Good mid-price audiophile switches

ssfas · Jan 26, 2024

Superdad said:
Thanks and true.
More specifically, we use high-speed, low-jitter differential digital isolator chips to pass SGMII Ethernet—and two frequencies of differential clocks—across a PCB gap (the “moat”). And on both sides of that moat we reclock using expensive ultra-low-jitter 10GHz-capable flip-flops.
So two 100% isolated (data, clocking, and power) domains—our ‘A’ and ‘B’ sides.

Which means zippity doodah to me, but then the clock I bought has lots of techie stuff listed that is equally zippity doodah techno-speak.

C4 MK2 Low Jitter Clock

C4 MK2 Low Jitter Clock Timing is the essence of musicality and without an accurate clock in your CD, SACD player, DAC or Music Server you will never

www.fidelityaudio.co.uk

If does in a nice Ciasco box

Cisco CBS110-8T Reference Upgrade (Audiophile Tuned)

Cisco CBS110-8T Reference Upgrade (Audiophile Tuned) We now offer the excellent CBS110-8T (chosen for it's performance with digital audio / video

www.fidelityaudio.co.uk

zacho · Jan 27, 2024

Made the jump on the extreme version since it popped up on the local used market for a good price. Coming from a Buffalo BS-GS2008 with Ifi ipower X. Shall leave it for a few days before sharing my impressions.

zacho · Jan 27, 2024

What power cable is everyone using on their Silent Switch?

FDPDK · Jan 27, 2024

Well for the moment i am still having the Silent Switch on loan , but i do use Nordost Heimdall , and can easily imagine the an even better power cord will make a difference , i also use IfI lan silencer ( if i remember the name correctly ). If i can get the Ediscreation switch for a good prise i am jumping onboard as its really good.

Gene 15352 · Jan 27, 2024

I'm looking forward to hearing your impressions of the switch. I literally just picked up my Firebird LPS with the Fiber Box extreme today and am considering if I should also spring for the switch.

Stereophonic · Jan 28, 2024

zacho said:
Made the jump on the extreme version since it popped up on the local used market for a good price. Coming from a Buffalo BS-GS2008 with Ifi ipower X. Shall leave it for a few days before sharing my impressions.
View attachment 124221

Stunning picture !!!!!

markramler · Jan 28, 2024

zacho said:
What power cable is everyone using on their Silent Switch?

I am using the DC extreme versions of the Silent Switch and Fiber Box II with the Firebird. I am using Edison's Black Diamond DC cables. I tried other brands but his cables brought my streaming to a new level. I use Snake River Signature Amp power cable on the Firebird.

OrigTweaker · Feb 10, 2024

Yes, UpTone Audio has great technology at affordable prices. The icing on the cake for me is Alex’s attention to customer service: when I had an issue with my much-loved EtherREGEN, he was immediately available and took care of me right away. These are good people.

I am a dedicated audio explorer, always pushing to make just a little more progress in my longtime hobby -which now delivers a couple of hours of sonic bliss daily through my Meridian DSP9 active speakers. UpTone has been a dependable partner in my journey for years.

keithc · Feb 10, 2024

markramler said:
I am using the DC extreme versions of the Silent Switch and Fiber Box II with the Firebird. I am using Edison's Black Diamond DC cables. I tried other brands but his cables brought my streaming to a new level. I use Snake River Signature Amp power cable on the Firebird.

Can existing IEC units be upgraded to the DC version for Firebird (or any other LPSU)? Did you try the IEC version first?

audiobomber · Feb 10, 2024

I had a couple of long-term audiophile buddies. We listened through my gear with a 10GTek SFP instead of the Finisar in the oMD. Anyone using cheap SFP transceivers really should upgrade given the low cost of the Finisars. The sonic gains were large, in soundstage, tonality and musical involvement.

EDITA: In this post I had reported on a shoot-out involving the LHY SW-10. It has since come to my attention that I may have tested the LHY with a 10GTek SFP instead of a Finisar, invalidating the results. I have deleted the bad content.

