Changing to Digital and Audiophile Network Switch

[DiggyGun]

After making changes to our Hi-Fi system, as below, we decided to do some listening tests.

• Selling the Linn Sondek LP12 deck
  • Oak plinth
  • Keel
  • Karousel
    • Tiger Paw Tranquility
  • Ekos SE
  • Krystal
  • Urika
    • Chord Shawline RCA to DIN Phono Lead
  • Tangerine Audio Khan Top Plate
  • Radikal (Akurate case)
• Selling the Naim CD5 XS
• Buying a Linn Klimax DS3/Katalyst Streamer

The following tracks were chosen for the listening tests;

1. Women In Blue; Motherless Brooklyn; Various
2. Cantaloupe Island; Empyrean Isles; Herbie Hancock
3. Birdland; Heavy Weather; Weather Report
4. A Love Supreme Pt. 1; A Love Supreme; John Coltrane
5. Everybody Wants To Rule The World; Elevate; Lettuce
6. The Road To Hell Pt. 1; The Road To Hell; Chris Rea
7. Joys Of Christmas; Dancing With Strangers; Chris Rea
8. Telegraph Road; Love Over Gold; Dire Straits
9. Kalimba; Recycling The Blues & Other Related Stuff; Taj Mahal
10. Ca’Purange(Jungle Soul); Bad! Bossa Nova; Gene Ammons
11. Hey Laura; Liquid Spirit; Gregory Porter
12. Unsquare Dance; Classics; Dave Brubeck
13. Limbo; Toy; Yello

The present system set up is;

• Linn Klimax DS3/ Katalyst
  • Chord Co; Signature Tuned Array RCA to DIN Interconnect
• Naim NAC 282
  • Naim SuperCap
  • Naim NAPSC
    • Standard Naim Cables
• Naim NAP 250 x 2
  • Naim SNAXO 242
  • Naim FlatCap XS
    • Standard Naim Cables
• Naim Headline
  • Naim NAPSC
    • Standard Naim Cables
  • FOCAL Elear
    • CustomCans Headphone Cable
• Kudos Titan 606
  • Naim NAC A5
• All mains cables were Naim PowerLine Lites
• Simon Price SimRack
• The Network is Fibre to the house with an LAN (Ethernet) speed of around 230mbs and a Wi-Fi speed of around 200mbs.

Many thanks to Cymbiosis for setting up the system and for loaning me the English Electric 8 Switch for the test. The Naim PowerLine was picked up on eBay for the test at a good price. (If it didn’t work, we could re-sell on eBay and get the money back).


However, for the test, the Focal Elears were initially used to cut out any background noise.


The first session was with;

• TP Link Switch (original Network Switch)

The second session was with;

• EE8 Switch
  • Chord Co; C-Stream Ethernet Cable

The third session was with;

• EE8 Switch
  • Chord Co; C-Stream Ethernet Cable
• Naim PowerLine to the SuperCap

The fourth session was with;

• TP Link Switch (as Session One)
• Naim PowerLine to the SuperCap

The fifth session was with;

• TP Link Switch (as Session One)

The results were;

1. Set as the base, reference value. The fifth track appeared harsh
2. Improvement in detail and instruments seemed to be more defined. Appeared to be more calm. Soundstage had increased However, still some harshness on the fifth track
3. Built on the improvements from Session Two. Appeared to be even more laid back (not rushed) and detailed, could hear more background information and more subtle sounds. (These appeared to be more subdued on the first two sessions). Bass was more controlled and louder, but not boomy, particularly with the Yello track. Overall, tracks were very clear and well defined. Comparable with the old Linn Sondek LP12. Still some harshness on the fifth track.
4. Some of the detail and definition was lost. Was better than Session One, but not better than Session Three. Hard to tell difference from Session Two. Still some harshness on the fifth track.
5. Sounded far less detailed then Sessions Two, Three and Four. A bit like someone had put some wet ex-army blankets over the speakers. Still some harshness on the fifth track.

Did some further investigation into the fifth track and found that when played on the second system, as below, the track also appeared to be harsh, so must just be the original recoding.

• Icon Audio Stereo 25 Mk II Integrated Valve Amplifier
• Q Acoustics 2020i Speakers
• QED Performance XT25 Speaker Cable
• QED Performance Interconnect
• Cambridge Audio DacMagic 100 Digital To Analogue Converter
• iPad Pro
• Qobuz
• Amazon Prime Music

Overall conclusion

• For our ears, the Linn Klimax DS3/Katalyst sounded better with the English Electric 8Switch and the Naim PowerLine connected to the Naim SuperCap. The preferred results were;
  • Session Three
  • Sessions Two / Four
  • Sessions One / Five

We played the tracks again set up as Session Three, but this time through the speakers and have to say that we are enjoying the system. It was just as enjoyable listening again to the same tracks, but even more so, with the speakers as there was greater depth, detail and sound stage. The bass was very much controlled but you could really hear the deep base from Yello, without any distortion.


