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

[bluenight]

My chain was already not harsh. I have 2 puritan psm156's feeding power to almost everything.

I use three devices at the same time in the chain. LHY FMC to the LHY SW-10 to the EtherRegen.

Can't go wrong with quality stuff.

 

[camrector]

So what can be the benefits of using better clocks inside audiophile switches exe oxco clocks over generic ones?

As they say Ethernet buffers and resend discarded packet data anyway.

Personally i wouldn't rule out the importens of timing in the data flow still.

Do you think thats the case?
Or is it the quiter components used that makes the difference(the noise leaking to the homes electric grid or through the Ethernet Cables.). And they only use better clocks because they only think it makes a difference.

The reasons i can think of. So better timing in data flow can leed to less buffering and resend createing less noise at the receiving end and better timing in the data for the Dac to handle.

So theoretically i perfect switch would send perfect data with no buffering needed at all for the receiving end no errors in data at all to be discarded and resent. Perfect live flow.

But in reality would it matter if the Ethernet is to dumb and buffer and create there own timing anyway when they send the last bit over to the receiving device. And that the perfect clocking of the audiophile switch wouldn't matter anyway.

Basically are there anylimits to how perfect Ethernet data can flow when streaming music or video?

What do you think or know?

It has nothing to do with the data packets. The timing of packets being transported through the network is inherently random and uncontrolled. That's just the nature of the network itself, and there is nothing you can do to make it better in an ethernet switch. The receiving host on the network, the one doing the audio playback, will have a large software buffer to pre-fetch enough audio data, so that it can be clocked out accurately by DAC during playback.
Packet switching is a store and forward process. The clock frequency 'jitter' will have no effect on the data transmission jitter.

 

[Tubewin]

Further proof that LHY makes questionable devices. Hidden/falsified clock measurements, impedance mismatches, and flagship device failures.
External clocking does nothing but add jitter and produce harmonic “spurri”.

Well, to be fair, I'm the only one that I've seen that has received a faulty unit. And they sent a functioning replacement that sounds great in my system. The OCK-2 seems to work fine with the ER based off of users in this thread. It could be that the SW-10 clock just does not match with something in the ER. The SW-10's clock is only squarewave, while the ER is sinewave. The OCK-2 has 3 sine and 3 squarewave outputs.

I'm very satisfied with the SW-10 and well as with the LHY FMC. It was worth the hassle in my opinion.

 

[camrector]

Well, to be fair, I'm the only one that I've seen that has received a faulty unit. And they sent a functioning replacement that sounds great in my system. The OCK-2 seems to work fine with the ER based off of users in this thread. It could be that the SW-10 clock just does not match with something in the ER. The SW-10's clock is only squarewave, while the ER is sinewave. The OCK-2 has 3 sine and 3 squarewave outputs.

I'm very satisfied with the SW-10 and well as with the LHY FMC. It was worth the hassle in my opinion.

Yet you can’t manage the settings of your $1000 switch because LHY made it so. Thats ridiculous! There are some very useful things you can do that would improve your streaming network!

 

[Tubewin]

Yet you can’t manage the settings of your $1000 switch because LHY made it so. Thats ridiculous! There are some very useful things you can do that would improve your streaming network!

Well, the only reason why I would want to mess with the settings on the switch is if it isn't working properly. If it works as intended I would actually just prefer plug and play without having to modify settings. But to each their own.

 

[camrector]

Well, the only reason why I would want to mess with the settings on the switch is if it isn't working properly. If it works as intended I would actually just prefer plug and play without having to modify settings. But to each their own.

But that doesn’t make sense.
Why would you buy such a device if you can’t optimize it to your network?
Every switch is pretty much “plug and play”
The good ones allow you to manage your settings and optimize how the data…. (Uhumm…. your audio!) is handled.

 

[Tubewin]

But that doesn’t make sense.
Why would you buy such a device if you can’t optimize it to your network?
Every switch is pretty much “plug and play”
The good ones allow you to manage your settings and optimize how the data…. (Uhumm…. your audio!) is handled.

I guess I prefer the "passive" network switch experience. I didn't buy it to customize or manage my network settings. I bought it to improve my network chain, with better filtering, clocking, and power management.

