[Roybenz]

I have taken a cheaper route by powering most of my network gear with iPowerX (12 & 9v) and 2 lan iSilencer units and I only stream Quboz and the sound now is very analogue. Its making my analogue setup - Dr Fieckert Woodpecker 2, Kuzma Stogi 12 vta, Lyra Delos setup nearly redundant now...

where did you put the iSilencers?

 

[OCC7N]

@OCC7N, thanks for posting the video about cascading switches, it was very informative. It was @teknorob23 who suggested that I put two iFi Elite powered network switches between my router and his Eno Ethernet filter system Ag to improve the SQ in my setup. https://www.networkacoustics.com/shop/eno-streaming-system/. It really worked to give the music a more analog and enjoyable sound.

His solution may not be the solution for you.

His speakers in general are not good sounding to my ears. I dont think his changes made better music actually.

This is a trend in audio, when the music is fuller more centered = its better.

Listen to the video again the first one sound much more separated and airy. The second was harsh, forced, centered, no layers, centered

Fibers are harsh to me with the little experience I have. Im starting to lean towards full ethernet, with just the Cisco CBS220, I might try the SFP one day, but that day is when my Netgate 2100 router has been replaced. 2025 maybe

 

[shogo33]

where did you put the iSilencers?

One at the WAN port of my Asus router. The second one at the output of the TP Link M9Deco slave mesh unit, which feeds the input of the TPLink FMC.

 

[shogo33]

Fibers are harsh to me with the little experience I have.

With the stock SMPS the TPLink FMC sounds too clean, analytical and sterile. These units need a low noise psu, i tried an original ifi ipower 9v and the ipowerX 9v and the latter was noticeably better. A LPS does give better mileage, and i tried the LHY unit and it does sound better than the ipowerX, but unless you have a spare LPS, it doesnt make much sense using it with an FMC as you need 2..plus its a costly exercise.

 

[Jake2]

I have taken a cheaper route by powering most of my network gear with iPowerX (12 & 9v) and 2 lan iSilencer units and I only stream Quboz and the sound now is very analogue. Its making my analogue setup - Dr Fieckert Woodpecker 2, Kuzma Stogi 12 vta, Lyra Delos setup nearly redundant now...

Nice. That looks a high quality analogue reference you have there. I have only a digital source in my system but have similarly found with all my noise and jitter reduction measures around ethernet and power/grounding my system sounds more natural and stress free, more... analogue I guess.

Funnily enough my only analogue ref in house is a modest old school style mono Sony FM radio running on D batteries. But fed a high quality loudness uncompressed recording broadcast by our Radio New Zealand Concert FM station the tone and timbre of mid-range content in the sweet spot of its small paper cone driver's range (it has no bass or real treble to speak of) is just so sweet and true. OK I have pimped it slightly with Fo.Q HF vibration damping and Dynamat Xtreme mass damping, so it's an FM radio living its best life

 

[bluenight]

I have taken a cheaper route by powering most of my network gear with iPowerX (12 & 9v) and 2 lan iSilencer units and I only stream Quboz and the sound now is very analogue. Its making my analogue setup - Dr Fieckert Woodpecker 2, Kuzma Stogi 12 vta, Lyra Delos setup nearly redundant now...

Thats seems very good
What streamer are you using?

 

[shogo33]

Thats seems very good
What streamer are you using?

I have an ifi ZenStream that i use occasionally, but generally use the ETH input of my R26. Both benefited from my network optimizations.

 

[shogo33]

Nice. That looks a high quality analogue reference you have there. I have only a digital source in my system but have similarly found with all my noise and jitter reduction measures around ethernet and power/grounding my system sounds more natural and stress free, more... analogue I guess.

Thanks @Jake2 . It was my point of reference that I never thought digital would ever come close to...and they say..never say never!

There is a certain warmth, calmness, fluidity, refinement, and equally the dynamics and extension that vinyl playback offers that I couldnt replicate with dacs for the last 13 years. There was always a few areas of trade off that I had to accept. These days the dacs are so well built, its literally splitting hairs and how deep your pockets are to get one that suits your system and taste.

You've hit the nail on the two areas - clean up your sources, from the ethernet and grounding points. The latter is something that I want to focus on down the track with the Puritan PSM offerings.

Funnily enough my only analogue ref in house is a modest old school style mono Sony FM radio running on D batteries. But fed a high quality loudness uncompressed recording broadcast by our Radio New Zealand Concert FM station the tone and timbre of mid-range content in the sweet spot of its small paper cone driver's range (it has no bass or real treble to speak of) is just so sweet and true. OK I have pimped it slightly with Fo.Q HF vibration damping and Dynamat Xtreme mass damping, so it's an FM radio living its best life

Before FM radio was decommissioned here in AUS to make way for digital broadcasting, I was lucky enough to actually hear a Sansui Tuner at my friend's place that sounded sublime. His dad had that old Sansui stack that was built like a tank, had dials galore but i was dumbfounded how good FM sounded...never again to repeat this experience.

 

[Roybenz]

I just tried downloaded quobuz (offline download) on usb ssd through quobuz app. Against Roon app with quobuz stream. I think the download sounds fuller and stream sounds thinner and little sharper. Is that even possible ?

Or am i just hearing the difference between quobuz app and roon app?

 

[sajunky]

Before FM radio was decommissioned here in AUS to make way for digital broadcasting, I was lucky enough to actually hear a Sansui Tuner at my friend's place that sounded sublime. His dad had that old Sansui stack that was built like a tank, had dials galore but i was dumbfounded how good FM sounded...never again to repeat this experience.

