Some recently and very kindly gave me an ifi LAN isilencer:
I’m not a techie so I would rather let the company explain what it is and what it does.
It costs £89 so won’t break the bank. I have it plugged into my Paul Pang network switch and was surprised by the improvement that it brought about in my dual PC streaming setup.
I plugged the ifi LAN iSilencer into the switch end. I found that the sound is more detailed with less digital glare. The sound seems more musical. While I enjoy the convenience of streaming, it doesn’t stack up against my LP12/Armageddon/ARO/Troika in terms of sound quality and musical enjoyment. I am a member of an online computer audio forum and the feedback on this gadget has been very positive. Given its price, you haven’t lost too much if it doesn’t bring significant improvements in your system. I’ll leave you to decide whether it’s worth a punt.
And if you ever wanted to try something a little more exotic (expensive ), both the English Electric EE1 and Stack SmoothLAN are available on 30-day returns, so no real risk in trying.
I have used a couple of EE1’s on separate Ethernet circuits to an acceptably good effect, YMMV of course.
For what it’s worth, I found that the Stack SmoothLAN that Osiris mentioned was an improvement over the ifi LAN isilencer. It took the improvements of the ifi a step further.
I guess that one might expect it to sound better Chris as it’s double the price of the ifi LAN iSilencer. I was fortunate as I received my LAN iSilencer as a gift.
My experience: I’ve bought the ifi LAN isilencer and tried it in my Naim setup both on the streamer end (ND5 XS - 1st gen) and router end for 1 week. Unfortunately I did not observe any SQ improvement, although something was feeling different, in the sense of a very subtle smoothing of sound which did not impress me so I returned it back to the store. In my setup a bigger difference was made when I added a switch (cheap one, 4 ports, no management) between the router and ND5 XS streamer.
Didn’t try the iFi LAN Silencer, but I do have a Stack Audio SmoothLAN, between cheap unmanaged switch and 222 it made a remarkable difference/improvement. There was a definite reduction in ‘noise’ that I wasn’t aware of before and it helped you listen in to aspects of music I seemed to be missing before. Whether you consider £230 inexpensive is a personal thing, but for me this was one of those odd occasions I wasn’t expecting much ( and would have returned it) but ended up keeping.
Erm……l; if they’re going cheap on the bay, doesn’t that suggest the owner’s may have replaced them with something they perceive as better; eg Stack SmoothLAN or EE1’s?
I used to have the EE8 switch and EE1 Isolator for while.
Then tried the system without the EE1, no change. Then without the EE8, no change. Then without the EE8 and EE1, no change.
Ran for a while without, then put the EE1 and EE8 back into the system and again, no improvement.
Sold them on in the end on eBay.
Later, got a TP-Link Media Converter kit and Fibre Optic Patch Lead for £25.00 from eBay. Now this did make a good improvement and has stayed.
It’s funny how things work well with one system setup, but not with other setups. I think that this shows the variability of our systems, as each is different, even if the same components, taking into consideration all the other elements.
Did you not notice the items made no difference when you first connected them?
Or, did you feel they did make a difference when you first connected them?
Funny that. I used to try various optical networking - almost/like possessed by the idea :-). But it always ended up sounding strange in various ways. Maybe I should try again.