Switch Tenda TEM2010F 10 Ports 2.5G Multi-Gigabit Unmanaged Switch from Amazon.
SMSP the one that came with it. No doubt ultra cheap.
LPS BRZHIFI 15W / 25W Refer To STUDER900 Low Noise Audiophile Linear Regulated Power Supply.
I am not dissing anything, years ago I got some Russ Andrews mains leads for my 112/150 and heard a difference ( only on 1 track) But switches and high quality clocks seem a step too far.
Andy
It must be amazing in these companies marketeering offices, coming up with new ways to extract money.
āI know!, Retrofitted fuses that sound better than the silver fuses we sold them!ā
āYes Jerry, perfect, put that on the boardā
Forget this stuff and budget several k for 333 network or donāt worry
Yes I will. I seem to have learnt a fair bit over the last couple of months. Iām really eager to retry both the Farad 3 and the Sean Jacobs PS and/or PN with the Shunyata Sigma cable Iām using as they were the best sounding LPSās last time round I tried. If you get the chance I urge you to get a listen to the Sigma and a good LPS as itās been a bit of a revelation for me and easily as good as a āboxā upgrade. The transparency and naturalness of this combination is startling.
As an indicator of the sort of things Iām discovering; I had my SMPS plugged into an extension that was plugged into another extension and had both SMPS and LPS switched on, so I could easily swap between the two (none of these are on the dedicated hifi supply by the way). When I discovered how good even a cheap LPS sounded I unplugged the SMPS from the extension. Instantly the Sigma and LPS sounded even better but I kind of expected this. A few weeks later I was looking for a short extension and remembered the one that the SMPS was connected to, so unplugged that from the other extension and blimey another big jump in performance. Iām guessing that just having this plugged in was picking up stray RFI, transmitting it to the the LPS that was then getting fed to the switch through the Sigma and onto the ND555.
This new lack of āperceived noiseā in the system seems to have increased the musical richness, tone and weight to everything I now listen to. Iāve had some truly memorable evening listing to near live experiences.
I think the donāt worry is the way forward.
Thought you give phoenix a try tooā¦ I had both farad and phoenix here ā¦ very close
@Xanthe has led the charge to understand this power supply + switch at-length. Iāve tagged along.
I have found that the best sounding PS for my Netgear Switches in low power mode has been the iFi iPower Elite, very closely followed by the iPower X. Both, obviously, SMPS.
However, when used on Chord Qutest, RME ADI-2, et alā¦ they were not even in the top 1/3rd for sound quality amongst well-done LPSās.
I do not currently understand why this is.
Chord may say that for commercial and/or legal reasons.
Adding a Super 3 to an EE8 is praised as making a positive or very positive difference to SQ according to almost all the numerous reports I have seen, and IME.
They may say it because itās true. Likewise other people commenting may have their own agendas or personal ideas of what constitutes a positive difference.
There were many fine reviews and positive reports of a LPS I tried on my BT SH2 and I thought it was dire! Iām very sceptical of other peopleās views here. But I do retain an open mind.
If I heard a Super 3 and thought it sounded better then I would need to verify that it didnāt
result in the EE8 being out of spec with regards to RF emissions. If I couldāt then I wouldnāt want to use it.
Latest in my power supply odyssey:
Initially powered my EE8 with an Uptone JS-2 LPS (since sold), but soon found myself in accord with Chord (and several posters here) that the supplied SMPS offered a livelier, more involving presentation.
Then, on a whim, tested a spare iFi Power X supply on the EE8, which further improved SQ (my ears, my local RFI environment, etc.)
The other day, inspired by a post on the Innuos Forum, I hooked up the EE8 to one of the USB sockets on my Zen 3. Best sounding so far! More realism all round, more transparent, more natural (analogue?) etc.
Not that I really understand these things, but if the Zen 3 ā with all its Dr Sean low-noise goodies inside ā can power the EE8 without any negative effect from the switchās (minimal) current requirements ā then that seems like a win, certainly in terms of cost effectiveness.
In other words, Iām back in the LPS camp, albeit without any extra PSU boxes.
Just got myself a Farad Super 3 with blue fuse and fancy 5v power connection. Sounded pretty good out of the box but Iām now going through the down side of burn-in, very up and down! I get moments when it sounds glorious and then moments when it sounds very muddled. Farad suggest around 250 hours before it reaches maximum performance.
Iām definitely convinced you have to judge the power supply and ethernet cable together. The more transparent the ethernet cable the more you hear what the SMPS or LPS are doing.
I can confirm that the Farad 3 needs a burn in period of at least 250 hrs. I bought mine 3 months ago and it went also up and down, but since 2-3 weeks the sound is constantly excellent. I am really happy with this upgrade for my EE8!
Thatās probably because you donāt know the people on this forum well enough to know whoās worth listening to.
Partly this could be because you have a Moon amp and horn speakers which is unlike what most people have on this forum.
What on earth do you mean? Care to expand?
We have the same Farad 3(Purple fuse/level 2 Copper) it gets even better around the 6 month mark (IMHO).
Actually itās because experience has taught me to rely only on my own ears rather than other peopleās. That doesnāt mean I donāt find other peopleās views on the sound of various PSUās fascinating to read though.
It could just be that my tastes differ from theirs. Who can say?
I mean what I said. Itās not one of those things that can be explained any further. You either understand it or you donāt.
The Farad is sounding a lot better today (day 3). Itās already sounding better than a cheepish LPS bought from a mate. More nuanced, detailed and real sounding. Thereās a lovely edge to steel guitar strings and an even tauter drum skin sound. Bass is slightly more defined. So far Iām pretty impressed. This, coupled with the Sigma cable, is really good and so analogue sounding!
The Farad Super 3 is quality - āevery little āelpsā
Are you sure you guys donāt have an agenda?