There is still FM radio in South Africa. I own Sansui tuner, used daily. Not a top of range, but stands against other tuners I heard.

 

[OCC7N]

 

[Slokid]

I'll preface with; although newer to this forum, I am very far from new to anything network/storage/server related. Professionally I've been involved with that space for over 21 years, and prior to that I've been gaming and building (or helping when extremely young) since I was about 7 (I'm going on 39 in a few weeks to give you an idea how long) lol. I know some of you all posting in here (I've read about 20-30 pages over last few days) are also in the same field.

NVME over ethernet and things talked about in this webinar have been gone through and tested in many different types of use cases for years before this. Now what we are using NVME based storage for is downright insane. I know this because the company I worked for (which my mother owns so even as far as 14-15 I was helping with build outs) has been an IBM Premiere Business Partner, Lenovo Partner (after IBM sold off the x86 side), DELL, Purestorage, etc. etc. etc. Our customer base, for those that live in Houston was literally the entire medical center, granted some of gone to other solutions in the recent years while the rest still work with us. So dealing with literally storage speed/high-availability servers & storage/network interconnects whether it be LAN or WAN from basic 10GBe to now insanely fast Fiber connections. Which sadly I remember 25GB/s being insane to me and now my next home network upgrade I'm going from 10GB switch to switch to 25GB switch to switch.

NVME on a motherboard (or PCIe card), hell even a 2.5" standard SSD literally is the best anyone can EVER need for audio, reality though even a 7200RPM drive is more than fine and will not add any interference/etc and if it does you have other issues. The way the above video talks about has been implemented in many storage solutions now. Look up Purestorage and their offerings, which can be in the MULTI million dollar area.

Data is data at the end of the day it's literally 1's and 0's, going from a NAS to a DAC to a streamer located on the network, Streamer/DAC using Tidal, Streamer/DAC pulling from a NAS it's literally all the same. Regardless of all these claims on like the modified hubs that just have a different oscillator on it (less than $10 part change). LinusTechTips did a video on it that would help explain to the people less tech savvy. Now if your house came pre-wired for CAT5/5E/6/etc there are chances there could be problems with some runs because of a multitude with things. My current home I ran every ethernet drop in the house to be prepared for house wide 10GBe, so I know there are no issues there. Where as the lake house we had built 5 years ago out of the 36 drops run by the builder with the overpriced and worthless Savant system there were some cables that couldn't transmit gigabit (we could get 100) and some that just plain didn't work.

I do not doubt things like audio cables make a difference, because I've heard it myself. But when it comes to network I can tell you unless you have issues with the cables in the house, there is no difference to be made with digital.

Should also note that besides computers my brother and I build do a lot of car stuff. He and I both own multiple "world records" for Porsche stuff on stock motors, first to make certain numbers on Porsches, etc. We don't own a business for it, it's just for our own fun. I bring this up because we literally have our own Dynojet 248X to be able to test things that claim to add extra power, clean things up on the powerband, etc. So we know if it's a placebo or its real. With networking, again taking out poorly ran cables/damaged/etc. it's a placebo effect or when all things were upgraded just like in that Linus video people upgraded multiple things at a time so sure they noticed a difference but it had nothing to do with it. The 1's and 0's don't need help...

 

[griff500]

As always with such posts, not on topic and it’s nothing to do with data integrity. There is science section of the forum for such discussions but this thread is about user’s personal experience.

In my opinion, the differences perceived are likely related to quality of components (and particularly the PSU) and any cables involved. A different network cabe can make a surprising difference, the degree to which it helps possibly being related to environment, other components used and other factors that might influence the resulting sound, but certainly nothing whatsoever to do with data integrity.

 

[Slokid]

As always with such posts, not on topic and it’s nothing to do with data integrity. There is science section of the forum for such discussions but this thread is about user’s personal experience.

In my opinion, the differences perceived are likely related to quality of components (and particularly the PSU) and any cables involved. A different network cabe can make a surprising difference, the degree to which it helps possibly being related to environment, other components used and other factors that might influence the resulting sound, but certainly nothing whatsoever to do with data integrity.

You are right as far as the users personal experience and the discussion of just that. I will step back and apologies to the OP.

I went a little overboard regardless and I do apologize for doing so. There are somethings that have been talked about in the post that are good ways to do things, but others I would rather make sure factual data is given, NOT an opinion that could cause someone else to spend money only to realize they noticed nothing.

 

[griff500]

You are right as far as the users personal experience and the discussion of just that. I will step back and apologies to the OP.

I went a little overboard regardless and I do apologize for doing so. There are somethings that have been talked about in the post that are good ways to do things, but others I would rather make sure factual data is given, NOT an opinion that could cause someone else to spend money only to realize they noticed nothing.

No need to apologise - compared to others you have been nothing but polite and respectful.

I think everyone realises that data integrity is not affected and is not an issue. Unfortunately a lot of time has been wasted on that particular topic, with vast numbers of rather angry posts removed and particularly persistent offenders removed, so I am always keen to avoid going down the same dead end. As you have heard the impact of cables on sound I’d be interested to hear your thoughts if you ever try a decent network cable from your router to your streamer. The cable I use was available on a sale or return basis, which was the only reason I tried it as I expected nothing. I was rather surprised. A lot of others have found the same thing with the same negative expectation going in.