Consequently, we have decided to keep the English Electric 8Switch and the Naim PowerLine to the Naim SuperCap.


It was great fun undertaking this listening test and Mrs DG and myself enjoyed the various sessions. It is appreciated that the tests are subjective and non-scientific based. It is also appreciated that there are two camps with regard to believing cables / switches make a difference. However, we are not trying to convince anyone to change their opinions or thoughts, but rather just report what we have found with our simple test.


Finally, the conclusions are based on our personal opinion on the listening sessions and we have tried to be as objective as possible in the reporting of these.

 

[wildwildWes]

Was this test done blind?

 

[DiggyGun]

Was this test done blind?

My eyes are bad, but not that bad…



No, I changed all the connections.

 

[DiggyGun]

Update:

Following discussions with friends and comments on an alternate forum, I am now using IFI Power2 power supplies to both the EE8 and Netgear network switches. But they are both plugged into the existing house mains, rather than the dedicated Hi-Fi mains.

Letting everything settle down now, sitting back and enjoying the music. One thing we have found is that it’s so easy to play a greater repertoire of albums and artistes, which is proving great fun.

Finally, no turning back now. The records and CDs were sold to dealer yesterday and I’ve removed the CD storage unit and the five record storage units, which will eventually go on a well known auction site. In the meantime, this has made a huge amount of space, which Mrs DG has plans for, so will now have to do a bit of re-decorating and making good.

Who said life was dull…

 

[maddog_007]

My eyes are bad, but not that bad…



No, I changed all the connections.

"Titter Ye Not" !

 

[maddog_007]

After making changes to our Hi-Fi system, as below, we decided to do some listening tests.

• Selling the Linn Sondek LP12 deck
  • Oak plinth
  • Keel
  • Karousel
    • Tiger Paw Tranquility
  • Ekos SE
  • Krystal
  • Urika
    • Chord Shawline RCA to DIN Phono Lead
  • Tangerine Audio Khan Top Plate
  • Radikal (Akurate case)
• Selling the Naim CD5 XS
• Buying a Linn Klimax DS3/Katalyst Streamer

The following tracks were chosen for the listening tests;

1. Women In Blue; Motherless Brooklyn; Various
2. Cantaloupe Island; Empyrean Isles; Herbie Hancock
3. Birdland; Heavy Weather; Weather Report
4. A Love Supreme Pt. 1; A Love Supreme; John Coltrane
5. Everybody Wants To Rule The World; Elevate; Lettuce
6. The Road To Hell Pt. 1; The Road To Hell; Chris Rea
7. Joys Of Christmas; Dancing With Strangers; Chris Rea
8. Telegraph Road; Love Over Gold; Dire Straits
9. Kalimba; Recycling The Blues & Other Related Stuff; Taj Mahal
10. Ca’Purange(Jungle Soul); Bad! Bossa Nova; Gene Ammons
11. Hey Laura; Liquid Spirit; Gregory Porter
12. Unsquare Dance; Classics; Dave Brubeck
13. Limbo; Toy; Yello

The present system set up is;

• Linn Klimax DS3/ Katalyst
  • Chord Co; Signature Tuned Array RCA to DIN Interconnect
• Naim NAC 282
  • Naim SuperCap
  • Naim NAPSC
    • Standard Naim Cables
• Naim NAP 250 x 2
  • Naim SNAXO 242
  • Naim FlatCap XS
    • Standard Naim Cables
• Naim Headline
  • Naim NAPSC
    • Standard Naim Cables
  • FOCAL Elear
    • CustomCans Headphone Cable
• Kudos Titan 606
  • Naim NAC A5
• All mains cables were Naim PowerLine Lites
• Simon Price SimRack
• The Network is Fibre to the house with an LAN (Ethernet) speed of around 230mbs and a Wi-Fi speed of around 200mbs.

Many thanks to Cymbiosis for setting up the system and for loaning me the English Electric 8 Switch for the test. The Naim PowerLine was picked up on eBay for the test at a good price. (If it didn’t work, we could re-sell on eBay and get the money back).


However, for the test, the Focal Elears were initially used to cut out any background noise.