Rumpole · Feb 10, 2024

Superdad said:
For a dive into the multiple ways ground-plane noise (which essentially becomes what we refer to as "clock threshold jitter" affecting the DAC's master clock pin) propagates and methods to block it, please look to this paper:
"How perturbations on digital signals can affect sound quality without changing bits..."

[We take an active approach to it--and our EtherREGEN is still the only switch in the world putting Ethernet signals through high-speed differential isolation chips across an air-gap "moat" with dual-domain reclocking using 10GHz-capable ultra-low-jitter flip-flops.
Lot's of other fancy looking boxes out there--at prices below and way above us--but not much actual new technical innovation being implemented. Just sayin'...]

@Superdad Any estimates yet of when the EtherREGEN Gen2 will be available? And are you expecting improvements in the noise reduction with Gen2?

Re-tread · Feb 10, 2024

+1 on the sonic uplift my ER provides my system.
+1 on Alex's customer support and attention to detail.

Republicoftexas69 · Feb 10, 2024

audiobomber said:
I had a couple of long-term audiophile buddies over yesterday, and one brought his LHY SW-10 for some comparisons. First, we substituted the LHY for the opticalModule Deluxe v2 in my network: NAS > modified Furutech LAN-8 cable > Silent Angel Bonn N8 > Audio Sensibility Signature cable (100mbps) > oMD > Corning SMF > EtherRegen. SFP modules are Finisar FTLF1318P3BTL. The N8 has a Welborne Labs PS-REG LPS, the oMD is powered via Pardo MiniTeddy supply, The ER has a Teddy Pardo 12/2 LPS. DC cables are Ghent Audio StarQuad.

We left the N8 upstream, using the SW-10 purely as an FMC, because that is what my friend wanted to hear. The oMD/LPS was clearly superior, as agreed by all. The LHY lost some leading edge on transients, smoothing the sound, and the bass range was recessed. Results were similar with the oMD back in, this time feeding the LHY in place of the ER.

We also listened through my gear with a 10GTek SFP instead of the Finisar in the oMD. Anyone using cheap SFP transceivers really should upgrade given the low cost of the Finisars. The sonic gains were large, in soundstage, tonality and musical involvement..

Finisar is really the best and they are not that expensive really.

Superdad · Feb 10, 2024

Rumpole said:
@Superdad Any estimates yet of when the EtherREGEN Gen2 will be available? And are you expecting improvements in the noise reduction with Gen2?

Thank you for your interest in the award-winning UpTone Audio EtherREGEN switch. It is easily the most radical and successful component we have designed to-date.

As you may have read, we have been working hard in development of EtherREGEN Gen2 for over 1 year—utilizing more readily available parts and incorporating a number of technical advancements. These include Gigabit capability on both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ sides of our unique active-differential-isolation moat, even lower jitter clock synthesizers, an exceptional new PHY chip, and the world’s best sine-to-square wave converter (benefiting those who chose to pair with an external 10MHz reference clock). The new version might even include a second SFP cage—on the ‘B’ side—to improve performance for users of optical endpoints.

Unfortunately, production quantity delivery of the brand new high-performance, low-jitter PHY chip that we have designed in looks like it will be delayed several more months. Therefore I now expect first shipments of EtherREGEN Gen2 will not take place until mid-Q2 2024.

However, a few months ago we discovered that all of the parts for the original EtherREGEN have at last come back into stock! So while EtherREGEN Gen2 development continues, we can not pass up the opportunity to quickly produce a final run of 250 units of the original model. There are a lot of people who have yet to experience the “magic” of the EtherREGEN—to learn why it is such a runaway success.

So now the original EtherREGEN is in stock and can be ordered for quick shipment at: https://uptoneaudio.com/products/etherregen

kennyb123 · Feb 10, 2024

Superdad said:
Unfortunately, production quantity delivery of the brand new high-performance, low-jitter PHY chip that we have designed in looks like it will be delayed several more months. Therefore I now expect first shipments of EtherREGEN Gen2 will not take place until mid-Q2 2024.

