“A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that’s unlocked and opens inwards; as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push” ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein
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The mighty Wittgenstein in a thread about network switches - absolutely magnificent.
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I’d suggest you don’t work in audio 
Because I’ll be happy to introduce you to some studios, mastering engineers, and production facilities that most definitely buy and use high end equipment.
Just for kicks (OT for audiophile switches), this is a power line conditioner made by Jim Weil. I own one, and knew Jim around 15 years ago. His conditioners are the ultimate in what you’d regard as ridiculous. Ultra fussy precise handmade builds at a high price by someone who’s spent his entire life improving line conditioners. Enclosed is a reference I chose because it describes his methods. And by the way, these are prized in recording and production facilities that know about Jim’s product.
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Well absolutely - and often these high end business grade components cost thousands of Euros. So not every device costing much money is a bad thing - or called audiophile 
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Line conditioners, I get. Studios don’t buy them because they “lift veils” or any of that other hyperbolic crap peddled by the hi-fi press… No one wants a pop or click caused by a mains spike in the middle of a multi-thousand dollar recording session, so mains filtering makes good sense. All industries that have expensive instrumentation that could be susceptible to poor mains quality use various forms of protection/filtering. There’s a big difference between the line conditioner you linked and the “snake oil” ethernet switches which are the subject of this discussion.
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Backed by great philosophers and technical understanding, your posts are always a delight for me.
I’d just like to add insulation as a very important means of hardening instrumentation against unwanted disturbances.
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What is so bad about peoples systems they paid top money for that they need to consider even more expense on network switches et al.
My systems (Meridian 5200SE and Bluesound units) sound incredible as is, such that I have lost all desire to upgrade anything… Visitors are always stunned by it.
Basic switches, nothing special on the mains… loads of SMPS all on the same grid…
Just a thought…
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I have to agree with you Chris.
My two main systems sound great, they give me the pleasure of music with a very good sound quality.
They are connected with powerline boxes because of us moving to our new house, not being able to draw some UTP cables yet.
When i connect my listening room system directly to my switch, a Cisco 2960G, i here absolutely no difference (1).
My typical listening session is to listen to music and the emotions it gives me, not (over) analyzing my system.
TLDR; audiophile switches are wasted on me, i care about music not equpment.
(1) maybe i need to buy (receive one to audit) a high price high end audiophile switch.
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@Chrislayeruk I don’t think there’s anything terribly wrong with people’s systems. I just think certain people are very susceptible to marketing in our hobby.
Nano-particles of truth regarding electrical phenomena are embellished by layer upon layer of hyperbolic hand-waving, pseudo-scientific oratory. This is spouted in marketing literature and then regurgitated by the popular hi-fi press embellished with observations of impossible improvements in soundstage width and depth, pinpoint instrument placement, timbre, PRaT, tighter, faster bass, more slam, increased attack, more “air” etc.etc. etc.
People get sucked into listening to the gear instead of just enjoying the music.
How many of us have been to a gig or concert and enjoyed it enormously, despite sometimes less than stellar accoustics?
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It’s not about marketing, expectations or any of that. Well marketing makes you aware of products but in the end the decision is made by auditioning the gear, preferably in your own system. Usually my expectations with stuff like audiophile switches, digital cables or even power cables are extremely skeptic, I expect to hear no difference. But if I do and like what I hear and if the price of the product is within my reach, I might just make a purchase decision. In the end, measurements, double blind tests and other ”proofs” mean simply nothing if my subjective experience says something else. I repeat myself but my own subjective experience is only thing which matters to me in this hobby.
This hobby and how we perceive music is so highly subjective that I find it extremely ridiculous to approach this hobby from purely objective point of view. Measurements and listening should go hand in hand while designing audio products.
I think I have heard the pseudo argument probably a million times. I think it is fine and perfect thing to say, but some people abuse /excuse it to say something like “ok, measurement does not prove anything, what matters is your ears” when they cannot explain or justify their arguments.
What people need is a ‘secret remover’ that unplugs the article after a few months and replaces it with a ‘normal’ one without them knowing. See if they notice.
On a slightly different note, didn’t Bose dealers used to hide their tiny speakers behind bigger boxes etc to fool people and prove their point?
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What else could possibly matter than your own experienge when you sit down on your sofa and press play? I couldn’t care less what Amir says about my DAC or amplifier if I love what I hear on that moment.
I bought audiophile switch since I liked what happened when I compared it to my Netgear switch. I even did this back and forth for many days to confirm my findings since I was so skeptical about switches having any effect. It might just be the PSU having more effect or the switch itself, who knows.
It is perfectly fine if you “think” you like it. 
Usually, people like tinkering with their system only when they are not happy about something.
I like to tinker with my system since I find it interesting and fascinating. I love my setup but in the same time it has improved massively during the ~20 years I’ve been into hifi and music. Sometimes I go many years without changing anything, sometimes I might change bunch of things in one month. Cables and tweaks never make ”night and day” difference, they’re just for fine tuning the end result. My recent speaker upgrade was night and day, as was selling my whole Naim stack and going active with Linn and ATC in 2019.
Thanks!
Indeed, insulation also plays a significant part in mitigating the effects of excess mains voltage on equipment.
I see an alarming amount of “300V” insulation around these days. Sure, it’s rated to 300V AC, but that’s not a great deal of headroom over a 240V nominal AC supply voltage.
Nice combination, congrats.
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There needs to be a balance between subjectivity and objectivity. Objectivity is a necessary evil to ensure that human biases don’t create perceptions that are not founded in reality.
Maybe everything just hasn’t been found in 2021? If everything truly has been found by now then it’ll be boring future for science and engineering. Also I find it interesting that you think you can define what’s reality or not. Maybe you need to have little bit more open mind with this hobby.
Firstly, I would never be so arrogant as to think I can define what is or isn’t reality. Secondly, you don’t know what I think, you can only surmise.
The bottom line is this: if it’s not possible to measure a perceived difference, then the perception is faulty since it is at odds with reality. Human hearing really isn’t very good. Additionally, many of the people who can afford high-end audio are well into the realms of age-related hearing deterioration. Instrumentation can measure far beyond our limited auditory perception.
Are you accusing me of being closed-minded?
On the contrary, I’m very open-minded, however I refuse to believe in things whose existence cannot be proven, or at the very least hypothesised using solid scientific principles. I can cite examples from sub-atomic physics for instance where the existence of hitherto unidentified particles can be predicted by other measurements or energy/matter interactions.
This is however, a far cry from the “I can hear it, therefore it is real” position adopted by many audiophiles.
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