LHY SW-8 Audiophile switch
- Thread starter Dasign
- Start date
Well I just went from the LHY SW-8 to the Paul Pang Quad Switch and I couldn't be happier. I really liked the LHY SW-8 added a nice degree of relaxation to the music. Adding the Paul Pang Quad Switch I got a greater degree of relaxation, fullness and MUSICALITY that I'm loving. I was happy with my system before but now I sit down and just enjoy whatever is playing. With the Quad Switch I did have to adjust the bass down a touch as it bumped the bass up some.
I think LHY SW-8 is the most cost-effective audio switch. I have used several switches made in Taiwan and Hong Kong, but they are not as good as SW-8. I strongly recommend it.
I picked up a used one but this guy is the US importer.
https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649809489-paul-pang-audio/
Thanks for that, unfortunately I live in the UK so that would not be suitable due to voltage differences.
If anyone else knows where I might purchase one I'd be grateful.
I have the LHY SW-8 and really like it. Here are some cost effective enhancements that are additive, in terms of further reducing residual glare/noise with the SW-8 to an even quieter background resulting in a more resolving, natural and dynamic sound:
- putting a Netgear GS108E switch upstream (powered by a spare Ifi Power X) between LHY and router
- adding a couple of iFi LAN iSilencers between my server and LHY and upstream Netgear and LHY
- chassis grounding the LHY to a Quartz Acoustic grounding box
- turning off wifi on my router (yes, it’s still audible through all those layers, but much less so after adding the iSilencer).
Sorry for the late reply/bump. I have an SW-6, SW-10 and their FMC box. I started with the SW-6 and was so impressed that I bought an FMC to use from my Intel NUC running Roon ROCK to a fiber switch. I had a Sonore opticalModule in before this change. For reference, I converted my LAN to fiber around 3 years ago. Each box provided a very nice improvement. My system is fairly complex and doubles as a theater room/setup as well. So I connected my video streamers to the SW-6 and I was completely sold by the improvements. The phasing is unlike anything I've encountered before in the 22+ years that I've been setup in my current media room. Literally sounds coming from places in my 5.1.4 speaker setup that I've never experienced before. Super neat. But also, center channel speech was pulled away from the speaker and out into my media room by 1-2 feet. And that's where I was most impressed. Converting to an all-fiber LAN did this same phenomenon, but to a lesser degree. Being excited to throw everything onto the SW-6, I ran out of ethernet ports fairly quickly, so I bought an SW-10 in order to connect all of my streamers and devices to it. I use the dual fiber ports in the SW-10 for: main fiber input and the other to output into my Lumin U2 streamer. It was a definite improvement with the Lumin but not as much as the video streamers for some reason (maybe due to surround sound). But I am still very impressed with the results from the 2-channel perspective. I will never go back to my Mikrotik fiber switches and a bunch of FMCs on LPS units at this point. Was nice to get rid of a crap ton of boxes and upgrade my experience at the same time.
In February I was asking some feedback about LHY and SOTM, meanwhile I completed my sistem and I'll write down below my experience.
I upgraded the network of my audio setup this year, in 2 phases.
1. I added at the same time Neotech 1008 ethernet cable (silver) and ISO-CAT 7 filter just before my streamer (Lumin U1 mini). The sound became more pleasant, clear, I could see a big improvement. At that time, I was using a dedicated switch for my audio setup, from Cisco.
2. A few weeks ago I received some more components I ordered: SOTM sNH-10G switch with sCLK-EX High End clock module and internal Neotech silver wiring (from the factory), a media convertor from LHY, together with Finisar SFPs (BTL series, industrial quality) and also some optic fiber, military grade as well. I kept the iSO-CAT7 filter in the system, also at the same place for a few weeks. The whole sound with all these upgrades, went to a new level. Really, really good, totally impressed (me and my wife). We could hear new details, emotions, I find it a great system, great sound. Just for testing purposes, I removed the iSO-CAT 7 filter this week for some tests, again the sound was really good, but it missed some things. I discovered that using the filter there is better separation and also the whole sound is more natural.
I was expecting for the network filter to become useless, once decoupling was in place with fiber optic, but it seems that I still prefere the sound with the filter in the system.
