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Audiophile Network Switches for Streaming ... really ?

It's hilarious to realise that someone thinks that £2k ethernet cables linking their free ISP-supplied router to their £1k audiophile switch into a £5k streamer will magically improve the sound from Qobuz that arrived down 30-year old skinny copper wires in the wall that went via a thousand different connections and cables inside boxes on the pavement and under the street etc...

I certainly think it's remarkable how robust TCP/IP and DSL prove to be when run over wiring like this - a testament to some very bright engineers.

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If there is UDP involved that may be different - I will have to find out.
UDP is only used in low-latency applications like VoIP. Music streaming is always TCP.

For some reason you need improved clocks in the switch - I thought that clocking was only relevant from inside of the streamer and DAC etc - not during IP data transmission. Eh?
The Ethernet clock is independent from the audio clock. If a switch works, its clock is good enough, and "improving" it further will achieve nothing.
 
If it can't be made any better then great; we've created something that does a job perfectly - surely that should be nirvana... Why does 'being stuck with something' that's perfect equate to being 'sad'?
Because you don't actually want something perfect. I think the question is very instructve and explains quite a lot of what is going on. No changes=no hobby.
 
Clocking is only really important at the moment of conversion.

"Exactly". I am starting to get annoyed about the minefield of possible audiophile cons out there - should I submit this to Panorama ?

I'm not going to be total judgemental yet . . . just in case there is still a scraping of supporting evidence somewhere I haven't looked beyond Spock logic.
 
"Exactly". I am starting to get annoyed about the minefield of possible audiophile cons out there - should I submit this to Panorama ?

I'm not going to be total judgemental yet . . . just in case there is still a scraping of supporting evidence somewhere I haven't looked beyond Spock logic.
It's tricky isn't it. But buying new speakers, moving them around and/or rebuilding the istening room is a bit of a pain in the arse, expensive and liable to upset one's significant other. In a properly organised universe one could just get a new box once in a while and enjoy an infinite number of incremental improvements. Like a stereophile reviewer.
 
OK in summary from the video - just like I thought - the jitter and such like over the Ethernet cable or WiFi is there - but that jitter is totally irrelevant when the data has reached the buffer of the streamer using TCP/IP in perfect order.

TCP sorts out and asks for any re-transmission of data if missing and not in order from its requested source (The Internet / Qobuz in my example).

Case closed I guess. Anyone with an audiophile switch has, well, has been mugged off - sorry.

That's saved me some pennies allowing me to put more fuel in the car.
 
Put it this way; if your audio playback is altered by a network switch then there's something very, very wrong with the rest of your kit..
 
Because you don't actually want something perfect. I think the question is very instructve and explains quite a lot of what is going on. No changes=no hobby.
That depends on whether your hobby is music or hi-fi. Mine is definitely music (not just a hobby, actually, also a profession). The hi-fi is simply a means to an end.
 
Amir makes a good point about manufacturers showing measurements rather than hifi talk of emotion, inky blacks blah blah blah.
I more than once asked a cable designer on here who has a long thread of hyperbole about the gauge of his cables.
He failed to respond on each occasion.
Probably the most important part of making a decision on buying speaker cable due to length of runs etc.
Still I bet they sound fabulous.
 
That depends on whether your hobby is music or hi-fi. Mine is definitely music (not just a hobby, actually, also a profession). The hi-fi is simply a means to an end.
Splendid. Then all you need is a spotify subscription, a raspberry pi, a modestly designed usb dac and some active speakers. The rest is hobbyism and kit fetish. Certainly no need for a hifi forum.
 
But the thing with anything network side of a streamer is it's designed to cope with the relative chaos of how a network operates, changing anything network side will make not one iota of difference to the data after it's been buffered, there's no measurements we are missing here, the data either comes in a timely manner after it's been requested by the streamer to keep the buffer filled or the buffer runs out of data. Saying anything else is like saying a fancy network cable made a webpage more vibrant.
 
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Splendid. Then all you need is a spotify subscription, a raspberry pi, a modestly designed usb dac and some active speakers. The rest is hobbyism and kit fetish. Certainly no need for a hifi forum.
I like the sound of kit fetish.
Would I need to be over 18 to join?
I must say that streaming free spotty to my hifi sounds fine to me.
Not sure I could differentiate between it & Amazon hd playing the same track if I was blindfolded wearing a gimp mask.
 
I like the sound of kit fetish.
Would I need to be over 18 to join?
I must say that streaming free spotty to my hifi sounds fine to me.
Not sure I could differentiate between it & Amazon hd playing the same track if I was blindfolded wearing a gimp mask.
It’s about time you lost the gimp mask Curtis.
 
Splendid. Then all you need is a spotify subscription, a raspberry pi, a modestly designed usb dac and some active speakers. The rest is hobbyism and kit fetish. Certainly no need for a hifi forum.

Assuming the music you want to listen to is on Spotify - there are whole chunks of catalogue that haven't even made it to CD.
 
Hmmm - I say case closed - but I'm going to try something that is "supposed" to improve Wi-Fi and act as an audiophile switch too.

Obviously I'm going to be super strict with my decision making after what Amir says.

I'm going to reel in all those that have actually tried something like this and despite the logical science behind this - it actually did make a difference !!!
 


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