As someone who currently has little choice but to use mesh wifi with an ethernet connection to the streamer from the closest mesh disc I wonder if the smooth LAN or a similar device or even a switch is at all relevant to me?
I was hoping that Simon-in-Suffolk or someone with similar knowledge might see this and answer.
Chris - Stack audio offer a 30 day money-back guarantee, so it might be worth trying one yourself to find if you hear any benefits in your particular setup.
If no benefit, then itās just the cost of the return postage to consider.
Significants benefits come from the āsilencingā of the routers. There are many ways starting from router selection, putting them into bridge mode, upgrading power supply. Filters - another opportunity.
That switch looks very interesting
I would say that using the Muon Pro has taken my streaming set up - NDX2/XPSDR - a significant step closer to my vinyl rig - Avid Acutus/SME V/XV-1s/Whest Titan Pro.
Thankfully, given the cost differential, my vinyl rig still comes out on top with better soundstage, imaging and reality, but the NDX2 is pushing it much closer with the Muon Pro installed.
There are other filters out there, including the one from Stack, so isnā t it worth giving the Muon Pro, Stack or another filter a try?
If youāre going to use a filter, then you should try as many as you can as a priori you can never know which one will work best ā¦ including the āno filterā option (all the Ethernet filters may actually degrade the sound).
You also need to try them all in different positions in the network, the best position isnāt predictable either!
Thatās true
Agreed
Took me 3 years to adding so much as a decent quality repeater to my system and hearing the uplift. I am now being tempted towards the stack for similar reasons. Sensible price. Decent amount of time to try it and reject it. Some flexibility in where it is located.
I have been using the Stack SmoothLAN for several months now with my NDX 2. Similarly to you, I have observed a very pleasant improvement. I use all Belden Catsnake or BJC Belden Cat6A; shields are all floating (no asymmetric shields termination, no directionality). Very pleased with my SmoothLAN.
Also, @Xanthe convinced me to upgrade my Netgear GS108 unmanaged switch to the GS108E managed switchā¦specifically to gain Low Power Mode functionality. Following his lead, the additive gain with the SmoothLAN + GS108E was very obvious and well received in my system. Upgrading the power supply to iFi iPower 2 and then the iFi Elite (grabbed one NIB for 50% off), and the improvements were cavernous in my system. Pulling/swapping things back out, reverting to my original configuration, several timesā¦just served to reveal the improvements that much more readily.
Everyoneās system is different, but Iām starting to realize that radiated WiFi/BT/5G/LTE is playing a factor here. Every cable is an antenna. No exceptions.
Iāve taken my own advice and thought it was worth a no risk try.
Slotted in between PhoenixNET and KDSM as a starterā¦
Looking forward to the feedback.
A bit of initial feedback, itās not a happy combination between PhoenixNET and KDSM. Roon canāt see the KDSM without a restart. Connectivity fine once this is done. Moved to the input socket of the PhoenixNET and all is good. After a bit of playing around, itās not PhoenixNET specific, just Linn related. I suspect this may not be an issue with the 100Mb ports on the Naim network playersā¦
Stack SmoothLAN Arrived this morning, and it is now running in. Itās a heavy, well made and came nicely packaged (see photos from @peder above).
I have a choice of four locations, feed:
Iām at location one at the moment, but I was wondering what are the sources of noise / interference that could influence the experience?
I have used it just before the streamer. At first I found it difficult to hear any improvement. Then I re-read @Peder 's post about changing the direction of the short ethernet cable they supply and it was a revelation when I did that. I am astonished at how much difference this has made. I wondered if this would help me at all because I use a wifi mesh (no choice in my situation) connecting the last dish by ethernet cable to the streamer. The manufacturers said there would still be a difference and they were right. Thanks to @Peder for the tip about the cable.
Iāll give it a try this evening ā¦
But if itās good feeding the streamer I might have to find the budget to feed the tv.
I ask myself where is all this noise / interference coming from?
The electromagnetic field, which is everywhere in spacetime.
Ah the ubiquitous EMF.
Much is HF-noise from digital electronics (processors, or things like SSD-drives are full of electronics and which controller-chip is in the drive is important and so on). Plus jitter etc.
The bad stuff happens when it get mixed up in the sensitive DAC-process. You can try to filter it out before it reaches the streamer but the best is to never create it. But this makes the streamer a critical part - use low-noise processors and write the software to avoid noise-bursts).
But always start with just hooking it up and listen to music. Most likely it will sound fine, no need to worry about edge cases.
Thanks - much as I thought but expressed better than my clumsy words. Iām not trying for perfection just affordable improvements. My server still has life in it but best to plan for itās replacement.
