Just try it yourself.
After making fun of audiophile switches for a long time and firmly believing that bits are bits, I achieved an absolute increase in sound with the isolators.
What fascinates me about it is that these are totally cheap parts and not some overpriced snake oil stuff.
After making fun of audiophile switches for a long time and firmly believing that bits are bits, I achieved an absolute increase in sound with the isolators.
What fascinates me about it is that these are totally cheap parts and not some overpriced snake oil stuff.
In your case I would revert to a completely separate second setup B with just 1 switch and have cables relaid with new unmodified industrial ones spaghetti style (just for testing) without any added stuff and all industrial quality stuff and retest without any isolator... Then I would compare with the current isolator and 4 wire cables setup A as you currently use. So in effect there would be 2 different setups and all that should be done is then plugging in all devices.
Possibly I would measure the cabling of both situations with a borrowed network analyzer. A listening test would also be done. Then we would sit down and compare test results and audible results. I would not bring a network tech as he would get a fit seeing f***ed up cables and immediately replace those thereby ruining the comparison.
Simplicity often wins, prices don't have too much to do with quality.
Possibly I would measure the cabling of both situations with a borrowed network analyzer. A listening test would also be done. Then we would sit down and compare test results and audible results. I would not bring a network tech as he would get a fit seeing f***ed up cables and immediately replace those thereby ruining the comparison.
Simplicity often wins, prices don't have too much to do with quality.
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I have done several Tests.
With standard switch.
With standard switch with LPS.
With 1m patch cords
With 10m patch cords.
With Wireless router/bridge and then patch cord to the streamer.
Direct connection with patch cord to the server.
CAT8 cable, CAT 5 cable.
In all cases the improvement with isolator is audible.
Give it a try and test it.
With standard switch.
With standard switch with LPS.
With 1m patch cords
With 10m patch cords.
With Wireless router/bridge and then patch cord to the streamer.
Direct connection with patch cord to the server.
CAT8 cable, CAT 5 cable.
In all cases the improvement with isolator is audible.
Give it a try and test it.
It still does not ring a bell that there might be another explanation for that. Maybe it is a good idea to reread the thread.
Ahem, it is meant slightly different. It means when you are dogmatically thinking of just 1 direction you won't see other directions anymore.
So the isolator is just one thing I care about my setup. But to me it offers the best Price-Sound ratio.
Not quite yet - termination or not termination was the question.
But I think I just have to try this out and unfortunately only trust my ears because I don't have a measuring device.
How can you seriously have such a mess/mix of a setup and then judge by ears thinking one specific in fact superfluous device cures things ...
It would be advisable to have a look at the signal patterns on real instruments.
It would be advisable to have a look at the signal patterns on real instruments.
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My "mess" setup is a result of my tests. Believe it or not.
Unshielded 2 pair cable sounds best.
The switch is deliberately only a 100mbit 4 cable, so that it does not produce more hf garbage. The switch is IP67 and encapsulated to avoid microphony.
I use silver litz headphone cable, because these are the most resolving i could find.
Drive the Squeezebox with battery because of the sound
And so on.....
It not happened by accident.
Just got a shock thinking I was in the tube section. You have reduced assumed RF garbage without even having measured it in both situations, cool. Wireless still enabled so a house full of RF... Maybe the isolators cure a part of the created mess as no change was measured nor was there any scientific method used?! I will have a nice red wine now. Good luck with all the improvements, Tom!
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Why not just use an SFP Optical MultiMode fiber modules... Just add a transceiver chip.
Fiber Ethernet is so cheap I use it in my house.... It lets me galvanically isolate the PoE switches that drive my outdoor cameras from the rest of the network - in case of lightning or sabotage LOL! Most of the time, the best use of Fiber is not to endpoint devices, it's use to connect distant switches, or outdoor APs, back to the core routing fabric - providing some level of galvanic isolation and security.
SFP Modules
– Ubiquiti Inc.
Fiber Ethernet is so cheap I use it in my house.... It lets me galvanically isolate the PoE switches that drive my outdoor cameras from the rest of the network - in case of lightning or sabotage LOL! Most of the time, the best use of Fiber is not to endpoint devices, it's use to connect distant switches, or outdoor APs, back to the core routing fabric - providing some level of galvanic isolation and security.
SFP Modules
– Ubiquiti Inc.
17 bucks for a pair, that's really cheap.
At first I thought hey, these modules have just one diff pair in, one diff pair out, what if this could transmit any signal, like SPDIF or I2S. I mean, if it passes 1Gbps, the opto's bandwidth must be a lot better than the usual SPDIF receiver, so less jitter.
But no, you have to talk to it with SGMII encoding, 625 MHz DDR, 150ps rise time. So, to use it for isolation and avoid noise, you need a noisy FPGA on your board to talk to it. Project canceled lol.
At first I thought hey, these modules have just one diff pair in, one diff pair out, what if this could transmit any signal, like SPDIF or I2S. I mean, if it passes 1Gbps, the opto's bandwidth must be a lot better than the usual SPDIF receiver, so less jitter.
But no, you have to talk to it with SGMII encoding, 625 MHz DDR, 150ps rise time. So, to use it for isolation and avoid noise, you need a noisy FPGA on your board to talk to it. Project canceled lol.
These are not opto so no "opto's bandwidth".... see first post, there is even a picture and schematic.
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The latter may be too simple as well. One can go to great lengths to engineer out all of the little tiny audible problems one can identify in a dac and still find the sound is flawed in some as yet unmeasured way. Ultimately then, they are all not properly designed; its just a matter of to what degree.