Best audiophile switch

4.5 - Network Acoustics Tempus Switch ($4200) + SR Foundation SX 12 Power Cord ($600) + Denali S/6000 v1 ($3,995)
4.0 - Network Acoustics Tempus Switch ($4200) + Venom Power Cord (~$300) [isolated circuit]

3.8 - Synergistic Research Ethernet Switch UEF ($2300) + SR Foundation SX 12 Power Cord (included w/ switch) + Denali S/6000 v1 ($3,995)
3.5 - Synergistic Research Ethernet Switch UEF ($2300) + Venom Power Cord (~$300) [isolated circuit]

3.0 - UpTone etherREGEN + Farad + Mytek + Sigma v2 Clock-50 ($9,230) + Denali S/6000 v1 ($3,995)
1.0 - UpTone etherREGEN ($680) [baseline]
I agree with your ranking. You’re a little off on the ER. The clock cable is an Alpha v1. The Sigma v2 is between clock and my DAC. The clock was actually purchased to improve my DAC, but of course it was an extra nice benefit to be able to use it with the ER.

The DC cabling between ER and Farad is an Audio Sensibility Signature Silver followed by a QSA Lanedri DC extension cable.

I will comment further later.
 
@kennyb123 Is there any understanding of when the ER2 should finally be released? It's been postponed so many times, if I remember correctly, the first deadline was two years ago.
 
@kennyb123 Is there any understanding of when the ER2 should finally be released? It's been postponed so many times, if I remember correctly, the first deadline was two years ago.
Last I heard was August, I think. I wouldn’t say that it’s been postponed. It’s just that it can take time to get things right when depending on parts that are either custom or not yet shipped.
 
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I agree with your ranking. You’re a little off on the ER. The clock cable is an Alpha v1. The Sigma v2 is between clock and my DAC. The clock was actually purchased to improve my DAC, but of course it was an extra nice benefit to be able to use it with the ER.

The DC cabling between ER and Farad is an Audio Sensibility Signature Silver followed by a QSA Lanedri DC extension cable.

I will comment further later.
Fair points all around. My clock cable was actually a Sigma v2 (which is what I went off of for pricing), but good to know it was an Alpha v1. I'll edit it accordingly... =^)

Addendum - I'm limited to 10,000 characters, so I ran out of budget for the DC comments, but I did update all the Sigma / Alpha references to be closer to each of our systems. Also, I couldn't find an accurate historical price for the Alpha v1 Clock cable, so I went with the current $1600 list price of the v2.
 
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No-one on this forum would be able to accurately predict sonic performance from a view of the circuitry. They might of course think they can (!) but it’s best to listen with ears open and case closed, as intended by the manufacturer.

You may of course be one of those guys who goes to a car/automobile showroom, asks to look under the bonnet/hood and gets his credit card out on that basis… but most of us would decide based on the price/performance demonstrated by a test drive. :)
I've bought speakers and amplifiers on listening, but most digital equipment specification, measurements and design are pre-requisites.

Open up some switches and there is $30 donor board, a $20 clock and a $100 aluminium case, with a $500 price tag.
My switch is a £50 donor board, £350 clock and £450 price tag. It comes in the original Cisco case. Add £200 for linear power supply.

For the £4,000 Tempus, I'd like to see inside first.
By way of example, here's a NA product called ENO that costs £750. Make your own mind up if it's worth £750 (about $1,000).

Screenshot 2024-06-30 at 23.57.45.png

These products are sold with rebranded silver UP-OCC ethernet cables. Quite a few people seem to do these rebranding, using Neotech NEET-1008, which it looks like NA use. NA sell the cable for £1,200, Neotech do a terminated 2m NEET-1008 cable for £420 delivered. Some vendors are transparent that they use Neotech cable, and they do a good service as I understand Neotech is all sold off the reel, other than ethernet which they offer terminated.

UP-OCC cables seem to be popular. By far the best terminated prices seem to be at audiophonics.fr, who are Neotech's French distributor.

