are conveyed to the DAC (assuming the Ethernet link is functioning properly). They have everything to do with interactions involving ostensibly unrelated signals and circuitry, including interactions involving circuitry that is downstream of the Ethernet interface in the DAC or other receiving component. Interactions that are dependent on the spectral composition of the signal waveforms on the Ethernet link, which in turn can be presumed to vary significantly as a function of the characteristics of the particular switch and its power supply

Putting it all very simply, real-world circuits and systems do not necessarily behave in accordance with idealized conceptions of how they should behave.

I’ll add that while various "naysayers" who have posted in the thread have either completely ignored those explanations or have dismissed them as being "silly" and/or ignorant I feel safe in presuming that those members do not have extensive background performing detailed design of high speed electronic circuits comprising a mix of digital, analog, and D/A converter circuitry. If indeed they have any circuit design experience at all.

Regards,
-- Al

@nonoise

are you suggesting that I can improve on hearing a piece of music that sounds exactly as it sounded when it was encoded? And I can acheive that with a switch?
Or are you suggesting that my DAC does not decode properly?

@almarg 

interactions involving circuitry that is downstream of the Ethernet interface in the DAC or other receiving component. Interactions that are dependent on the spectral composition of the signal waveforms on the Ethernet link, which in turn can be presumed to vary significantly as a function of the characteristics of the particular switch and its power supply

I would have thought that in such an expensive piece of equipment the audio analog output would have been isolated from the ethernet digital input
I really don't understand this stuff. But I guess my answer is switches should be avoided if possible

@almarg I have said this before but you choose to ignore common sense and continue to spew techo-babble.

Your arguments assume that the ethernet signal as received by your audiophile switch is perfect and that your audiophile switch will transmit the signal to your DAC perfectly, counteracting (your words)...

 " interactions involving ostensibly unrelated signals and circuitry, including interactions involving circuitry that is downstream of the Ethernet interface in the DAC or other receiving component. Interactions that are dependent on the spectral composition of the signal waveforms on the Ethernet link, which in turn can be presumed to vary significantly as a function of the characteristics of the particular switch and its power supply".

The fact is that this signal has passed through hundreds of routers, repeaters, data centers, and switches prior to arriving at your router.  Are we to understand that all those networking devices have had no effect on the signal, thus allowing that signal to arrive at your digital doorstep in pristine condition?  Are we to further understand that the only place deterioration of the signal can occur is within the final switch and hence that switch needs to be a magical audiophile switch.

Your whole argument sounds like the same pseudo-scientific verbiage used to describe other incredibly overpriced nonsense products that plague hi-end audio.  

@jnorris20025, Almarg is the last person here who you'd want to accuse of spewing techno-babble. 

@jason_k2017, are you suggesting that what you're hearing is exactly as it was encoded? That your DAC is perfect? 

All the best,
Nonoise