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Post by Chris on Oct 31, 2022 16:16:15 GMT -5
ASR already addressed this but in case anyone is still confused about this, this video will make it clear that "Audiophile" Network Switches have NO effect on sound quality.
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Dave R
Junior Member
Posts: 79
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Post by Dave R on Nov 1, 2022 5:51:45 GMT -5
I really have a good laugh at audiophile ethernet cables. So a couple of guys came over quite a while back to hear my speakers. I use a plain old PC and plain old digital cables. We listened to a few tracks and one of them says "Hey, indulge me, try this USB cable." I put it in the system, he said there was an immediate improvement. The strings, for instance were more delineated. Then he said we should try his USB interface. Another significant improvement. Then he said it sounded better if the data was pushed to the PC instead of the PC having to retrieve it off of another PC (my files are on a PC in a closet, not on the PC playing the music). So I set that up. Another improvement. And then there was how much better a linear power supply sounds over a standard PC power supply, all of which are switching supplies. We hooked up his PC with linear power supply. Each time he was hearing the improvements, they were not subtle.
As some of you know, I have a preamp/crossover that I built quite a while ago that I can control from the PC and switch inputs on the fly from within Foobar. So to demonstrate all the improvements, we hooked up his PC with linear power supply and all his improvements to one input and my crappy old PC and cables to another. We cued up the same track on both PCs and hit play. During the track I switched back and forth. His comment was "I can't hear any difference."
People pooh pooh blind testing, but it's the only way to get honest results. This is true with so many things, not just audio.
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Post by speakertom on Nov 1, 2022 7:00:22 GMT -5
I'm in the process of running a double blind test on two USB cables. One is a generic "giveaway" and the other is the Kingrex. It is a difficult test as no switchers are used, but rather I manually change the cables according to a pattern established by a random sequence generator on the web. There will be four people in the test and they will be done separately so there is no collusion between those doing the test. My equipment is in the basement so no one can see what I am doing during either the known "calibration" tests or the final blind trials. It is a very involved process that should be interesting because my speakers are very high resolution and the room has extensive acoustic treatments. When done, I will write it up for audioXpress.
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Post by sailor on Nov 1, 2022 8:23:47 GMT -5
I was a believer that once in the digital domain that bits are bits and that all the special accessories that are being touted to improve the sound were a bunch of smoke and mirrors.
Now I have experienced a few products that cause me to doubt that bit of dogma.
I have to believe my ears when I have done some A/B testing on my system. I tested an Uptone switch which has one isolated ethernet port and four regular ports. This is a $600 piece of kit.
I can play a file with my music server plugged into a regular port and then move the cable to the isolated port and there is a clear improvement in the musicality of the signal. I quickly parted with my $600 and bought the unit.
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