English Electric 8Switch

Elric says hi!

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And any excuse to play the magnificent Hawkwind song. RIP Huw LLoyd-Langton.

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And Moonglum says, for the love of Arioch, put that sword away

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Yes Iā€™m a HW fan :slight_smile:

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BTW first day I installed 8switch my node 2i started stuttering during Tidal playback. Hope it was coincidental - anyone else had stuttering with streaming after installing 8switch? I think it was coincidence as it seems to have been OK today

Never any problem whatsoever. Tidal had issues today though, there is a thread about it

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Thanks! I was wondering why I had to login to Tidal this morning.

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Would this even be necessary if one was using the EE8 only for their streamer and nothing else connected to any of the ports (e.g., is IGMP snooping helpful for one deviceā€”your streamerā€”in this configuration, or does it always benefit)?

Iā€™m trialling some Chord ethernet cables and the card that came with the cables says:

ā€œLook for a black dot on one of the RJ45 connectors. For best sound quality, the plug with the black dot should be connected to the source. If using the cable to connect an audio streamer to a router, the plug with the black dot should be connected to the routerā€.

I guess that means if you are connecting a source to a switch, the plug with the black dot goes into the sourceā€¦

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Well if one was connecting the EE switch to a master switch running IGMP snooping and nothing else was connected to the EE switch other than the streamer then yes there would be no disadvantage from the EE switch.
Alternatively you could ensure that no applications that use group data communications (multicast IP addresses) are on your home networkā€¦ but unless a very restrictive home Lan with limited uses that is kind of increasingly unlikely these days.

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Same here for the boots they are shoddily made in my opinion for a cable at a premium price.

It seems to mean - keep the black dot at the end of the cable that is most upstream in the signal chain, i.e. the end that is closer to where the internet enters your house.

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Thank you @Simon-in-Suffolk. I assumed as much. In fact, you may have already explained this, but sometimes these things get lost in the shuffle from a thread this size.

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Iā€™ve no idea how or why it works but Iā€™ve had mine in for a week or so and, for the first time ever today I made a qubuz version of an album I know and love as the primary version in my library. The improvement in streamed music is just remarkable. Doesnā€™t make any sense to me at all but clarity, soundstage and dynamics are all much improved.

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Most of these reports are very encouraging.
Iā€™ve been following these particular threads (switches) with a lot of interest, and am currently in the process of testing the three most talked-about ones: Cisco 2960, EtherRegen and EE8. The two former switches have had little-to-no effect either cascaded or by themselves on my network and in my system. PCs, LPSUs and DC cables (mostly from Ghent) have also had no real effect in different configurations in the past.
If anyoneā€™s interested, Iā€™ll report back after the weekend to give my impression of the EE8. Honestly, Iā€™m expecting little (or even more bluntly, nothing), as I find it incredulous that it will somehow surpass two very capable switches in terms of SQ.

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You may find different but now I have the EE I have a 2960 going onto a well know website. The Cisco made absolutely zero difference to sq in my system

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ā€¦Last November I asked my dealer for a demo and he provided a new one. I brought it home and replaced my current switch. I noticed an immediate improvement in the sound and could not believe it. A few days latter I called him and gave him my credit card number.

I look forward to reading about your own experienceā€¦

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I do have hope for an uplift in an odd sort of way. If it proves to provide nothing, and Iā€™ve said it before, it tells me my network is likely fairly impervious to what deleterious effects many may be experiencing within their own networks and systems. Thatā€™s a good thing, really.
Will report backā€¦

No black dot on my C-Stream.

G

One of those fancy new bi-directional C-Streams?

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