Best audiophile switch

[Synaxis]

The IT guys take it for granted and assume it's all just "ones and zeros," but those don't actually exist. Its multiple levels of multiple tiny voltages, encoded in complex bi-directional ways, all embedded in a sea of noisy bursts.

I can't tell you the number of times I've quoted and credited you guys with this and linked to your paper, and the amount of incredulity I encounter from people.

It's like they literally don't care about facts and just want to stick to the "earth-is-flat" mentality and truth be damned.

That's why I've stopped trying to even hold a rudimentary conversation with any of them. I just accept it's a lost cause and ignore.

 

[kennyb123]

But the most hateful and vitriolic messages are usually either from IT professionals, AV home theater employees who are just glorified IT people, and sound engineers. I mean they are literally triggered beyond comprehension. And then they post in their groups to get other similar thinkers to post against what they don't like as well. They are like a group of 11 year olds.

When there is no evidence of humility and their behavior is both toxic and immature, odds are that you are dealing with a person who has a personality disorder. Narcissists are attracted to this topic (and, even more so, audiophile cables) as it gives them the ability to feel superior by diminishing other (grandiosity).

That's why I've stopped trying to even hold a rudimentary conversation with any of them. I just accept it's a lost cause and ignore.

Exactly the right thing to do. Have a skim through this as recognizing these tactics can give you insight into how worthwhile it would be try to engage further with someone. Anyone who has engaged with an internet troll has seen some of these tactics used.

 

[sbnx]

I am going to say somthing here that is likely going to ruffle some feathers. I don't want to ruffle feathers but rather ask that people simply think about what I am saying. There is no ill intention. This is not directed at any specific person but rather an overall thing that I observe.

Many of the devices we as audiophiles play with are in reality pushing noise around. Some lower the overall noise. Some move the noise. Some will actually increase noise.

I believe all noise is bad and should be eliminated. I am not sure if I asked 100 audiophiles if they wanted more noise in their system if any one of them would say "Well now that you mention it, I would like more noise." I believe that once someone gets on a path of consisten noise reduction and realizes the damage that noise is doing to their music they will not want to go backward.

Switches are something that strongly modulates noise. There are certainly people who don't accept this and think it is all just 1's and 0's and that noise doesn't matter at all. I say more power to them. It is better for them if they turn a blind eye and enjoy what they have. Otherwise, the rabbit hole is very, very deep. But they should not throw rocks at other people. Demonstrating that a switch has an audible impact is very, very easy to do.

I would prefer a switch that had ZERO noise. So to that end, I don't believe that what works in one system doesn't work in another system. We should strive for the lowest noise floor we can achieve. Now maybe the cost starts to go up as the noise floor goes down. But not always. As I have said earlier I have found that some switches are definitely quieter than other switches and this doesn't necessarily correlate with price. This makes it unfortunate as it is difficult to compare a bunch of switches in your system and evaluate what each one is doing and which one has the lowest noise floor.

Noise shifts the overall tonal balance up. You can not measure this with REW but it is very easy to hear. If I drop in a switch (or other device) that radically lowers my overall noise floor then I will have to adjust the speaker position slightly to compensate for this. This can lead someone to believe that a product is bad for them when it is actually good. When someone drops in the hypothetical perfect, zero noise switch it will lower the overall noise floor so much that they may think it actually made their sound bad. (How can this be? It is the perfect zero noise switch?) It may sound dull or lack dynamics or bass impact or ... . But all of this is fixable with a slight adjustment to the speakers. Then you get what you had before the low noise switch plus interest.

All I ask is that you take a deep breath before you turn on the flame thrower.