The Ethernet cables, Switches and Network related sound thread. Share your listening experience only.

[matthia]

I don't know if this is of interest to anybody and a good solution using direct sfp?

Maybe overpriced and for rich people mostly. Maybe other brands can eventually make more cost friendly options.

It seems to have brought nice improvements for the reviewer.

https://the-ear.net/review-hardware/melco-c1-d20-sfp-a-direct-connection/

This is a special "audiophile" version of this cable category.
You get "non audiophile" versions for much less than 50 Euro.
Search for SFP+ Direct Attach Cable

 

[bluenight]

This is a special "audiophile" version of this cable category.
You get "non audiophile" versions for much less than 50 Euro.
Search for SFP+ Direct Attach Cable

But will they sound as good?
Or are melco overcharging being known brand.

The review would have been more interesting comparing with a less expensive sfp+ cable then.

 

[matthia]

The review would have been more interesting comparing with a less expensive sfp+ cable then.

Indeed,
please be encouraged not to believe that all products labeled "audiophile" are musically superior to "non audiophile" ones.
Often it is quite the contrary. In all cases I would perform a comparison in my set-up and decide with my ears/brain which I prefer.

 

[bluenight]

I will try but its easy to fall for more expensive is better thinking admittedly.

 

[matthia]

I will try but its easy to fall for more expensive is better thinking admittedly.

Trust your ears!

 

[Tubewin]

I noticed turning off my 5g and 2g wifi from my router settings improved SQ in my overall system.

For desktop users, another thing I learned from @dunring , make sure all of the usb controllers in device manager have their "allow pc to turn off to save power" unchecked under power management.
Under edit power plan and change advanced power options make sure turn hard disk after is set to 0 ("so it'll never put your SSD/NVME drive into standby mode"), and put USB selective suspend settings to disabled.

 

[Jake2]

I noticed turning off my 5g and 2g wifi from my router settings improved SQ in my overall system.

I found this too - an audible negative effect of having wifi switched on router - even on low transmit power and after inserting fibre media converters between router and downstream gear and putting copper shielding between (and around) router and audio gear. Pretty inconvenient having wifi off though so have an access point I’ve been meaning to setup some distance from router and hifi gear with cheap FMCs in between.

 

[OCC7N]

I noticed turning off my 5g and 2g wifi from my router settings improved SQ in my overall system.

For desktop users, another thing I learned from @dunring , make sure all of the usb controllers in device manager have their "allow pc to turn off to save power" unchecked under power management.
Under edit power plan and change advanced power options make sure turn hard disk after is set to 0 ("so it'll never put your SSD/NVME drive into standby mode"), and put USB selective suspend settings to disabled.

Do the same on the network adapter in device manager.

 

[OCC7N]

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[OCC7N]

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[OCC7N]

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[Jake2]

I don’t suppose anyone here is one of the early adopters of this new Afterdark (AD) switch by any chance and can comment on how it compares to other switches? FWIW AD do include a testimonial on the AS special offer page from someone who purports to be a Phoenix Net user.

I ask as with the great result I got with my Rosanna-moonlighting-as-fancy-FMC (a level over the Teradak OCXO version which is pretty nicely built itself, see link below) I’m seriously considering one or more other Afterdark networking products, especially with their Munich special offer (they’re a bit expensive at full retail, but good value after discount especially if one already has or intends to get an external clock, or in the case of some of their other networking products that take a DC 5v input, a high quality external LPS).



https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/...le-switch-high-end-munich-2024-special-offer/

https://www.adark.co/collections/pr...udiophilestyle-edition?variant=40135100629110

Teradak link - https://kamaudio.com/TeraDak-T-S212-SFP-media-converter

 

[tholt]

Basic question here. I'm looking to improve, if possible, my network setup. I have a router/modem unit that I'm stuck with as it's the only one the ISP uses. And the way my house is situated, the router/modem is in the furthest room possible away from my audio setup. So I'm using a wifi extender to get the signal, then hardwiring from the extender into my Innuos streamer/server unit which supplies my music (mostly Tidal, some local files).

I don't have any other things plugged into the wifi extender other than the Innuos. Is it possible to improve upon this configuration at all? I can't hardwire from the main router/modem (impractical), I've already tried powerline network adapters (didn't work/noisy). I have linear PSUs on the main router/modem and the wifi extender. Any advice or thoughts are appreciated.

In a nutshell:
Main router/modem → [wifi] → Wifi extender → [ethernet cable + SOtM iso-CAT 6 isolater] → Innuos Zen streamer/server

 

[greenblured]

Basic question here. I'm looking to improve, if possible, my network setup. I have a router/modem unit that I'm stuck with as it's the only one the ISP uses. And the way my house is situated, the router/modem is in the furthest room possible away from my audio setup. So I'm using a wifi extender to get the signal, then hardwiring from the extender into my Innuos streamer/server unit which supplies my music (mostly Tidal, some local files).

I don't have any other things plugged into the wifi extender other than the Innuos. Is it possible to improve upon this configuration at all? I can't hardwire from the main router/modem (impractical), I've already tried powerline network adapters (didn't work/noisy). I have linear PSUs on the main router/modem and the wifi extender. Any advice or thoughts are appreciated.

In a nutshell:
Main router/modem → [wifi] → Wifi extender → [ethernet cable + SOtM iso-CAT 6 isolater] → Innuos Zen streamer/server

I have a similar network setup for my bedroom rig. I find that using a dedicated 2.4 GHz band set to 20 MHz for the wifi extender gives the best SQ. No other 2.4 GHz clients connected. You can use a tri-band wireless router to do that. I don't have any other 2.4 GHz clients. So I just use a two-band wireless router.
I use 2.1 kg ground boxes with silver 14 AWG wires on the modem, router and extender. Connected to unused USB inputs. It does make a difference- lowers high frequency noise. Using silver DC-cables on the LPS's + upgraded fuses also makes a positive difference. I use HiFi-tuning silver supreme.

 

[tholt]

I have a similar network setup for my bedroom rig. I find that using a dedicated 2.4 GHz band set to 20 MHz for the wifi extender gives the best SQ. No other 2.4 GHz clients connected. You can use a tri-band wireless router to do that. I don't have any other 2.4 GHz clients. So I just use a two-band wireless router.
I use 2.1 kg ground boxes with silver 14 AWG wires on the modem, router and extender. Connected to unused USB inputs. It does make a difference- lowers high frequency noise. Using silver DC-cables on the LPS's + upgraded fuses also makes a positive difference. I use HiFi-tuning silver supreme.

Interesting. Unfortunately my ISP forces me to use their own modem/router combo unit, which is dual band. What I currently do is have my wifi extender set to only receive the 5 ghz band from the main router/modem. So in that sense, it's not sharing the 2.4 ghz band that most devices in the house connect to. I have my Innuos Zen hardwired into the wifi extender and have set the extender ethernet ports to 5 ghz, so in essence it's the only device on the 5 ghz band I suppose? My wifi extender broadcasts both 2.4 and 5ghz bands, and there are wifi devices that are on the 2.4 ghz band of the extender. I'm not sure if those wifi devices are polluting the signal or not. I'm not sure how the wifi extender isolates (if at all) wired connections vs wireless connections.