English Electric 8Switch

Inside the Bonn switch

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Then it fits me like the hand in the glove because I like expensive suits! :grin:

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Gosh, you go away for a couple of days and thenā€¦

I thought we were on to something positive with those whoā€™d actually heard it expressing positive views but then the technocrats get involved and started getting uppity about SIC codes!

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Perhaps Chord should get their sales rep to monitor this a Forum and steer us all in the correct direction ?

Actually I think it was more about looking into the possibility of there being multiple versions of likely the same OEM device made by a Chinese manufacturing companyā€¦ so one can buy the cheapest version to get the benefit you are afterā€¦
Companies House is a government administrative resource not a technical resource :roll_eyes:
I hope that is a very positive and a helpful steer for members of this forum wanting to try this particular OEM device.

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Hand in glove, the sun shines out of our behinds.

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I like nice suits, and they are often expensive - but not alwaysā€¦ (and there are expensive suits I donā€™t like!)

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Well, I had one on loan for a week but it went back. Not that there was anything wrong with it, I just preferred my current Cisco switch and TP power supply with my gear. In use, I noticed that a layer of background noise was removed by the EE, something I wasnā€™t aware of previously; the tonal balance became a bit warmer, and there was a bit more weight and presence to the sound. It did lose a bit of ā€œsnapā€ to the music, although this seemed to become less over time (or maybe as I got used to it). Itā€™s a nicely made, reassuringly weighty box, and I may have bought it if I didnā€™t have a decent switch and power supply already. I currently use C-Streams between the UnitiServe, switch and NDX2, so these were left in place and only the switches were swapped out in the test. An interesting experiment nonetheless, and possibly worth a punt depending on what your own gear and network are doing, or if you would like a slight change to the presentation and tonal balance in your system. Your own experience may of course be different to mine.

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Hi fps,

Is the TP PSU for the Cisco? Is it 48V?

Just looked on their site, couldnā€™t see a 48V PSU.

No reps, Don. no repsā€¦

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No, itā€™s a 12V 2A power supply. The switch is a SG300-10 10-Port Gigabit Managed Switch with 2 SFPs. It doesnā€™t have POE. There were 2 versions of that model , one with a built-in supply and one with an external supplyā€¦it has the advantage of being a managed switch, is fanless, & in a compact form factor to hide away in the TV cabinet.

They donā€™t do one. I asked in the past. Paul Jacobs would make you one (Custom HiFi Cables)

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As has been said before, any effects of a switch will depend on the specific streamer or renderer/transport and DAC, and on the network, and on the electrical environment - as well as the userā€™s ears and how revealing the rest of the system.

I think it would be great if someone were to produce a database showing listenersā€™ conclusions against each switch (ditto cable) and including the streamer or the renderer/transport and DAC and network description or image. If considered in isolation it could be fairly simple - but due to interactions that would be of more limited value. Unfortunately I donā€™t have time, otherwise it would be an interesting thing to do.

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I had a Cisco 300 series switch for a while, it worked well enough, and managing it through its browser interface saved the hassle of having to connect via a console cable. It was, though, probably the most electrically noisy device Iā€™ve ever had on my network. Iā€™m pretty sure that noise was not just being generated by its external SMPS.
I replaced it with a Catalyst, which was a bit of a PITA for an IT numpty like me, as I bought one that had been heavily configured and password protected by its previous corporate owner. Still, once I had figured out how to reset it, and add some settings of my own, it has been rock solid ever since.

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Thanks Simon, I am familiar with Companies House. As youā€™ll probably know, the classifications are chosen by each company from a list of provided options, many of which are not sensitive to current technologies or are so broad as to be meaningless.

In my day job, we undertake research on large numbers of manufacturing companies and one of the common things we find is that companies misclassify themselves as manufacturers when they are in fact distributors of manufactured products. Often too, UK divisions of overseas-based manufacturing companies classify themselves as manufacturers whereas they are more often sales or service operations. Even when a companyā€™s manufacturing status may change, which does happen, the historic classifications rarely do.

Things are further complicated in that some companies will of course supply a range of different products, some they may manufacture, others they simply distribute, others still, may have products made to their specifications by an overseas-based competitor.

To use Companies House in this way therefore can be misleading. You could check out the BCA for more info, however. They could be a useful source.

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Dave it can, like most things, if taken out of context be potentially misleading, but it is usually a good way at identifying whether a company manufactures or productises OEM / recpackages parts as a wholesaler, both legitimate operations. Given the lack of information and the apparent availability of very similar products elsewhere, I think the insight sheds some potential light on what might be potentially misleading elsewhere, of course what we donā€™t know is the extent of any exclusivity.

As you might know over the years on this forum we have used this exact method from time to time to identify whether manufacturer or repackaging is dominant in a companyā€™s operating modeā€¦ typically this has been useful for cables, but yes only applies to UK companies.

Could you share the BCA directory URL you refer to?

Is that Seanā€™s brother, lol?

I think having read the comments here Iā€™ll try a used 2960 first before taking the more expensive plunge. A bit of ebay searching is in order

Ok, your choice obviously, but even in this case, i.e. Chord, youā€™ll agree that the EE 8Switch is a completely new product for them and itā€™s highly unlikely that they will have attempted to alter their SIC coding to reflect this one product.

In comparison to making amplifiers, which is generally easy (although could simply consist of assembling a box of overseas-sourced components) cables generally are more difficult to establish as legitimate UK manufactured because, for the purposes we use them, there are very few - I donā€™t know of any - UK companies that make their own cable.

If you want it cheap, it generally comes from China (to a specification) and if you want something more advanced (to a more demanding specification), it comes from the US. Itā€™s then cut to size and terminated over here. We know that Chord source Taylon from the US and then construct each cable by hand, crimping speaker cables etc. Does the fact that they donā€™t draw copper cable mean that theyā€™re not a manufacturer?

Hereā€™s the linkā€¦
British Cable Association

Cheers

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Indeed! :slight_smile: I once had a solicitor called Paul and still (quite obviously!) get confused.

Yes, definitely listen first.

Iā€™m getting somewhat confused here.

First, iā€™m assuming we are talking about Chord, the cable company based in Amesbury that makes ā€œSarumā€ cables etc

Second, they market a product called English Electric 8Switch

What iā€™m less sure about is
Did Chord design this switch from scratch
Is the switch an agreed modification by Chord to a previous design by others
Is the switch made by Chord in the UK using components manufactured in the UK
Is the switch imported (by whom ?) and modified (by Chord ?) in the UK
Is the switch made outside the UK and imported by Chord simply for distribution

Iā€™m sure there are lots of other possible combinations of design and manufacture. It would simply be nice to know who does what. Doesnā€™t change the effectiveness of the product.

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