The first session was with;

• TP Link Switch (original Network Switch)

The second session was with;

• EE8 Switch
  • Chord Co; C-Stream Ethernet Cable

The third session was with;

• EE8 Switch
  • Chord Co; C-Stream Ethernet Cable
• Naim PowerLine to the SuperCap

The fourth session was with;

• TP Link Switch (as Session One)
• Naim PowerLine to the SuperCap

The fifth session was with;

• TP Link Switch (as Session One)

The results were;

1. Set as the base, reference value. The fifth track appeared harsh
2. Improvement in detail and instruments seemed to be more defined. Appeared to be more calm. Soundstage had increased However, still some harshness on the fifth track
3. Built on the improvements from Session Two. Appeared to be even more laid back (not rushed) and detailed, could hear more background information and more subtle sounds. (These appeared to be more subdued on the first two sessions). Bass was more controlled and louder, but not boomy, particularly with the Yello track. Overall, tracks were very clear and well defined. Comparable with the old Linn Sondek LP12. Still some harshness on the fifth track.
4. Some of the detail and definition was lost. Was better than Session One, but not better than Session Three. Hard to tell difference from Session Two. Still some harshness on the fifth track.
5. Sounded far less detailed then Sessions Two, Three and Four. A bit like someone had put some wet ex-army blankets over the speakers. Still some harshness on the fifth track.

Did some further investigation into the fifth track and found that when played on the second system, as below, the track also appeared to be harsh, so must just be the original recoding.

• Icon Audio Stereo 25 Mk II Integrated Valve Amplifier
• Q Acoustics 2020i Speakers
• QED Performance XT25 Speaker Cable
• QED Performance Interconnect
• Cambridge Audio DacMagic 100 Digital To Analogue Converter
• iPad Pro
• Qobuz
• Amazon Prime Music

Overall conclusion

• For our ears, the Linn Klimax DS3/Katalyst sounded better with the English Electric 8Switch and the Naim PowerLine connected to the Naim SuperCap. The preferred results were;
  • Session Three
  • Sessions Two / Four
  • Sessions One / Five

We played the tracks again set up as Session Three, but this time through the speakers and have to say that we are enjoying the system. It was just as enjoyable listening again to the same tracks, but even more so, with the speakers as there was greater depth, detail and sound stage. The bass was very much controlled but you could really hear the deep base from Yello, without any distortion.


Consequently, we have decided to keep the English Electric 8Switch and the Naim PowerLine to the Naim SuperCap.


It was great fun undertaking this listening test and Mrs DG and myself enjoyed the various sessions. It is appreciated that the tests are subjective and non-scientific based. It is also appreciated that there are two camps with regard to believing cables / switches make a difference. However, we are trying to convince anyone to change their opinions or thoughts, but rather just report what we have found with our simple test.


Finally, the conclusions are based on our personal opinion on the listening sessions and we have tried to be as objective as possible in the reporting of these.


The English Electric was a wee stoatir!

 

[Moomintroll]

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/submission/353/Stoater

For the benefit of our non-Glaswegian readers…

‘troll

 

[quinn_t]

Hey @DiggyGun, do you have some fun on the Naim forum on this topic? What is your conclusion?

 

[quinn_t]

This is one of my favorite posts on this forum about network switch and power cable:

https://www.hifiwigwam.com/forum/threads/does-power-cable-impact-sq.108956/post-2237711

 

[DiggyGun]

Hey @DiggyGun, do you have some fun on the Naim forum on this topic? What is your conclusion?

Yes, some of the replies have been very interesting. Usual believers and non-believers rhetoric.

But I can only comment on my system, what we’ve done and whether we liked it. It’s our ears after all. We really like the streamer and are very happy with it. The sound is very detailed and clear with good soundstage. Bass is very deep and well controlled.

Enjoying listening to a lot our favourite albums, plus ones we haven’t played for a while. I must admit that initially, I thought that I would miss the LP12, but no, far from it. The streamer is on most of the day, either with Jazz24 radio as background music, or when we are listening as such to the variety of albums.

Apart from having a neater rack, one other benefit, which I hadn’t considered is the space for storage for the records and CDs. Gone are the five record storage units (200 capacity each) and CD storage cabinet (760 capacity). Consequently, we’ve now got a lot more space, so just busy redecorating that area.

The set up is now virtually finished, just waiting for delivery of the last two Naim PowerLine mains cables for the two Naim NAP250 amps.

With regard to the post, it has developed into a rather technical post, which is way over my head. But very interesting, nonetheless.

 

[quinn_t]

Any interesting comment from the Naim users with respect to the network switch or fiber optics?

 

[Nestor Turton]

However, we are trying to convince anyone to change their opinions or thoughts, but rather just report what we have found with our simple test.

Did you mean “not trying”?

Just wondered did you ever try HP switch with PoE (Power over Ethernet) - in this setup there is no mains lead or external PSU around to upset anything.

I think this is a much nicer forum than the alternative (green) forum because folk are happy to accept different points of view and moderators do not ban dudes who won’t toe a manufacturer’s line.

