Muon Pro changes my perception of streaming

Agree, they’re about to announce an updated version of ENO, waiting for that to compare pricing

Using standard Ethernet isolators as the basis actually very sensible.
What I question is their marketing, not the engineering.

3 Likes

I borrowed ENO but this product doesn’t work with NDS. I mean at all. So it does something but not that good for all products.

2 Likes

We put a MI 1005 between the switch and the 272: it still played but lost focus and clarity and the timing was no where near as precise.
Between the NAS and the switch and between the rest of the network and the switch, they work well.

3 Likes

Its interesting to read these LAN isolator experiemnts that pop up every now & then.
I’m hoping for a definitive agreement across posts that says ‘this one’ really works.

I experimented a while back with both MI-1005 & Acoustic Revive RLI-1 and none accuatly improved SQ to any extent, in some cases it was worse.
I fitted the MI-1005 between NAS-switch, then NDX-switch and finally router-switch, no real change although the router-switch branch did seem to add a hint of ‘smooth’.
With the RLI-1 and its M+F plug & socket ends. I tried it at both ends of each branch (thinking polarity), It was either no decernable improvement or maybe worse, and concidering the price it was a no thanks.

I feel that, like Ethernet cables, it will vary dependent of what devices are in use, what power supplies are being used to energise them, what cables are being used and on other local circumstances.
I don’t think there will ever be a definitive answer, or ever can be.

3 Likes

Not “we are saying” - ?

Depends on who is fronting, and if anyone is co-con.
(Or just random!)

:slight_smile:

I’m inclined to agree Xanthe. My other doubt is that each RJ45 port on all our boxes, switches and routers has its own galvanic isolation, so what will an extra stage do?
Whatever, I’m in open mind mode.

The frequency dependence of the insertion loss acts as a filter.
It also reduces the in-band cable voltage downstream.

2 Likes

I doubt the main technology behind NA filters is just about better switch transformers, most probably it includes RFI absorption from the wires’ surface with some exotic material

In terms of engineering design, they specify:

“Reference standard RFI/EMI Filter: Proprietary filter system.”
But they provide no information on what it actually does, this is a very generic statement that really has little or no actual meaning in and above what a standard isolator does as a side effect of it’s operation anyway

“Hand-wired entirely using 99.99% high purity UP-OCC conductors.”
But don’t say why this would be an advantage in a digital circuit.

All their claims are very generic and there’s no attempt to link the claims to the engineering design, which is very disappointing given the cost.

1 Like

Muon ENO. Two ferrites and done?

3 Likes

It seems we all need unbiased Network Acoustics vs Stack Audio vs English Electric review :slight_smile:

2 Likes

I think you’ll find they’re wired as transformers.
To handle 1000base-T (gigabit Ethernet) the Muon Pro will require four transformers.

That (the ENO) is priced at £750!

1 Like

The problem is that just because they behave one way in one specific system, there’s no particular reason to believe that they behave the same way in any other given system.

2 Likes

that should be about sonic benefits vs other upgrades, super lumina is >2k for example

1 Like

Functionally it’s the same as any other transformer based Ethernet isolator.
Due to the way in which digital audio is transmitted and decoded, for any specific setup, there is no reason to believe that this will give a greater improvement in perceived sound quality compared to any other Ethernet isolator.

Compared to other isolators used in the same way, the perceived sound may be:
better
the same
worse
there is no way to determine this other than trying them all.

It’s a very expensive way of doing exactly the same thing as other isolators; and, (unlike with analogue cables) there is no inherent connection here between cost / complexity / quality of materials and sound quality.

Yes, if you try them all and this happens to work best in your system, it may be worth the additional cost.

1 Like

Apart from very expensive (considering the visibly low material costs), the standard of workmanship is somewhat dubious. Ethernet cable construction standard is for twisted pairs to minimize crosstalk and other performance degradation effects.
It requires each pairs twist to be tight and in close contact throughout, additionally each pair should have a slightly different twist per cm (inch) to the other pairs.
Clearly none of this has been followed.

2 Likes