2. digital
  3. 184574-435

Ethernet switches the good and bad

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 🎼 

128x128audioman58
discopants
149 posts
 

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. 

fredrik222
522 posts
 

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. 

fredrik222
522 posts
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMFQ3YvR3Eo&t=1012s

tomrk
66 posts
 

@audioman58 "a simple switch is very noisy "

What is the nature of the noise?   Can you describe it and it's effect on the data stream?  Are you seeing re-transmits or lost packets? 

agirard's avatar
agirard
15 posts
 

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. 

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