Hi, anyone tried OCXO network switch for listening music fromTidal? I want to buy one but don’t know if it really can improve SQ. Please give me some advice. Thank
Uptone is coming out with EtherRegen later on in the summer. That may be worth waiting for.
From personal experience with various switches, routers, cables, and power supplies, I did find that they can sound different from one another. Some changes, like the LPS, was beneficial to all the devices. Other changes was a tossup.
I personally won’t buy any new device until the company has presented enough evidence and shown a good understanding of all the variables involved. You can’t fix a problem without knowing the problem.
I recently went wireless and it’s been great. Eliminates so many variables and need for tweaking.
Get a used Cisco 2960 enterprise quality switch (2960-8tc-L is the cheapest and most plentiful). Beats the pants off any consumer switch, even one with an LPS and ground shunt. The Cisco’s have a built in quality SMPS so no need for add ones. Can be had for $50 and under on ebay. It will be interesting if the etherRegen beats it, but I’m pretty sure it will be close, for a lot more $.
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Any switch over $20 is a waste of money.
These specialty switches just play on some people’s overwhelming need to accessorize with costume jewelry. Why stop there? Buy a bunch of their ‘Reference CAT7A cables’ while you’re at it.
Use WiFi and take the switch out of the equation all together.
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Thank for your information. Do you think this is a new trend that more companies will produce this hi Fi grade switch? If this is a case, it really worth to wait for a while. I’ve also heard people in different forums saying LPS could improve SQ very well. I may go to try LPS first.
I was able to use my Teradak LPS with 3 switches and they all sounded better with it in comparison to their stock switching power supply. I went through 3 routers, 3 switches, 3 computers for direct bridged connections, and over 30 cables that varied between Cat5e, 6, 6a SSTP, Belden bonded - all at various lengths from as short as 1 feet to 60 feet. Sometimes, I’ve even daisy chained many of these devices together to see what impact they may have.
It is because I’ve tried all of these things and tried to look for patterns, that I would recommend waiting before buying any product. Even when buying, I’d only buy from a place that has a good return policy. I’d have to be convinced that the manufacturer actually knows what they are doing and addressing all the relevant parameters (which continues to change after every few months).
In the meantime, I’ve gone wireless and it’s given me good results. No cables, switches, routers. For those that don’t have that wireless option, I am not sure.
I highly recommend waiting before spending your money.
Ive gone wireless too, bit not using flakey domestic kit got Uniti Unify AC Pro AP it’s rock solid
Is your audio device connecting wirelessly to the Uniti or is there an ethernet cable involved there from the port of that Uniti?
Audio device wirelessly to the Uniti for main zone, which is a Naim Uniti Atom. Only cable is from router to the Uniti, wireless on the router is turned off. 2nd zone, as its a Pi2 and the inbuilt WiFi sucks I use a 5GHz bridge and a cable to the pi. I have two ssid one for 2GHz and one for 5GHz. The latter is solely used for streaming and 2GHz used for everything else.
I turned to wireless after doing my playback tests I posted in the ethernet cable thread as I got no difference between usb , via ethernet or wireless. It made more sense and had less mess. The only issue was my routers wireless was just not reliable a connection as it would drop off for no reason. So.i decided to get the unifi unit after reading up on them and the price is very good for a prosumer unit.
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I also use UniFi APs, they are very good, but after quite a bit of experimentation, I wired my streaming paths. My neighborhood is way too dense with WiFi and there were occasional streaming hiccups at busy times.
Here is the test:
If you don’t have Tidal get a 30 day trial. Que up a track and wait 20 seconds. Have someone remove the cable for 10-30 second intervals, at random, without you able to know.
See if you can tell when and how many times they did this. With Tidal’s caching behavior the music should never be interrupted.
OCXO switchs are a way to swindle money. I called UpTone, jokingly, years ago making a two port audio switch. There’s a sucker born every minute.
I have $100 WiFi and get ~38MB/s with sub 2ms ping rates. I captured 240GB of playback (via WireShark) and had 0 lost packets and 4 resent.
^^ THIS. Also tons of 3750’s available.
Someone explain to me what’s so special about these Cisco switches in comparison to other switches that all still seem to work flawlessly?
They rave about then over on Naims forum and how much they improved the SQ. They are just enterprise units as far as I know. But they talk about having foot PHY circuitry.
I always thought that my old DELL network switch might need replacement but I never wanted to buy a high-end network switch.
While browsing computeraudiophile.com I came across this link: http://www.klinktbeter.be/index.php/specials/highend-switch. After reading it I decided to order a new network switch from amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00K4DS5KU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. Thought I would try and it if I don’t hear any difference I return it. The switch came in and I plugged it using iFi iPower 9V power supply that I had. After playing with the settings the little box finally connected my QNAP NAS to my music server PC and my ultraRendu. The result was above any expectation!!! It sounded as if I upgraded my DAC or the source. Both Tidal and local files stored on NAS sound better. It sounds amazing even using the included cheap power supply. Give it a try and if you don’t like it return it. Nothing to loose.
Make sure you are comfortable with adjusting the network settings when buying a managed switch. If you are not comfortable just buy unmanaged switch. Anyhow read the article in the link above before you order anything.
For the truly paranoid I recommend them since they have a grounded power supply. Plus Cisco never skimped on the magnetics on the ports.
The difference is in the quality of parts for around the same amount of $$.
I like wireless.
‘Foot’ phy circuitry? What’s that.
Yeah, I can’t keep up with all the theories out there.
- Noise getting in the ethernet cable
- Noise getting out of the ethernet cable
- Signal integrity (PHY) making PHY work harder
- John Swenson’s stuff on leakage and grounding the negative leg
- Phase noise and clocking is the new thing I’m hearing more and more about
- He’s supposedly working on noise in digital domain from what I hear? or is that just phase noise? Can’t remember…
For the average consumer, it’s an awful lot of work having to go through all this. The cables, power supplies, switches/routers, reclockers. It’s too much.
I would personally like to see more networked wireless or fiber input endpoints for complete isolation. This way you’d get CONSISTENT performance. Any noise that is introduced or created will be completely in control of the manufacturer. I agree, wireless is the most attractive.
Most manufacturers are quiet about this stuff. Either they think their customers are crazy and don’t buy into any of this, or they do know it but won’t acknowledge it for whatever reason.
Lol gotta love those typos.
I don’t have experience of the Linear Power Solutions OXCO switch but have a look over at Computeraudiophile.com where some users are raving about it.
I bought the Aqvox SE switch and my experience is that my Tidal streaming sounds terrific with it.
Am very intrigued how the OXCO, Aqvox and upcoming UpTone would compare. But admittedly that’s 50% curiousity / 50% greed as my streaming is great.
No direct experience but I have read great things about the Cisco 2960 too if you want to keep the budget down and source a decent LPS yourself this sounds worth a punt.
My stance is that better clocking defo makes a huge contribution. We might not fully understand the science but I’ve heard it for myself three times now when I introduced clocking improvements.
I love my Aqvox but I’m not ruling out backing a different pony (OXCO, UpTone or SOtM) at some stage because this stuff clearly matters.
Cheers,
Alan
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