I wrote a thread about 3 months ago :
The Best USB/Network Gadget Setup I have auditioned in 2018 : SOtM+Cybershaft+Uptone.
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/thre...itioned-in-2018-sotm-cybershaft-uptone.27025/
It has been surpassed in just 3 months' time!
I listened to the following setup last night :
View attachment 49979
Most of the components used are the same : Cybershaft Limited2 OP20 10M clock, SOtM tx-USBultra usb conditioner, Habst 5N Silver Cryo clock cables & coaxial digital cables; Lessloss C-Marc Supercord with Firewall 64X module, Chord Blu2 for upscaling before entering a Chord DAVE dac ...etc
Please refer to my previous post.
The only difference was that
TWO SOtM sNH-10G Network Switches were used.
These audiophile switches have got SFP sockets for optical transceivers.
So they were linked up in-series by a single-mode optical cable.
View attachment 49980
The Cybershaft Limited OP20 has three 10M clock outputs so the two SOtM switches and one SOtM tx-USBultra were clocked/syned by it.
The effect is phenomenal!
Once we have heard the dual-switches config, nobody are willing to go back to single-switch config!
The sonic improvement was in every aspects but most importantly the background quietness.
Suddenly much much more could be heard and the sound becomes so natural.
I am not a tech guy but I speculate that the optical connection has isolated most if not all of the noise coming from the CAS components & home network.
The two SOtM switches and the tx-USBultra clocked/syned by the extremely accurate Cybershaft 10M clock may be acting as reclockers.
An analogy may be the tweak of cascading/stacking multiple Mutec MC3+ together (
https://www.mutec-net.com/artikel.php?id=1388254422).
My friends and I also did the following comparison : One SOtM switch+Cybershaft Clock vs Two SOtM switches (no Cybershaft Clock).
We found that the latter performed better! The sound was more natural.
If I can get hold of more SOtM sNH-10G Switches, I will try using three or four of them together for sure!
But of course I expect the Law of Diminishing Returns will kick in.
Anyway I am confident to say that this Dual-SOtM Switches is currently the best CAS network setup I have ever encountered.