Consumer ethernet technology has hardly changed in 20 years or more. Some people build switches from the ground up, like SoTM and Innuos, most are just tweaked and rebranded. So I'm generally sceptical and want to see what's inside.
 
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For the £4,000 Tempus, I'd like to see inside first.
By way of example, here's a NA product called ENO that costs £750. Make your own mind up if it's worth £750 (about $1,000).

That would depend on a few things. How much R&D was done to arrive at this design, I wonder. Did they have to hire staff to pay those who assemble, ship and support this product and are they paying a competitive wage with good benefits? How much of an investment in capital needed to be made to bring this and their other products to market? Do they have to lease space and how much does that cost them? Are sales from this product meant to help fund some other products they brought to market or are hoping to bring to market? Do they need to do advertising to get this product noticed and maybe also exhibit at audio shows? These things, along with the price of the parts, all influence the retail price.

Since the entire reason products like this actually exist is to bring us greater enjoyment of music, most of us feel that “worth” can only be decided by auditioning it or by what trusted ears have said about it. This is often considered relative to what the competition offers as far as improving sound quality. If it was found that the ENO moves the needle as much or more than competing products selling for up to as much as the ENO, many would say that makes it worth its price.
 
Tweaking out...

That said, I would (subjectively) rank the performance relatively this way:

4.5 - Network Acoustics Tempus Switch ($4200) + SR Foundation SX 12 Power Cord ($600) + Denali S/6000 v1 ($3,995)
4.0 - Network Acoustics Tempus Switch ($4200) + Venom Power Cord (~$300) [isolated circuit]

3.8 - Synergistic Research Ethernet Switch UEF ($2300) + SR Foundation SX 12 Power Cord (included w/ switch) + Denali S/6000 v1 ($3,995)
3.5 - Synergistic Research Ethernet Switch UEF ($2300) + Venom Power Cord (~$300) [isolated circuit]

3.0 - UpTone etherREGEN + Farad + Mytek + Alpha v1 Clock cable (~$8,380) + Denali S/6000 v1 ($3,995)
1.0 - UpTone etherREGEN ($680) [baseline]

(I'm not including the Innuos PhoenixNET in my ranking because it wasn't given the proper settling time for its clock (24h). We listened to it around the 1.5 to 2 hour mark into our session, which hardly painted it in its best light).

:cool:
interesting, I have the SR Foundation SX 12AWG power cable.
I had it on my preamp and etherRegen, I could hear the similarities in SQ. I thought it was a below avg/so-so kind of SQ cable. (maybe just me/my system overgrown)

Looks like I have to upgrade to NA Tempus, instead of getting the eR a PSU and clock.
 
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interesting, I have the SR Foundation SX 12AWG power cable.
I had it on my preamp and etherRegen, I could hear the similarities in SQ. I thought it was a below avg/so-so kind of SQ cable. (maybe just me/my system overgrown)

Looks like I have to upgrade to NA Tempus, instead of getting the eR a PSU and clock.
I generally wouldn't use it for serious evaluations, but it comes with the Synergistic switch and happened to sound better than the older Shunyata Venom power cords, so I brought it along as a way of saying "out of the box, this is what the UEF Switch sounds like".

The Tempus is a solid choice regardless. :)
 
was the taiko switch meant to be used with their server?

i was wondering what copper transceiver they recommend.
I used a finisar fclf8522 copper transceiver for a long time (at router), then shifted to a FMC & FTLX1475, preferred the latter.. better imaging & sound (etc)
 
Sure okay... 40 years and you had no idea about frequency range... okay ...
You didn't say frequency range. You said range. I know about both but they are irrelevant to sound quality.

I have no idea why you started talking about physical range limits at 40Gbps when like the rest of us you probably use a 1Gbps (or less) switch.
 
I've bought speakers and amplifiers on listening, but most digital equipment specification, measurements and design are pre-requisites.

Open up some switches and there is $30 donor board, a $20 clock and a $100 aluminium case, with a $500 price tag.
My switch is a £50 donor board, £350 clock and £450 price tag. It comes in the original Cisco case. Add £200 for linear power supply.

