Well, here we are 300 hours later. It has improved since its rough stage, but it doesn't sound completely broken in yet. But if it gained a reasonably small amount of improvement in the smoothness and transparency, as well as timber purity, it would make me a satisfied customer.
This unit has 12 ceramic caps terminated by 2 tantalum types (see Picture). I believe these take a long time to burn in.
Well, here we are 300 hours later. It has improved since its rough stage, but it doesn't sound completely broken in yet. But if it gained a reasonably small amount of improvement in the smoothness and transparency, as well as timber purity, it would make me a satisfied customer.
This unit has 12 ceramic caps terminated by 2 tantalum types (see Picture). I believe these take a long time to burn in.
At 400 hours, the filter is hard, veiled and lacking overall transparency. Listening without the filter in place shows this to be the case.
Also, the fact that this filter employs ceramic capacitors doesn't install confidence in its final outcome as I believe that I can always hear the lack of refinement these caps are known for.
I will report back Sunday night with further findings.
I purchased one of these in May from Amazon and inserted it on my Lumin T2. I never really heard too much of an impact (positive or negative) on the overall sound. I am thinking of purchasing another one for my English Electric 8 Switch.
At 400 hours, the filter is hard, veiled and lacking overall transparency. Listening without the filter in place shows this to be the case.
Also, the fact that this filter employs ceramic capacitors doesn't install confidence in its final outcome as I believe that I can always hear the lack of refinement these caps are known for.
I will report back Sunday night with further findings.
Yes.I bought it from a company here in Denver that has a 60 day return policy.
Will the filter improve to my satisfaction? Doughtful. Can I modify it to improve its performance? Yes. But should I, given the price I paid for it? That may not be the wisest thing I could do.
I could return it and buy a Korean-made filter for the same price that is reputed to have perfect highs, but sloppy bass (Jitter?). Or I could financially stretch myself in order to purchase the Smooth Lan filter, or I could try my hand at building my own.
And by doing any of these things, I will be further putting off saving money for a new phono cartridge (I have very limited funds these days).
Yes.I bought it from a company here in Denver that has a 60 day return policy.
Will the filter improve to my satisfaction? Doughtful. Can I modify it to improve its performance? Yes. But should I, given the price I paid for it? That may not be the wisest thing I could do.
I could return it and buy a Korean-made filter for the same price that is reputed to have perfect highs, but sloppy bass (Jitter?). Or I could financially stretch myself in order to purchase the Smooth Lan filter, or I could try my hand at building my own.
And by doing any of these things, I will be further putting off saving money for a new phono cartridge (I have very limited funds these days).
How about returning it and trying my trifecta of D-link switches I found after comparing 16 different switches in dozens of combos?
You can buy them from Amazon and be all in for under $200. For me in my system it has never failed to make any digital gear I have sound better - regardless of prices. If it doesn't work you can return them to Amazon.
I am actually running it with my Telegartner switch as well.
So you guys want me to purchase 3 switches, an exta power strip for the power warts, plus a bunch of ethernet cables to connect them all to do exactly what over a properly designed filter?
So you guys want me to purchase 3 switches, an exta power strip for the power warts, plus a bunch of ethernet cables to connect them all to do exactly what over a properly designed filter?
Have you found the ideal "properly designed filter" in your price point yet?
The cables will cost you $30 to run between the switches. You only need good quality cable going into your streamer based on my experience (of course better cables in the daisy chain make s difference but this is a budget upgrade).
I literally tried dozens of cables, combos and items before finding this combo.
With the utmost respect, it doesn't affect my life what you decide to do or try. I was trying to suggest a inexpensive and surprising way that I found to have a positive impact.
So you guys want me to purchase 3 switches, an exta power strip for the power warts, plus a bunch of ethernet cables to connect them all to do exactly what over a properly designed filter?
Sounds like you should stick with your analog front end. Clearly a $99.00 filter is not cutting it or your DAC/Streamer needs upgrading as well as your network. I will say I was unimpressed with the iFi filter. The EE1 or SmoothLan maybe the answer. Then again maybe not.
With the utmost respect, it doesn't affect my life what you decide to do or try. I was trying to suggest a inexpensive and surprising way that I found to have a positive impact.
Unfortunately, my journeys with digital have always fallen short of what I desire of it. But I also wasn't as surprised until now about just how bad a component could fail to live up to its reputation.
Sounds like you should stick with your analog front end. Clearly a $99.00 filter is not cutting it or your DAC/Streamer needs upgrading as well as your network. I will say I was unimpressed with the iFi filter. The EE1 or SmoothLan maybe the answer. Then again maybe not.
I have been debating over which direction I should go, and with my ever dwindling funds, keeping my analog rig (and records) 100% working is becoming quite a challenge.
I would like to think that the SmoothLan is the right filter for my system, but I don't have the excess funds to throw at it at this point.
As I stated before, I don't have a streamer. My system consists of the modem/router of my internet provider, my computer, a SilkLine Hifi USB to SPDIF converter which filters and re-times the signal, and my Philips Little Giant NOS 16-bit DAC + triple filter linear power supply.
Unfortunately, my journeys with digital have always fallen short of what I desire of it. But I also wasn't as surprised until now about just how bad a component could fail to live up to its reputation.
I have been debating over which direction I should go, and with my ever dwindling funds, keeping my analog rig (and records) 100% working is becoming quite a challenge.
I would like to think that the SmoothLan is the right filter for my system, but I don't have the excess funds to throw at it at this point.
As I stated before, I don't have a streamer. My system consists of the modem/router of my internet provider, my computer, a SilkLine Hifi USB to SPDIF converter which filters and re-times the signal, and my Philips Little Giant NOS 16-bit DAC + triple filter linear power supply.
I bought this dac a few months ago from Aliexpress. It is a 47 Labs clone with a Philips TD1387 chip in non-oversampling mode. It also employs a varian...
@SoundMann, I don't know where you have the filter installed, but have you tried moving it around to all possible locations? IME, filters were all bad when used between my EtherRegen and streamer, but performed much better when moved further upstream.
