Thank you for this revealing dissection of the components inside the switch. I think even a subjectivist (as I confess to be) needs to admit that what they hear can’t be imputed to the device. (I’m kind of pleased with myself for not hearing any difference).
This is one of the ways to go – having a good look at the entrails, certainly more conclusive than measurements.
In this case, it’s like opening the hood of a Ferrari and finding that the engine is of ‘lowly’ Honda provenance. What would one’s conclusion be?
Label something as audiophile and put a certain price tag on it. It’s done across the board of manufacturing. Reminds me of an article on Hugo Boss suits – made in China at the cost of 20-25 € per unit and then sold 800 € in European boutiques.
I’ve started a vote.
Go for it!
Interestingly this marketing claim driven rarely evidence based way of ‘doing business’ seems to work quite nicely with luxury or sports cars. And in audio.
We need an option for something in the middle since everything matters 
I used to think source first but nowadays my setup is heavily speakers first with ATC actives being the foundation.
Hahaha!! Yes, I agree. Everything does matter.
I disagree. You assume that DACs of a certain resolving capacity all perform equally well. I guess it depends what you value in a performance. As far as I know there are no measurements that would indicate how musical a DAC sounds. To give an example – you can add a clock to Dcs products. Some claim that these clocks make no difference, which, however, goes completely against my experience. It was self-evident that a clock has a substantial impact in creating an impression of fluidity and naturalness of the sound. Now, whether that difference is worth £/$/€ is a different matter. But the difference is clearly audible. That difference wasn’t something I expected to hear, as the DAC by itself already sounded great. (So my upgrade path is clear: the next thing to add to my audio chain will be a clock.)
Re source vs speakers. Whatever happened to the old hifi adage that a system will only sound as good as its weakest link? If you have to choose between speaker vs DAC upgrade, I would go for the speakers. But with the caveat that my speakers will perform even better once I’ve upgraded my DAC (and other components – such as amp and interconnects).
It’s really a question of keeping the final objective in mind: to have the best possible system within your budgetary constraints. Few of us can just walk into a store and buy the ‘best’ all at once. We make upgrades over a certain period of time. So yes, start with the speakers (as they will arguably have the biggest single impact on your sound), but then don’t neglect to upgrade your other components as well in time.
I draw the forums attention to:
And
Do people really still believe they’re hearing a difference with this stuff?
This proves my point exactly 
I know that my Atlas interconnects sound better than the Linn interconnects supplied with my streamer. They probably measure very similarly, yet sound completely different.
It just goes to show that ‘measurements’ don’t mean a great deal in isolation.
No it just means you think they sound better. Because they will sound identical in every possible way.
I really don’t understand when confronted with facts, how people still think their ears are better.
Your ears are enormously flawed devices with some serious caveats in how we experience sound. We have an audible dynamic range far smaller than any of these measurements can show us on a graph.
The only difference is a computer graph doesn’t have an opinion. You do.
Nope for me, some audiophile lack of introspection
Further ideas for these people:
- sound quality differences between USB/SATA mass storage interfaces as well as different controller chips.
- sound quality differences from transfer music over different USB cables.
- picture quality differences when using different flashcard brands with your camera as well as different flashcard types.
Etc.
The possibilities are endless.
Exactly. When you start phrasing it like this, it highlights how insane these notions are.
My camera gives me redder reds when I use a sandisk flash card.
My scanner has deeper blacks when I use an audiophile usb cable.
My cooker makes nicer steaks when I upgrade the power cable going to it.
Oh also, my TV is only bearable if I isolate it in a faraday cage.
Ermm… No. They don’t sound ‘identical in every possible way’. Far from it. I wish they did! 
It’s not just me who thinks this. See pages 39 - 49:
And ad infinitum in listening tests over the last few decades.
They might sound identical to you. But not to me.
Ah yea, hifi news, the well known purveyor of facts. No vested interest there in fuelling the madness that keeps them all in jobs. Hifi magazines are about as reliable as trusting webMD.
Again I’d ask what makes you think your ears are special in some way, and that you cAn hear something that is undetectable on a frequency plot?
Here we are again: Measurements vs Listening.
As I stated above in this thread, I know that my Chord TT2 DAC sounds better to me in my system, than a Topping D90 DAC, even though the two might ‘measure’ identically.
The same rationale applies to cables. I use my ears to listen, and not a measurement table.
I’m asking again though. What do you think your ears are hearing that a measurement isn’t picking up?
If the frequency response is identical then the cable can’t sound leaner, warmer, more bass heavy etc.
If the resolution of sound even at high bitrates is identical, and the crosstalk and thd are beyond the threshold of human hearing.
What is it you’re hearing?
Nope
If you change the Ethernet cable or hdmi cable or router
or switch or power cable your display (same as dac)
doesn’t show better digital photos
Same thing applies on audio files.
Game over
……
Hahahaha, game over, roflol 
I do not think so…!
Whilst I acknowledge that measuring cables using certain parameters might show little very little difference between them, I know from experience that cables do indeed sound different.
And also, it depends what you ‘choose’ to measure, doesn’t it?
A personal example comes from listening to Atlas Mavros cables with my Chord TT2 DAC. They didn’t sound great in my system, with a midrange ‘peak’ that made listening to piano almost painful. Once these were swapped-out for other cables (Chord Indigo TA), then the ‘balance’ to the sound signature returned.
Cables do indeed ‘sound’ different. Period.
What cables ? Passive digital nope. Analog ? Maybe suffer impedance.
Fruit is sweet at different periods.
What fruit?
Game over