Ethernet Switch and Cables Mania

Absolutely FR, the black widow spider was a play on your own joke (which I did find amusing).

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Perhaps to improve a SNAIC, we should persuade a black mamba to lie on top of it for the same reason! :rofl:

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but tell the dealer to remove the right one, for his safe, if he has to deconnect your 555ps.

Thread Drift Warning - for some much needed light relief
Thereā€™s no specific spider as a black widow, but its broadly & loosely understood to be part of a fairly large group of Latrodectus or ā€œwidowā€ spiders
It was no joke when I was bitten by one on a toe, walking around in the bush in open toed sandels, bad idea. I felt pretty sorry for myself for a few days & it took 3 weeks or so to recover the effects.

better have it on your cables than feets

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Spider webs actually improve performance I find - and the excellent excuse for not dusting behind the racks. :slightly_smiling_face:

Cables that have softer outer sheaths and the cable itself is overall not too heavy seem to be less sensitive to the contact effects. Hard outer sheath plastics seem to be more sensitive and if the cable itself is also heavy then that is worse Iā€™ve found.

If you have a soft carpet, solid floor or suspended hard floor you get progressively worse effects - mine is last in that list.

DB.

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Time for a carpet then!

mine are quite hanging, but one touches the rackā€¦ canā€™t change really that.

But an Air gap is even better! :smiley:

DB.

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If it is a light touching it is OK and especially if it is to a wooden part of rack.
The floor is the worst - followed by the wall then other cables.

DB.

yes wood fraimlite.

:small_blue_diamond:Mike-B,ā€¦Oh Sh-t,.Iā€™m getting nightmares of that story.

When we still go a bit from the topic.
Was at home and eat lunch today,.the window was open just 5cm.
All of a sudden I see a bird flying around in the room.
Absolutely unbelievable,.this have never happen to me before.

After 20 minutes I managed to get it to fly out in freedom again.
A little nicer story than yours Mike-B,.I hope I never gets bitten by such a spider.

/PederšŸ™‚

The French naim forum is reading us guys. @Thomas could confirm.
Since 2 days , 2 or 3 cisco switches were ordered.

My replacement Cisco 2960 switch will be with me on Monday when I return my slightly noisy one. Other than the audible noise it has shown me that it benefits the performance - Iā€™m not going into the why or how aspect of that as I donā€™t know.

There is a general top to bottom clarification and increase in resolution - I first heard it as ā€˜less bassā€™ and ā€˜more HF detailā€™ together with more involvement into the music. Some piano music revealed intent where it was not present before as the timing is better resolved - it was quite a surprise.

The ā€˜less bassā€™ was actually a better controlled bass with lower coloration - the more detail is top to bottom like a box upgrade. But the involvement and extra interest in playing music is what did it for me - it is always the key - I can tolerate a lot of slight coloration effects as I donā€™t really find these much of a matter, but the cohesiveness of the musical presentation as a whole that lets you forget the HiFi is always a good indicator.
Any Ethernet cable effects seem to sit atop this foundation so getting that right first is a good idea.

DB.

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Now that will be interesting, well done that man!

The good news is that I bought a Cisco 2960 switch for Ā£35 and it appears to be working fine.

The bad news is that I have outside compatible Cat5 cable going from the switch to outside, up the outside wall, through the loft, down the Garage inner wall and through to my ND555 in the lounge.

On the basis of this thread Iā€™m surprised I can hear anything!

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What you are actually hearing is all the vibrational pickup from all the times when the cable is in contact with walls and floors.:joy::joy:

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I like Cat5 cable - it does not surprise me it is better!
The more expensive cables can do more - but also less so care needed.
You can also add another 2960 just before the ND555 and use a ā€˜betterā€™ cable there if you can obtain another cheap switch.

But if you are getting good results now - why bother?

DB.

Itā€™s more needs must than better I think.

I might try putting my old Netgear GS105 at the start of the run and the Cisco at the end and see if that makes a difference.

However, and Iā€™m no expert by any means, I struggle to understand how a switch just prior to the ND555 is going to improve things. Surely if there is SQ loss on the long cable run then a Cisco at the end canā€™t ā€˜put it backā€™?

It may sharpen-up and clean-up the signal and drop the noise just before the ND555 - try and find out - sounds like a fun and easy thing to do! :slightly_smiling_face:

DB.