For the £4,000 Tempus, I'd like to see inside first.
By way of example, here's a NA product called ENO that costs £750. Make your own mind up if it's worth £750 (about $1,000).

View attachment 133268

These products are sold with rebranded silver UP-OCC ethernet cables. Quite a few people seem to do these rebranding, using Neotech NEET-1008, which it looks like NA use. NA sell the cable for £1,200, Neotech do a terminated 2m NEET-1008 cable for £420 delivered. Some vendors are transparent that they use Neotech cable, and they do a good service as I understand Neotech is all sold off the reel, other than ethernet which they offer terminated.

UP-OCC cables seem to be popular. By far the best terminated prices seem to be at audiophonics.fr, who are Neotech's French distributor.

Consumer ethernet technology has hardly changed in 20 years or more. Some people build switches from the ground up, like SoTM and Innuos, most are just tweaked and rebranded. So I'm generally sceptical and want to see what's inside.
Thanks for explaining. I won't comment on how another manufacturer designs and manufactures their products.

You seem to believe that price should be determined on a cost-plus basis. That's your prerogative of course but it ignores performance which is the other half of the value-for-money equation and is the way the market generally works. I'm fairly sure the cost difference between the BMW 535 I drive and the 520 I don't bears little relation to the relative cost of the engines... I'm paying quite a premium for the performance and am happy to do so.

There is also nothing inherently superior about "from the ground up", though it does typically cost more! Even the most exotic CD players used to use mainly Sony or Philips drawer mechs because they were proven to be high performance and reliable. They could have spent a lot more developing their own and by your logic charging more but would the CDP have sounded better? I doubt it.

Correct me if I'm wrong but it appears to me that you're probably not in the market for a Tempus anyway

EDIT: hats off to @kennyb123 who said the same far more eloquently than me! That's what you get when you hop around out of sequence...
 
Thanks for explaining. I won't comment on how another manufacturer designs and manufactures their products.

You seem to believe that price should be determined on a cost-plus basis. That's your prerogative of course but it ignores performance which is the other half of the value-for-money equation and is the way the market generally works. I'm fairly sure the cost difference between the BMW 535 I drive and the 520 I don't bears little relation to the relative cost of the engines... I'm paying quite a premium for the performance and am happy to do so.

There is also nothing inherently superior about "from the ground up", though it does typically cost more! Even the most exotic CD players used to use mainly Sony or Philips drawer mechs because they were proven to be high performance and reliable. They could have spent a lot more developing their own and by your logic charging more but would the CDP have sounded better? I doubt it.

Correct me if I'm wrong but it appears to me that you're probably not in the market for a Tempus anyway

EDIT: hats off to @kennyb123 who said the same far more eloquently than me! That's what you get when you hop around out of sequence...
I entirely appreciate that people are more than happy to buy products on perceived value, so a product costing $5000 some will perceive is great value and others as terrible value.

I’m fully aware of the sorts of business costs that might arise and I tend to investigate the background of a business and its proprietors before I consider their products, because that’s what I’ve done professionally for about 35 years.

When I started streaming in 2010, I very soon came to the following conclusions:
- Much of the technology already exists
- Streaming will drive down the cost/performance ratio of high quality audio, and traditional premium audio manufacturers will struggle to compete.
- We will likely see a whole new stable of streaming manufacturers, mostly from Asia.

The first streaming product I bought in 2010 was a Linn DS. Gilad Teifenbrun (an engineer with an MBA) saw the future and scrapped most of the existing product range, including disc spinners. I’ve not used a CD since. On details, he decided that network storage was best and only offered that option, no USB, Coax, AES. One approach, do it well, no wasting money developing multiple options. There are various other decisions made, and generally I think he was right.

Most of the good streamers came from Asia and still do. From Linn, I moved to Auralic. The software is better and they offered better value. They originally made all sorts of products, including amplifiers, but soon realised that they were ahead of the game in the streaming world, so abandoned all their other products and focused on streaming. Traditional manufacturers just can’t do that, many seem to look more backwards than forwards, because their history is their brand value. Personally, I have little interest in brand value.

