If you try it, please report back!
Not sure about this. All is it is going to add is a layer of galvanic isolation. Being unpowered it is not going to process anything or re-clock the signal or provide any opto-isolation between incoming and outgoing.
Wouldn’t you be better off by either
- Jumping to fibre optic and back again (though this can be troublesome with the media convertor and SFP devices)
- Using a switch which declares what it is doing in terms of using better galvanic devices in the basic switch and then a decoupled dedicated output for the output into the streamer/network player.
Happy with my EtherREGEN 5-port switch with the ‘A’ ports with improved galvanic transformer cores and the moated ‘B’ port for the 100Mbit/s connection into my NDS. This is powered by a Farad3 supply with silver cabling, Synergistic Fuse. Earthed by silver ground cable to my Purifier PowerBlock with dedicated earthing post.
No need for external clock, given the NDS doesn’t have the ability to take in an external reference clock.
You are correct on all fronts, however IIRC he’s just going to home trial it. Personally I’m curious if he notices any improvement. I have a EE8 Switch + Farad Super3 and I do wonder if there can be any additional gains from a device like this.
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Yes, but it depends on the switch and whether it has been designed towards isolation and noise reduction from the ground up, or whether it is simply a standard home grade switch board with a new Power Supply in a new case and an enhanced clock board or onboard OCXO crystal.
I followed the development of the EtherREGEN and received one of the first in November 2019. This before the EE8 or PhonenixNET took the limelight.
However Uptone who struggled getting th3 specialised parts required to build the EtherREGEN during the Pandemic, have restarted production of the Gen 1 model again, and are working on the design detail for a Gen2.
Do you have frogs in the moat?
I like what Alex has done. I used to own a UltraCap LPS-1.2. Nothing but good memories.
I couldn’t resist the hype and just got one for my system 
.
So far I had a simple 5m CAT6A ethernet cable from my ISP router to the ND5XS2. I wasn’t really considering to spend any money for an audiophile switch like EE8, but I was planning to replace the CAT6A cable with something like a 5m Chord Clearway. Now that this gadget appeared, I can locate it close to the streamer and get away with a short “good” streaming cable.
I got a Shawline streaming cable along with the EE1 and plugged it all in. First listen tends towards a more detailed and bright presentation, but the results were inconclusive as my speakers decided to change their sound completely due to running in… 
I need to carefully evaluate the differences vs the standard cable, but I suspect that most of the changes are due to the different streaming cable on top anyway. Maybe I will borrow a Clearway for comparing, as well as a bog standard ethernet cable. Busy days right now so the comparison will have to wait a bit.
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Nice! I look forward to reading about this device from a forum member.
I’ve also added an EE1, mainly as I needed to connect my ‘last-metre’ Chord Sarum cable to the 5 metres of BJC running from the EE8 switch.
Think I can detect a smidgeon more low-level detail, but I wouldn’t bet my life on it.
Given the pricing of Chord’s top-end products, it seems unreasonable to expect too much at this price level. But I’m keeping the EE1.
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My situation is similar. The last few feet is what I’m interested in. @easeback1 did you place the chord-c stream cable that comes with the EE1 between the EE8 and your Chord Sarum cable? (EE8 > c-stream > EE1 > Chord Sarum)
Tried that, but I now have two unused C-stream cables – I marginally prefer the BJC Cat 6s doing the connectivity work up until the final metre of Chord Sarum.
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Thanks! Sounds like BJC>EE8>BJC>EE1>Chord Sarum
Yes, or Router>BJC>Cisco2960>BJC>EE8>BJC>EE1>Chord Sarum for the full chain.
If I’d known at the outset streaming was going to be like this, I might have gone back to vinyl!
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OK, so I’ve spent the last half hour trying to understand the impact of EE1 on its own, taking out of the equation any special streaming cables.
So I compared as follows:
A) Router>Eth (3m) >ND5XS2
B) Router>Eth(5m)>EE1>Eth(0.7m)>ND5XS2
The ethernet cables are more or less equivalent, bought from amazon and relatively thick, so of decent quality.
I tried out a couple of songs back and forth several times, trying to focus as much as I could on small details. It’s really tricky to identify differences and to be honest I wasn’t really expecting to hear any. If I’d be hard pressed, I would say that with EE1 in the chain, there is a bit of extension of the frequency range and possibly slightly better clarity. Of course it all could be down to expectation bias. What I could definitely notice without any bias is that the “sigma” sound on male vocals was remaining longer with EE1. Now that’s not necessarily a good thing as it was drawing possibly a bit too much attention to itself.
I could probably live happily with either of the two configurations. To get some clearer feedback, I’ll try again the same exercise with my OH who has more discerning ears and (thankfully) plenty of patience with me .
Of course the main motivation for getting EE1 is to enable the option of a short, high quality cable at the end of the chain. So far I have compared the short “Amazon” Ethernet cable with a 0.7m Chord Shawline streaming cable and the differences are more obvious. It might be that Shawline is too bright for my taste, but I need to sit down with a clear mind and compare carefully. And possibly bring Clearway in the mix for testing. That will take some time to happen though.
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Impulse buy when looking at vinyl in local hifi shop last week. Actually looking to upgrade path for flac files from Bluesound vault through Naim DAC-V1 when they played me streaming with and without EE1 - so noticeable i paid on the spot
Have been streaming all sorts over past couple of days and love the extra depth this small box brings through SN1 and PMCs. Thumbs up from me.
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lol. I know right!
Thanks for the clarification. I basically have the same streaming setup as you but with a PS on my EE8. I’m sure I’ll pickup a EE1 in the near future.
It does seem that digital has introduced a whole new set of imperfections to contend with compared to analogue.
I now understand that quartz crystal oscillators used in the clock modules of digital systems don’t like vibration very much. So it isn’t only turntables that have to be isolated from external (anoalgue mechanical) influences also.
Like yourself, I am wondering if it is just best to stick in the analogue domain. Getting digital to perform at its best requires a completely different skill set to what I learnt so far and ultimately is it worth my investment both in time and money.
Without wanting to take the discussion off-topic, could you remind me which is the recommended Cisco switch (exact model in the family)? I guess now that I have entered the ethernet rabbit hole, €50 extra won’t matter that much!
It does not have to be complicated as the above. I would that suggest you try the following:
Router → (any decent ethernet cable) → (any decent quality switch you currently have) → (BJC cat 6) → your Naim NDS
That is it really, the simpler the better, and it will sound better than you would expect.
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No worries. I use a Cisco2960 which primarily is used for home Internet duties and I’ve had it for years. If I was to do it over I’d likely just stick with any cheap Netgear switch. Hindsight is 20/20 as I’m pretty much 100% wireless now. (I run a server for development work hence still need it)
For my hifi I do LOVE my EE8 switch granted it really isn’t switching much lol. That being said my hifi does sound much better with it. My hope is the EE1 can help with any radio interference(wireless Eero network).
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