I don’t think anyone here is closed-minded. In fact, intolerance of different viewpoints is more like closed mindedness to me.
I think a rule of thumb is that those who delete their posts when they’ve had a response are not confident in their views, don’t you agree?
Well 1) you did and 2) it didn’t bother you when you did. Perhaps we should just leave it here?
I’m not closed minded, equally if someone tells me there is a red london bus on the moon, I am going to need some evidence other than ‘how do you know if you have not seen it?’ kind of evidence.
I love tinkering so over the years have had all sorts of switches, loads of the bloody things, including coincidently cisco switches. Never in the context of hifi and I have never heard a difference with my hifi.
I feel like if I got that deep into it, then I would probably need to find a way not to have chilled produce, because I am willing to bet a fridge has far more effect on sound than a switch.
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Your last para makes my case I think
OK well, well done then.
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Thanks, I’ll leave it here because I’m clearly preaching to the convinced
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OH NO. You shouldn’t have said that.
Somebody will be on claiming their new Miele fridge freezer blows their old Beko out of the water. 
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In my case, about the two different apps, there’s absolutely no mental bias, as the Naim app sounds really more weighty, organic, with lower bass. It’s a fact. I tried both at different moments, tracks, on several days, and had the same results.
I had bought some linear ps last year, to expect uplift the sound with my past Etheregen switch. I was patient, let them burn in, tried with and without, and finally had to return one ( and waste money on shipping to US and taxes I paid already) and sold another one which received very good reviews elsewhere. I loose money on that second one too.
I trust my ears. Sometimes the component is an upgrade, like the Etheregen vs Cisco and PhoenixNet vs Etheregen, but sometimes it’s just different, not really better, and sometimes worth.
I tried, for fun, to connect again my Netgear switch. I let the music flow 2 hours and then came to listen. It was funny how the sound collapsed, began thinner, brighter, less detailed, less open……vs the sound I became used to with the PhoenixNet. It was so obvious that it can’t be brain bias.
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There’s nothing to argue, I’m OK with it 
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Only a matter of time before we all start talking about balanced single pair Ethernet and how much more transparent and dimensional things are using Type 1 SPE connectors.
The good news is, the cabling is much simpler, cheaper to manufacture, has more robust connectors, more compact connectors and is intended for high resiliency and low error rates for lower data speeds, in fact it’s almost an ideal solution for devices like streamers that require only modest bandwidth in relative terms.
It doesn’t require transceivers like optical connections and can co-exist with existing layer 2 copper infrastructure.
The current batch of audio optimised switches are just tinkering about with old technology, they’ll be considered as legacy devices within a matter of years.
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Now without going into the discussion whether switches can or make not make a difference (you know where I stand on this), that statement doesn’t make any sense.
The brain is incredibly powerful at being able to conjure up small, big and realistic differences. There’s plenty of scientific evidence for this.
If you think the difference is real, that’s fine, that’s your prerogative. If the different you heard was big, again can’t argue with that. But to say it can’t have been your brain fooling you because it was big doesn’t make any sense.
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Well actually it does, if we rule out psychosis.
I think FR is saying nothing more complicated than that he is open to questioning the intervention of “brain bias” when he is eventually convinced of a subtle improvement after long listening, but that if he is immediately struck by the scale of the difference this is less likely.
It’s a bit like the occasional comment that someone changes A for B and a friend/companion/spouse etc. in the room next door asks “What on earth have you just done to the system? That sounds amazing!” etc etc.
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If it is so obvious we wouldn’t all be having the argument would we? So if the difference for one is so obvious as to not even be questioned but the next hears no improvement then you have a problem right there.
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Well we might if people are making a judgement on whether something can be heard without ever having listened to the item themselves. I have a ansuz switch that make a huge difference in my system, if that difference is all in my head then I wouldnt mind because I’m still convinced it sounds better but a friend of mine who is an avid audiophile and familiar with my system was convinced I’d changed another component or setting because he felt it had improved so much. Bias works both ways, we can convince ourselves something sounds better but we can equally convince ourselves something won’t because we just know it can’t possibly have an affect. Ironically sometimes the same people spend a fortune on cables etc that another group also believe can’t have an impact
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The assumption is always made by those that believe that the others have not listened to these devices. Have I listened to your specific 3.5k switch? No. That’s not to say I have not listened to so called audiophile switches.
I am not a total non believer when it comes to 1s and 0s, many believe that all dacs are the same, very much not in my experience.
I was speaking generally, not necessarily about you. These arguments are pointless, for switches, cables, dacs, power supplies etc, some will believe they have an impact and some won’t and neither will be convinced otherwise. It doesnt matter to me that others don’t believe because I can hear a difference and I’m really happy with the result. I did not get involved in this thread to convince anyone but simply because the tone was so derogatory and dismissive of those who have such switches. Believe or don’t as long as you enjoy your system its all good but don’t feel the need to disparage others who have a different view, and that is not aimed at you either
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Yes, but does that prove that different switches could not have audible effects on SQ by modulating EM noise?
That’s how switches make an audible difference to SQ - by modulating EM noise entering the DAC and the being amplified by the HiFi.
Simples!
It gets more complicated (and confuses some people) because in some systems (and for some ears) the changes cannot be heard.
As discussed elsewhere, that’s easily explained because the iPad or device that the Naim app runs on never touches the audio files, but with MConnectHD the audio files are actually sent to and from the iPad or device that the Naim app runs on.
Wrong! It has been explained many times before in different threads. 