Thanks for updating us on this. While I have been chomping at the bit in hopes of eliminating my 100mbps bottleneck, I suspect this new PHY will be very much worth the wait.

audiobomber · Feb 10, 2024

kennyb123 said:
Thanks for updating us on this. While I have been chomping at the bit in hopes of eliminating my 100mbps bottleneck, I suspect this new PHY will be very much worth the wait.

You mean "champing at the bit".

What's wrong with 100Mbps? Several manufacturers recommend it for lower power and less noise.

I run my audio system at 100Mbps and it plays DXD 32-bit and DSD 256 faultlessly, even when I am simultaneously running Netflix on the TV.
(I use an Audio Sensibility Signature ethernet cable upstream of my opticalModule, which limits transmission to 100Mbps. The TV and audio system are both plugged into the ER, downstream from the oMD.)

markramler · Feb 10, 2024

keithc said:
Can existing IEC units be upgraded to the DC version for Firebird (or any other LPSU)? Did you try the IEC version first?

I do not know if an IEC version can be converted to the dc version. I own both the ac and dc versions. The dc version is the extreme with the Firebird and sounds significantly better.

Superdad · Feb 11, 2024

audiobomber said:
What's wrong with 100Mbps? Several manufacturers recommend it for lower power and less noise.

100Mbps is fine. And with EtherREGEN Gen2, 100Mbps endpoints (or 2-pair cables, or OS settings that force such) connected to its newly 1Gbe-capable 'B' port will negotiate to 100Mbps just fine.

But for us, through our use of a new exceedingly low-jitter and low-power PHY (just 6mm square), combined with multiple isolated LT3045 regulator circuits (we never use the built-in DC-DC converters on chips) and our differentially-clocked ultra-low-jitter reclocking flip-flops, 1Gbe results in no measurable difference in "noise" (Really too generic a term, we are measuring phase- and amplitude modulation noise--which matters only because such induces/propagates ground-plane noise downstream, eventually reaching the DAC's master clock pins, the sole reason anybody hears ANY of this in packet data interfaces.)

In addition, there are some technical advantages to us putting Gigabit SGMII across the "moat" in EtherREGEN Gen2, most of which I will not get into in public. Suffice it to say that from a user's perspective there will be zero performance penalty and numerous usability advantages. And this is before I even get started about the interesting things that will result from having an SFP cage on the 'B' side.

Lastly, there are a lot of high-end video (and multi-channel hi-res audio) users who will be welcoming our 'B' side Gigabit capability. People enjoy the original EtherREGEN with 4K streaming video (surprising visible differences for many) but full uncompressed Blu-ray is simply to high a bit-rate for a 100Mbps connection.

Cheers,
--Alex C.

kennyb123 · Feb 11, 2024

audiobomber said:
What's wrong with 100Mbps? Several manufacturers recommend it for lower power and less noise.

Yes, that was the recommendation in 2018. It's clear that technology has marched on and that it's now possible to have gigabit that performs just as well. Or in the case of Uptone, my guess is that with their new PHY, gigabit might even perform better!

I upscale my music so the files are huge. It now can take at least 20 minutes to copy a freshly processed album over to the local drive of my server. Sometimes I experience playback choppiness when I'm trying to stream at the same time files are being copied. I processed over 500 albums (many several times over) and I sometimes process as many as 10 albums a day so I have been dealing with a lot of it, so I am extremely eager to get unblocked on this.

I just recently purchased a new NAS that actually has a 10gbps option that can be installed. I plan to install this at some point to speed up the copying of processed albums to my NAS. If it wasn't for my love for what the ER does in my system and my love of how well that Uptone has taken care of me, I would have ditched the 100mbps bottleneck long ago.

audiobomber · Feb 11, 2024

100Mbps is all I need but I can see there are advantages to 1G and even 10G for some.

Good mid-price audiophile switches

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