Hi,
I am currently using an audio grade network switch, “Sotm sNH-10G”, at home. It has 8 gigabit ethernet ports as well as 2 SPF modules. I only connected my hifi audio devices to this switch.
In addition to these devices, I have different electronic equipments(Smart TVs, Home Fiber Router/Internet, satellite receiver, Media Server, NAS etc.) all of which should be connected to each other by another network switch. Therefore, I have been using a standard unmanaged switch for over 5 years. I am planning to replace it with a new switch which is fanless and has low noise floor. It should also support both optical and gigabit ethernet networks. I’d prefer using an external Linear Power Supply to feed it. Therefore, it had better not use internal power supply.
When I search for different products which may meet these requirements, I found out two devices, one of which does not support external power supply. The first one ise Mikrotik RB260GSP. The other one is Ubiquiti Unifi us-8-150 switch which is fanless and has low noise floor(but uses internal power supply). Silence, low energy consumption, low noise floor, better package timing, less jitter is more important than anything for my purpose.
As I am new to both Mikrotik and Ubiquiti staff, I would like to hear your advices, experiences especially about audio-centric models fo home network(both optical and ethernet).
Powering these devices by an external non-switching PSU is not worth the hassle IMO.
Nearly every device has additional switching power regulators inside to step down the 9 to 28 volts input voltage to a usable 5 or 3.3 volts.
I believe in what I really hear. The audio fact is that,
The less the jitter is, the better sound(with better imaging, seperation) you will hear. It is all about reducing jitter as low as possible and provide noise free communication(prevent packet resends..)
There’s a whole industry based around selling “high end audio” versions of digital equipment for 10-100x normal price. There’s no point trying to convince audiophiles that digital signals are not distorted like analogue, they’ll always say it “sounds better” because they spent more money on it!
lmao @ the ‘audiophile switch’
It takes a special kind of ignorance and lack of willingness to understand how things actually work to buy into that crap
@OP if you don’t want to believe it, go and look into ethernet actually works, how packet flow and processing works etc and you’ll realize it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever
Infact the only way it could even possibly make any sort of difference at all is to break ethernet standards and be incompatible with any other network great out there that follows those standards (i.e. practically all of it) and ultimately for no good reason at all
I imagine you are aware of how audio data is transmitted over a network. Unless you are talking about some AES/EBU cross connect, audio is not transmitted as individual samples but fixed length packets. If your equipment is interconnected using AES/EBU or the consumer counterpart (S/PDIF) you may benefit from Wordclock synchronization. And I say may because most clock recovery mechanisms are really good.
Now, audio over TCP/IP? There is absolutely no way that your network equipment or cables can affect it as long as packets arrive on time. Esoteric power supplies for network equipment? I am sorry to be blunt, but you have been scammed.
Jitter can certainly be a problem in digital audio. But only for the A/D and D/A converters. If your D/A converter is good and it has a good quality clock that’s all that matters. I assume that the music you listen to has been recorded with proper professional equipment which features really low jitter clocks. If the original recording has problems, however, there’s absolutely nothing you can do to fix it.
I know there are scammers selling audiophile grade Ethernet cable and optical fibre costing even thousands of dollars. Their approach to sell their snake oil is the “salami fraud”. They reason that when you spend a certain amount of money on expensive audio equipment, a percentage should go to cables. So, for example, if you are spending €1000 on a CD player you should budget €100 “audiophile grade” audio and power cables.
Now, there are good and bad quality cables. But outstanding quality, professional grade microphone cable (which is the most critical especially when used in long runs) can cost €10 a metre. And I’m talking about a thick star-quad cable for long runs in live concerts.
I am planning to connect this new switch to SOTM snh-10g (https://www.sotm-audio.com/sotmwp/english/portfolio-item/snh-10g/) with an optical cable. But the devices will be connected to this switch with ethernet CAT7 cables.
Dac(Devialet 220 pro) and audio streamer are currently connected to SOTM SNH-10G with Supra CAT8 cables.
You need a switch.
Noise floor doesn’t make sense here: it doesn’t exist in the world of network packets. Really. The audio files, to the switch, are an abstraction - a single queue of bits being transferred. Noise floor starts making sense once the bits get into the a/d converter. Not before.
Now. You want a switch that has gigabit capabilities. It needs to have enough ports to get all your devices connected. Maybe You want it to have one or two 10Gb ports.
I would say the CSS326-24G-2S+RM (https://mikrotik.com/product/CSS326-24G-2SplusRM) fits the bill. It has passive cooling - so, zero dB noise. It is certified to work up to 70 Celsius degrees ambient temperature and has 24 gigabit ports plus two 10Gb (SFP+ fiber) ports.
This switch is wirespeed - that means it can handle all the ports passing 100% of the nominal capacity. I can guarantee You that personal audio traffic will not make a scratch on this kind of capacity.
The power input is anything, from 10 to 30V DC - and the power source is external. If You feel inclined, it is possible to use a linear power source with it - but it is useless. Due to the way the network works (ugh, that was ugly), it will not make a difference.
By the way: ALL switches (switches, NAS, HDs, SSDs, CPUs…) use switching power. Is is needed, in order to get the voltage stable enough to the circuits inside. A linear power source doesn’t have this ability - it is inherent to the way it works. Yes, the external power brick is (could be) linear, no doubt. But NOT the internal voltage regulator.
If it make You feel better: this switch (as all the switches sold by Mikrotik) do the switching in hardware. This is quite fast, with extremely low jitter. Not that jitter would matter, at this low level: it will be buffered out, way before the a/d converter gets into play.
Thanks for the reply. There are several different solutions to convert internal switching power supply to external LPS. One of them for Mac Mini is https://uptoneaudio.com/products/mac-mini-dc-conversion-linear-fan-controller-kit-mmk. Most people , in audiophile community, either buy fanless NAS or modify the NAS by using a similar method(if they prefer going with the “NAS path”). A man passionate about building a DIY silent , audiophile grade Music server by choosing the best possible components to obtain best possible audio experience–> https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/55681-from-0-to-xeonalroon-server-in-2-days/. He is trying new things and constantly modifying it for better. Most people believe and see/HEAR that clean power source, and high quality power cables make a significant improvement on both digital and analog domain for audio. We’ll keep trying and always try to find/choose best possible hardwares for this purpose considering our budget constraints..
From the mac mini mod: “Blacker backgrounds, better dynamics and voices are so realistic it’s almost scary!”
And the switch you mentioned in the first post, Sotm sNH-10G, 800$ for a 10 (8+2) port DUMB (unmanaged) gigabit switch?
The killer there are the cables, 1.5M patch - 500$
What are you audophiles smoking?
Don’t make fun of true audiophiles if you can’t hear the difference between tones A4 and A#4 … everybody knows that one needs better than PPM frequency base for DAC to produce truly audiophile sound because trained ear can tell if the frequency of a A4 tone is off by more than 1Hz (A4 is exactly 440Hz) …
Anyway, Thanks everyone for the advices , for sharing your opinions(especially for CSS326-24G-2S+RM). It seems to be a little more complicated than I think for home network. I think I am going to choose Ubiquiti Unifi us-8-150w for my home network . Maybe I can change it in the future again. And I will make an optical connection between these switches.
It is a little bit annoying and seems to be a waste of time to discuss audiophile issues with people who have biased opinions and have very little knowledge about the audiophile setups. Therefore I do not reply to those who try to make fun of it.
