“Rare lucky users”? Rather it should have been said that I am one of the majority of users who have not fallen into the marketing hype/trap of the boutique ethernet cables.
A well engineered product such as the Cisco switch is cheap & cheerful?
There appears to be a school of thought that boutique ethernet cables can sound different (or worse or better), but you’ve got to draw the ‘too much fiddling about’ line somewhere.
Btw, look: there are threads in this forum about the network switches and cables, you can go there and debate, but I am not going down that rabbit hole.
2 Likes
Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
43
Or perhaps one of the many many many folks who haven’t fallen into the masochistic rabbit hole we know and love/hate as “the HiFi world”. After all, most people are perfectly content to listen to Spotify on their Amazon Echo. I regularly sing paeans to the Mark 1 Google Home Mini as a Roon endpoint!
IMO, if one wants to spend a lot of money on a switch, getting a fancy Cisco switch is one of the best options. For enormous amount of money, you get enormous amount of switching capacity and functionality.
And configurability… Please note that you need to be prepared to study and learn how to set it up properly. It won’t be out of box plug-and-play experience.
I’m running solely on Cisco and HPE (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise) / Aruba networking.
Ja, the cisco switches are managed switches, so a little networking knowledge (telnet to the box, configuring using the cisco command line tools to optimize it, etc) is needed. But to my knowledge, if you can somehow reset it to the factory settings, it would work fine for some basic usage.
They have decent web interface, so no need to work on command line.
But first thing you need to check is to make sure 802.3x (Flow Conrtol) is enabled for all ports. This avoids unnecessary packet loss, re-sends and subsequent network stalls due to excessive re-sends. This is most typical thing going wrong for realtime network streaming.
Next is to check that 802.1p (CoS) / DiffServ is enabled with reasonably settings (default queues are usually fine).
And third is to make sure 802.3az (EEE) is enabled to ensure cable length detection and related transmit power adjustment, idle connection sleep and unused port power-down.
Once these three things are fine, then there is some potential that it will work nicely with otherwise default settings.
I am a network software developer (used to work on the youtube networking layer, now working for a Wall street firm in the area of low latency, high frequency transactions), so I am just used to command line stuff, forgot that there is a Web URL
Thanks @jussi_laako, your info would be very useful for non-IT people and help removing misconception about the boutique stuffs that some spend their hard-earned money needlessly.
6 Likes
Torben_Rick
(Torben - A Dane living in Hamburg - Roon Lifer)
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You can not go wrong with a managed (desktop) Cisco switch. @Torben_Rick When resetting these switches all ports are in the same “network” and you do not need to configure them.
They work transparent and you will have an industry strength networking device, without a fan.
In my temporary network (i am rebuilding my house) i use a cisco WS-C2960CG-8TC-L, using it with more advanced features, such as VLANS etc., flawless operation.
I have four of them, the C2690 (8 x 10/100, 1 x 1000 ), C2690CG, C2960CX and a C3560CG, all manageable and problem free for years.
2 Likes
Torben_Rick
(Torben - A Dane living in Hamburg - Roon Lifer)
51
@PeterD - THX Compared to you, I have a VERY simple setup I “just” want a switch with low noise - no noise - that gives me the best SQ
Manged: Cisco Meraki MS120-8 GB Ethernet Switch (MS120-8-HW) = 512 EURO
Un-Managed: Cisco Meraki Go 8 Port Switch (GS110-8-HW-EU) = 240 EURO
The only switch of those I have experience with is the first, which was recommended by someone I trust with extensive experience in digital networking and high-end audio. Even they don’t know why it works better with the Klimax than some other switches, but to our ears it does (including my wife’s, who was not paying attention to the switch swap).
Having two SFP ports is good, because it allows you to later add optical network links for extreme isolation, if you wish.
5 Likes
Torben_Rick
(Torben - A Dane living in Hamburg - Roon Lifer)
54
@jussi_laako - Good point I understand the impact this can have but struggle to find information about how the setup would be. Do you have a good site (WWW) where I can see that?
You can have optical SFP module in switch, and then another one in a DAC/NAA endpoint like iFi NEO Stream. Or use a media converter for existing copper NAA + DAC.
2 Likes
Torben_Rick
(Torben - A Dane living in Hamburg - Roon Lifer)
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Torben_Rick
(Torben - A Dane living in Hamburg - Roon Lifer)
57
THX for some great advice regarding ethernet cable.
My conclusion is clear: DON’T use CAT7 - use CAT6 (UTP), it is much better. With CAT7 I had very short dropouts every 6-7 minute when I used USB - now it is gone. Don’t ask me why - probably some kind of noise.
After installation of the new CAT6 cables the difference between USB and LAN is gone. Now they sound equal good - don’t ask me why.
Next week I will get my new Cisco Meraki Go 8 Port Switch (GS110-8-HW-EU). Let’s see what will happen
I tnink this is at least related to to main topic. If not, ignore. I bought very expensive AQ Diamond ethernet wires, from Netgear router to Antipodes server, and from there to Rossini DAC. At the time I could find no information comparing AQ ethernet Diamond and the half the price Vodka, and still haven’t seen any. So for various reasons i flew blind and bought, and still don’t know if i wasted my money. Does anyone know how these compare?
Jim Heckman
Rather it should have been said that I am one of the majority of users who have not fallen into the marketing hype/trap of the boutique ethernet cables.