I upgraded the network of my audio setup this year, in 2 phases.
1. I added at the same time Neotech 1008 ethernet cable (silver) and ISO-CAT 7 filter just before my streamer (Lumin U1 mini). The sound became more pleasant, clear, I could see a big improvement. At that time, I was using a dedicated switch for my audio setup, from Cisco.
2. A few weeks ago I received some more components I ordered: SOTM sNH-10G switch with sCLK-EX High End clock module and internal Neotech silver wiring (from the factory), a media convertor from LHY, together with Finisar SFPs (BTL series, industrial quality) and also some optic fiber, military grade as well. I kept the iSO-CAT7 filter in the system, also at the same place for a few weeks. The whole sound with all these upgrades, went to a new level. Really, really good, totally impressed (me and my wife). We could hear new details, emotions, I find it a great system, great sound. Just for testing purposes, I removed the iSO-CAT 7 filter this week for some tests, again the sound was really good, but it missed some things. I discovered that using the filter there is better separation and also the whole sound is more natural.
I was expecting for the network filter to become useless, once decoupling was in place with fiber optic, but it seems that I still prefere the sound with the filter in the system.
@stofarius congratulations! That looks like a very nice switch and you chose some well thought-out upgrades. I long for the day that we get an audiophile switch with at least (3) SFP ports and an OCXO. I'm sure one will be coming soon. On a side note, does anyone have a good source in the USA for one of those Neotech 1008 ethernet cables? And which CAT specification is it based on (I would need at least 1G speeds)? Thanks.
I am living in Europe, so I don’t know about a source for Neotech cables in the USA. I paid here around 230$ for the able. If I well remember, the cable has only 4 wires, it’s more than enough for audio streaming. A lot of streamers have only 100Mbit ethernet port, so 1G cable is really useless. Last but not least, having 8 wires for signals when 4 are enough, make sense for me from noise perspective.
Would you be able to detail why you’d like a switch with at least 3 SFP ports? Having 2 ports on SOTM is only good if you want to use 3 (or more) switches for decoupling with fiber optic. But even so, it’s becoming quite expensive. The SOTM switch is powered by Farad 3 Super which also has a cost…
Well, as I had mentioned, my setup is fairly complex. I would need a silver ethernet cable for my video streamer. 1G is absolutely necessary when videos often peak over 100mbps off my server. I had tried the OCC silver cable from Steven at Audio Sensibility and unfortunately, it was only 100mbps, so my movies and concerts stuttered like crazy. And sometimes they'd get an error and were unable to play at all. But you are 100% correct for ethernet and audio-only.
I need three ports because of the following:
SFP 1 - fiber input from my LAN
SFP 2 - output to another Switch (in my case, the LHY SW-6)
SFP 3 - output to my Lumin U2 streamer (which has a fiber input)
Ok,
For videos I can understand, but there are not many (audio) network cables with 1G. Also, if you would play DSD files from local network, indeed 100MB would not be enough.
What I still do not understand, why aren't you connecting the Lumin U2 through the SW-6? I mean having the following topology: SFP-2 ---> LHY --> Lumin U2.
Did you had the chance to compare U2 between fiber input and RJ45 input? As I mentioned, I have the U1 mini, still happy with it. It would be nice to have a streamer with SFP, but I don't want to pay for an unused dac. I have a Schiit dac, very happy with it, I don't want to replace it.
His Signature I2S ethernet cable is 1G. He also sells the Furutech LAN-8 NCF, which is 1G.
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In my setup, I am probably 70% movies/shows/sports and 30% music. So when I had the SW-6, I never hooked it up with my Lumin due it not having a 2nd SFP cage. But to answer your question, I have never tried the RJ45 port in my U2. I guess with all of my years of experimentation, fiber always won out over copper. Never an exception. So it seemed counter-intuitive to try the U2 with the SW-6. One of these days I will try fiber vs copper in the U2 but my music is sounding so good right now. If it ain't broken...
I saw that but I don't know enough about I2s to assume it is just a regular ethernet cable. It seems likely, yes but returning cables to Canada is a pain in the arse.
Edit: I didn't see that Furutech HDMI cable before. I may have to give it a try but I was hoping for OCC silver.
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