Ethernet Switches
 

What’s your take on these things? Any recommendations.
How about the EtherREGEN?

Ethernet is very far removed from actual musical signals.

By all means, get a reliable switch. But EtherREGEN is successfully solving a problem that does not need solving.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/f...-review.10232/

They're really important when used for streaming music from a networked music server. A good switch will reduce and/or mitigate low- and high-source impendance leakage current as well as not contribute to, or if it's clock is good enough, actually reduce phase noise. Also, the power supply for switches is critical as the standard SMPS used for powering switches has a really big negative impact on audio quality.

The EtherREGEN is out of production because they can no longer source an FPGA they need at an affordable cost with respect to their BOM due the pandemic-induced chip supply chain issues. Your best bet, presently, for performance per dollar is the SOtM sNH-10G with sCK-EX clock board.

Most respecfully, that simply not true, ER provides a signficant improvement to audio quality when using in a streaming setup.

Read this white paper by John Swenson, who designed the EtherREGEN. Swenson worked for the better part of 40 years an Ethernet EE for Broadcom and Cisco. He has considerable professional expertise in this domain.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/06...f?v=1583429386

And, also respectfully, but ASR has it's head up it's collective *ss. For example, they recently "tested' a power cord, and...they didn't even plug it in. Those guys are as bad for "science" as Lamarck was...

Hey Stephen - up a bit late on the East Coast, about to call it. How are the rains by you? My sister (Mtn View) is very worried about the redwoods on their property.

I did read read the paper from John Swenson - all excellent engineering points. But no measurements. Amir (who has similar tech credentials as John) at least measures things (well maybe not power cords :) )

The EtherREGEN operates in an area (data transmission) where measurements can tell the story -so go ahead and measure it. That is my issue.

I am certain it works as designed - just not certain it is needed.

Hi! :D

Have you ever heard first-hand the impact EtherREGEN has when placed into a networked or streaming-based system? It's not subtle at all...

And...when you connect it's ground terminal to an Altaira, it gets significantly better.

With respect to "measurements", the human brain, when perceiving music, is not a spectrum analyzer, as much as Amir would like folks to believe. Amir in is the the now-debunked camp that Julian Hirsch of Stereo Review was in in the late 70's and early 80s. Julian Hirsch, of Hirsch-Houck Labs, which did the the testing for Stereo Review, used to think that the measurements he did in his lab back in the day, were all that mattered. His tests of an ARC D-76A tube amp were not as good as the "reference amp" of the day, with respect to "measurements", the Crown DC-300. But...J. Gordon Holt of Stereophile (and everyone else that actually listened to music on each amp) knew full well which amp one folks would rather use to listen to...MUSIC. The ARC D-76A.

The human brain, when perceiving music, is not a spectrum analyzer.

Ask Nelson about this...he knows.

Cheers.

The D76A was a wonderfull amp and highly sought after. :music: Try the Nordost switch, expensive, but it works!!! I love the it's just ones and zeroes argument. The digital data stream, in reality, is an RF signal.

My last post on this topic. I have no doubt the high end switches work very well.

But try this simple, free, and harmless experiment:

Start a stream. Unplug the ethernet cable from the streamer or bridge. How much longer does the music continue? Does it sound any different? In my case about 4-5 seconds with a simple SotM Neo into a Chord DAC. A better streamer could provide significantly more buffering (time).


The point is, there is a long path from receiving and decoding an Ethernet data packet and the signal reaching your amplifier. I do not believe any of the uber-engineering behind these well-made switches is genuinely needed. On a limited budget, I would invest elsewhere. Of course, there are junk components out there.

And there you have it; on this technically mysterious audio hobby of ours.

My opinion, and experience has been everything matters YMMV. Even right down to the humidity in your sound room.

For anyone that would like to visit me in Cape Cod; I can lift a simple ground wire on my Altaira and the sound stage nearly collapses.

Ridiculous; but true. ;)

You don’t even need an Altaira to easily hear a difference. An Altaira is on my to-do/to-get list but I don’t have one yet. I got an EtherRegen and could hear a difference that I confirmed by taking it out and listening. Then I experimented by making a $5 home made ground wire with #10 Home Depot braided wire and hand-crimped on spades amd conmected the ER’s ground tap to my Sh. Hydra Sigma S12’s ground tap and the difference was what I describe as a “light switch” difference. It was more than a component upgrade change- and repeatable. Of course YMMV.