Well its in and warming up, but with so much going on right now with my system, its going to be virtually impossible to say, if its inpovement or not. That will have to wait for now.
It does need a lot of warming upā¦ā¦the clock being in an oven. Thought DCS had a clock regenerator ?
Dunc,
I have the Innuos switch and a Melco h50 with 6TB. You need 2 weeks until the switch shows its potential. Leave it 24 h on, donāt power it off.
Add onā¦
Router, dCS, Nucleus, Melco all connected to Innuos. I tested the LAN streamer port on Melco (connected directly to dCS) but the Innuos LAN connection was better.
Reading the above it seems like I am the only one who did not get on with the Phoenix!
As usual mileage varies ā system setup and preferences. Iāve found with various system changes and experimentation with different network setups - wireless, wired and fibre (directly into the streamer) - that wired, with the PhoenixNET in the final run still āsoundsā best to me.
I avoid shielded Ethernet cables and find it preferable running the PN from the lounge ring socket rather than on the dedicated supply sockets. Your mileage may vary here depending on the last leg cable run from PN to streamer.
Worth experimenting anyway.
Funnily enough i bumped into darkbear on wednesday and briefly he mentioned the Phoenixnet. It did make a SQ difference in his system, he just preferred his ER powered by an-old psu he had from the past. You just have to try yourself in your own systemā¦ā¦or take a punt and sell on if you do not like.
@frenchrooster interestingly DB had the Phoenix after me. I had run it in for about 6 weeks, some said not enough but the sound did not work for me. My 2x ER just sounded right when I reverted. If I did not have the 2xER and Sean Jacobs etc I would have bought and thought it was greatā¦
maybe with 2 ER and Sean Jacobs i would prefer too. I will never know.
vs ER powered by an 1 k linear ps i had , i preferred the Phoenixnet.
I did home-demo the Pheonix switch for about ten days and although I had an initial āwowā in the first few hours that faded quick as I realised it was preferentially doing some things better that I liked, whilst missing things the ER switch did very well.
The Pheonix gave a good togetherness and cohesion with the music and did some emphasis aspects better.
The ER was more wide-open space and natural aspects to what was being played.
System-matching is to an extent also relevant here - my Active system does have its own good immediacy and focus but does like a very neutral source.
I did try to get the Pheonix to run-in and warm-up as I was prepared for it to be better and hopefully buy an improved solution - but it never came on-song for me.
It placed a dark āfloorā under the music retrieval of low-level details for me - and was not as good handling dynamics.
Basically swapping the ER back-in gave more acoustic detail and a lot more dynamic range and rendering of percussion and low-level vocal breath detail I like to have done well.
Iāve noticed the same sort of thing with cables preferences. I think a lot of this is both personal and system dependent. What is in one system a hardness or roughness is in my system resolved into musical deatails - items that work well for one system can truely fail in another.
The ER had no resolution-floor and the PS upgrade on it really was a revalation for me. I liked the PN switch but it was not as capable as the ER with small linear PS for me in my system.
DB.
Your profile and profile name is anonymous so no one would know where you live unless (like me ) they already knew.
You are able to put into words these musical momentsā¦that are different for peopleš
The PN is a good switch and depending on system it will be the one to use. I found it bemusing how different the ER and PN were in terms of how they set-up my system to present music.
I do not think the ER is in any way the best possible - it was just relatively inexpensive to try and I got good results, not yet in my system bettered.
The interaction between ER and cables was also big in my system, leaving aside the Linear PS I finally settled on. There were so many interacting parameters that go into the end result that once you get a combination that āworksā in your system I have found it wise not to assume you can just take a recommendation from anyone else you have found you generally agree with and it will always work in your system.
I use an AQ Vodka Ethernet into the ER - not where you would expect to need it - and feed that from my Cisco 2960. The ER then uses a non-HiFi Ethernet that I found worked well feeding from the ER to the HiFi. The AQ Vodka initially sounded harsh and a bit brutal but had āsomethingā that let me keep it there and it over many weeks settles and smoothed-out as I find these do, and seems to āanchorā the ER somehow in the extreme LF. I get incredible bass articulation and dynamics from this set-up - why I do not know but there it is.
ā¦Iām just saying there are several component interactions and Iāve not found this a simlple thing to achieve.
And it is all āimpossible and crazyā - but once you get past that block and try it then there is so much you can get out of a good streaming source.
DB.
You are very good at sharing your knowledgeā¦ā¦i find it difficult to get across what i hear and luv in mere wordsā¦.you are a wise bearš
Getting cold next week back to hibernationš Hopefully cu soon again,
Any views here about Ansuz A2 Power Swithc vs Phoenix Net? similar priced with PN but as i can tell has different design philosophy (e.g use a cheap switch ps inside the unit/see picture)
I have an anzus, forget which model but it was a fair bit more expensive than the pheonix net. The latter was excellent and Iād have been happy if that was all I heard but the anzus is audibly better on my system. Both are significantly better than the ee8 switch in my system and to my ears, as they should be at a much higher cost
Innuos Phoenix Net arrived this morning for a trial. Straight out of the box Iām hearing a nice improvement over EE8 with a cleaner and clearer sound . Iām using the EE8 as a first switch with my Core feeding that then a 30m run of Belden Catsnake 6 into Phoenix powered via a Chird Sigx power cable. Chord Music Ethernet to ND555
It really benefits for a long stay in a system imo"
I have been experimenting with mine.
I have tried it with both my melco N10 and vivaldi connected to it, also just the melco and the vivaldi connected to the melcoās player port.
I used the phoenixnet cable to connect the melco and my audioquest diamond to connect my vivaldi.
I have found i prefer the melco just connected to it and then run my vivaldi from the melco, so the phoenixnet is just sorting out my streaming side and the tracks stored on my melco then just go directly to the vivaldi
All good then.
Iāve just read a review of the switch. The Mundorf and Audio Note capacitors within are the same make as those I had in my Audio Note components. I remember the burn in of several pieces of kit very well. It was a lengthy one with some serious ups and downs. It explains why the switch sounds so good straight out of the box mirroring my experience with the valve gear. Day two was the start of the headache! So Iām expecting a month or so of the yo yo but Iām certain that it will be worth it.
On first listen the sound was really good. Improved PRAT, better focus, tone and timber. Whatās not to like? I tried the Innuos as a single switch but preferred it with the EE8 as the first one. Maybe thereās a certain synergy going on. I will be interested to experiment there and also hear what you guys have experienced in this regard.