When I started buying servers, they were more on a "cost plus" basis because you could see exactly what was in them, usually third-party components and in the early days you would choose your storage drive capacity, chipset etc and it would be built to order. So you could easily add up the cost of the contents, and my first server simply ran off a modified version of Windows media server.

I have some history in digital data. Back in 1980 I started working for a company that used to digitise telex traffic. We set up some fairly serious hardware and had to lease international telephone lines. It was a very profitable business. Some years later they became a client and I was advising them on buying similar businesses. In 1990 a business in New York had a team of Russian programmers. They put them in a room, fed them and paid them 10% of what they would’ve paid American trained programmers.

Things like switches haven't changed much in 45 years. The most popular switches, Netgear GS105 and GS108, which I've used and still have, have been listed on Amazon for 22 years. CAT 6a is a pass/fail specification. You can get perfectly good cables for $5, a fully tested and certified one from BJC for $10. Telegartner connectors add nothing to performance, only perceived value. That's why cable companies use them. Telegartner explain on their site that they are designed to enable quick, crimper-free connections in data centres where access can be difficult.

On CD players, I contacted Pioneer, they are the holding company of both TASCAM and Esoteric. I had a TASCAM CD player with their ubiquitous $40 CD-5020A bullet-proof drive unit. I asked them what was the difference to their $3,000 VDRS in Esoteric. They replied:

"difference will be the durability of the mechanism and a reduction of jitter, which in turn helps your DAC achieve a greater audio
conversion accuracy. To a certain level jitter is not an issue when extracting data (computer files and the like), but when a real time DA
conversion is done to the data stream, jitter becomes very important and can create minute timing issues in the DA conversion. Whether it would be actually audible is another thing altogether. Audio is a very subjective."


So I still look at digital primarily from a cost-plus. My main digital component is an Innuos Pulsar - most of the cost is the Sean Jacobs ARC4 power supply, there is the same processor as in my previous Zen Mk3, a proprietary usb output board, the rights to use a fantastic piece of software (Innuos Sense), a few connectors and a case. It's quite easy to see where the money goes. It is mostly cost-plus, but for me the software is perceived value.

With regard to rebranding cables, if you a get away with covering up a branded cable with a nylon braid and change the connectors (completely pointless technically) and treble the price, they I say good luck to you. With regard to UPOCC cables, the UK distributor is HiFi-Collective and they publish videos showing how to construct each cable type, with or without having to use solder, and they provide a parts list. A pair of 4.5m copper UPOCC 11AWG (Neotech 3004) with WBT would be about $1,000. I looked at ZenWave and for a bespoke company their prices seem very fair. Plus Dave seems to be extremely knowledgeable, and I'm a believer in paying for good advice.

My network infrastructure has and remains largely enterprise grade - a managed Ubiquiti switch and VLAN controller, fibre optic, Belden BJC at either end, and a Cisco switch with an audiophile clock that I suspect is necessary. Roon hosted on a QNAP, which was purchased for business use.

I might be interested in NA if I knew what was in it. Seems I will never know.
 
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You didn't say frequency range. You said range. I know about both but they are irrelevant to sound quality.

I have no idea why you started talking about physical range limits at 40Gbps when like the rest of us you probably use a 1Gbps (or less) switch.
Um no but okay. My question was never directed at you, it was for Mr Audiobomber. So please have a great day.
 
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My question was never directed at you, it was for Mr Audiobomber.
I have never seen anything regarding how ethernet cable bandwidth may affect sound quality. Clearly shielding has a pronounced effect. Materials and configuration also, because otherwise all of the cables in each category would sound the same (e.g. CAT7 would sound the same as every other CAT7).
 
anyone did a comparison between Ediscreation silent switch ocxo and zaiyin stargate?

i have the ediscreation on loan.. before i commit to buy - just to be sure
 
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anyone did a comparison between Ediscreation silent switch ocxo and zaiyin stargate?

i have the ediscreation on loan.. before i commit to buy - just to be sure

Paging @CKKeung ...
 

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