 

[quinn_t]

I think this is a much nicer forum than the alternative (green) forum because folk are happy to accept different points of view and moderators do not ban dudes who won’t toe a manufacturer’s line.

I just skimmed that forum a short while ago, full of idiotic comments from some dudes who claimed 20 / 30 years of network design / experiences.

 

[DiggyGun]

Did you mean “not trying”?

Thanks for pointing out. Edit made

Don’t know the green forum.

I think this is a much nicer forum than the alternative (green) forum because folk are happy to accept different points of view and moderators do not ban dudes who won’t toe a manufacturer’s line.

 

[Newton John]

Yes, some of the replies have been very interesting. Usual believers and non-believers rhetoric.

But I can only comment on my system, what we’ve done and whether we liked it. It’s our ears after all. We really like the streamer and are very happy with it. The sound is very detailed and clear with good soundstage. Bass is very deep and well controlled.

Enjoying listening to a lot our favourite albums, plus ones we haven’t played for a while. I must admit that initially, I thought that I would miss the LP12, but no, far from it. The streamer is on most of the day, either with Jazz24 radio as background music, or when we are listening as such to the variety of albums.

Apart from having a neater rack, one other benefit, which I hadn’t considered is the space for storage for the records and CDs. Gone are the five record storage units (200 capacity each) and CD storage cabinet (760 capacity). Consequently, we’ve now got a lot more space, so just busy redecorating that area.

The set up is now virtually finished, just waiting for delivery of the last two Naim PowerLine mains cables for the two Naim NAP250 amps.

With regard to the post, it has developed into a rather technical post, which is way over my head. But very interesting, nonetheless.

I have made a similar journey and totally agree with most of your comments. Yet three years after selling my LP12, I still haven't completely let go of my attachment to vinyl. There are three factors involved here.

• Over the past year my two sons have got into vinyl with a modestly priced Project turntable. I started to get nostalgic about vinyl when I saw my boys' enthusiasm for it. Also, I was surprised to find that much of what is good about records comes over on their budget system.
• I made many digitalisations of my vinyl albums before selling the turntable. Some of these still sound amazing; in some cases better than CD rips or streaming the same albums.
• It is difficult not to get caught up in the excitment of all the upgrades that I could have been making to my LP12: Urika II, Karousel, Radikal 2 and Ekstatik.

PS. After writing this I’ve been out in Carlisle for mini celebration lunch with my wife and couldn’t resist a look round a nice vinyl cafe on the way back to the car. I miss the serendipity of buying a record that takes my fancy. In fact I nearly bought a reggae album even though I have nothing to play it on. One of the boys tells me some of their friends buy copies of their favourite albums that never go on a turntable just for the pleasure of owning it

 

[hashluck]

PS. After writing this I’ve been out in Carlisle for mini celebration lunch with my wife and couldn’t resist a look round a nice vinyl cafe on the way back to the car. I miss the serendipity of buying a record that takes my fancy. In fact I nearly bought a reggae album even though I have nothing to play it on. One of the boys tells me some of their friends buy copies of their favourite albums that never go on a turntable just for the pleasure of owning it

I think I have purchased more vinyl since I sold my LP12 than in the last couple of years of owning it

 

[DiggyGun]

PS. After writing this I’ve been out in Carlisle for mini celebration lunch with my wife and couldn’t resist a look round a nice vinyl cafe on the way back to the car. I miss the serendipity of buying a record that takes my fancy. In fact I nearly bought a reggae album even though I have nothing to play it on. One of the boys tells me some of their friends buy copies of their favourite albums that never go on a turntable just for the pleasure of owning it

We used to have some good second-hand vinyl shops near us and it was always good fun trawling through their stock, picking up some old Jazz records.

However, one has bit the bullet and gone. The other, now mainly sells new, re-issue 180gsm vinyl, with very little old vinyl now. Seems their market has changed, since the resurgence of vinyl; more money to be made on new stock?

DG….

 

[quinn_t]

Today, I am surprised to find out that Peter Swain sells EE8. Does he recommend or offer anything positive about it?

 

[DiggyGun]

Today, I am surprised to find out that Peter Swain sells EE8. Does he recommend or offer anything positive about it?

Yes. They do sell and recommend them. Hence, why I tried one and eventually got one.

DG…

 

[Nestor Turton]

Today, I am surprised to find out that Peter Swain sells EE8. Does he recommend or offer anything positive about it?

The switch works and it doesn’t have flashing lights and it comes with a decent warranty. Peter sells the Chord Company range of products.

Personally, I liked the Chord Chrysalis and its entry level cables, but not its more expensive products.

To be honest, if I substituted Chord EE8 or Innuos Phoenix switches for my HPs I doubt there would be any degradation in sound quality, but not something I’m likely to try.