To each their own...

 

[camrector]

I guess I prefer the "passive" network switch experience. I didn't buy it to customize or manage my network settings. I bought it to improve my network chain, with better filtering, clocking, and power management.

To each their own...

Managing your network settings improves your network chain.

 

[Tubewin]

Managing your network settings improves your network chain.

I was seeking to improve it through the hardware...

Can you give me an example of what you could change in the settings of the switch that would improve the sound quality?

 

[sajunky]

I was seeking to improve it through the hardware...

Can you give me an example of what you could change in the settings of the switch that would improve the sound quality?

You can reduce link speed to 100Mbps, by example. It is a simple one.

More complex examples require knowledge of networking (for just understanding the idea), so I will just mention traffic prioritisation (there are three methods), create a VLAN to remove broadcasting (or multicasting in IP v6) traffic from your audio link, more complex switches can do routing based on ACL. It is done in hardware freeing your main router that typically do it in software (slower).

 

[Tubewin]

You can reduce link speed to 100Mbps, by example. It is a simple one.

More complex examples require knowledge of networking (for just understanding the idea), so I will just mention traffic prioritisation (there are three methods), create a VLAN to remove broadcasting (or multicasting in IP v6) traffic from your audio link, more complex switches can do routing based on ACL. It is done in hardware freeing your main router that typically do it in software (slower).

I see, thank you. I'm currently enjoying what the SW-10 is doing for my system without customizing the network settings. But that's good to know.

 

[camrector]

You can reduce link speed to 100Mbps, by example. It is a simple one.

More complex examples require knowledge of networking (for just understanding the idea), so I will just mention traffic prioritisation (there are three methods), create a VLAN to remove broadcasting (or multicasting in IP v6) traffic from your audio link, more complex switches can do routing based on ACL. It is done in hardware freeing your main router that typically do it in software (slower).

It’s pretty simple. Plenty of walkthroughs. You nailed the main ones.

Not trying to rain on your parade @Tubewin. This is why I think these audiophile switches are kinda silly in the first place.
The higher quality clock doesn’t do anything for the data. Better power supplies can be found easily. And the best filtering is found by using fiber media convertors.

 

[jon m]

Short answer, yes they make a difference. Based on personal experience, in my system.

Network engineer for a long time, so in some ways came at this skeptical. After some conversations with an electrical engineer, I was reminded this isn't really about bits getting from point A to point B , it's about the quality of their travel. That said I'm still not sure I understand it perfectly at an engineering level, but somewhat.

Nonetheless, my ears tell me that an "audiophile" network switch, quality fiber optic cable between switch and streamer/DAC, quality ethernet from an audio-dedicated NAS (Lumin L1), and a network that's as simple as possible (nothing but that switch between sources and endpoints), have resulted in more clarity, improved soundstage, a perfectly silent background, and probably other SQ improvements I'd find it hard to articulate, but, PRAT.

 

[Tubewin]

It’s pretty simple. Plenty of walkthroughs. You nailed the main ones.

Not trying to rain on your parade @Tubewin. This is why I think these audiophile switches are kinda silly in the first place.
The higher quality clock doesn’t do anything for the data. Better power supplies can be found easily. And the best filtering is found by using fiber media convertors.

Well, I have tried using a fiber media converter into the ER, and there were changes, but no huge improvements that would persuade me one way or the other. But there was a definite improvement when I inserted the SW-10 in-between the fmc and the ER. So, calling them silly would be a bridge too far for me.

I can't speak to how much the internal clock of the sw-10 is impacting the sound, I don't have a way to measure that.

All I can say is to try it. If 3 dimensionality is what you're chasing, and your system is up to it, I would take the leap.

 

[Tubewin]

Nonetheless, my ears tell me that an "audiophile" network switch, quality fiber optic cable between switch and streamer/DAC, quality ethernet from an audio-dedicated NAS (Lumin L1), and a network that's as simple as possible (nothing but that switch between sources and endpoints), have resulted in more clarity, improved soundstage, a perfectly silent background, and probably other SQ improvements I'd find it hard to articulate, but, PRAT.

Hey, I have been looking for a audiophile grade fiber patch cable, but I haven't seen one. Care to share what you're using?