Hi,
I wrote a reply 4 times , but when I paste a link everything dissappears. Sorry I give up.
Hi Wijnand, I located you here. I may return in the future. While I grasp your setup's details and believe in them, my personal experience leaves me somewhat skeptical about the explanation. I've heard of users occasionally resetting the network, but typically on a monthly basis. I've never attempted it myself.
In the months ahead, I'll be quite busy, but I wanted to share additional insights from John Swenson (found on AudiophileStyle) regarding networks and common misconceptions. These observations aim to delineate the various elements influencing perceived sound quality. I won't provide explanations myself, but I hope these insights offer a deeper understanding. It's worth noting that participants in the discussion prefer different solutions for optimal sound quality, ranging from fiber to Cat5e to WiFi. While there are diverse means to achieve similar results, each system and its connections are unique.
Quote from John Swenson @ AudiophileStyle:
(…) Digital audio networks seem to be "disturbed" by two different things, jitter on the data and common mode current on the wires. These are actually converted one to the other in many places in the network path. The end result of this is jitter on the clock and data in the DAC subtly changing the analog signal output from the DAC.
This has absolutely NOTHING, I repeat NOTHING to do with the data bits being corrupted, check sums etc. It has to do with subtle changes in timing of the data bits and small ground plane differences getting into the DAC through the normal network connections. The Data doesn't get corrupted in any way, the bits are still the same.
There are some big misconceptions about optical network connections. The optical connections do NOT make the timing perfect. They do NOT "reclock" the data. whatever jitter that is on the input is still there on the output, in fact the electrical to optical and back to electrical ADDS jitter to the signal. All higher quality optical equipment can do is add less jitter to what is already there, it CANNOT reduce it. What is beneficial is that it completely blocks the common mode noise including leakage currents from power supplies. It blocks one of the issues but makes the other slightly worse. All higher quality optical equipment can do is make that "slightly less" even less, but it is still there.(…)
I fully agree with points 1, 2, and 4, but I completely disagree with points 3, 5, and 7
Point 6 ;How about stating it as: "Rather than improving in mere hours, it's expected to enhance over the course of days."
Hi Paul,
Well let's find out about point 3, 5 and 7
About point 6, my experience is that it always start good, but when the crystals seem to synchronize the sound 'collapses'
But I like your statement line better 🙂
Point 3, is the one I've been puzzling on for 3 years now. I had a Pink Faun X2.16 streamer with 3 Ultra OXCO clocks inside. At that point I was still using my old NAD M12 modified with 2 Pink Faun clocks. One Audioclock and one Clock on the BluOS module. I also replaced the 2 power supplies by two Farads Super 3's. One 24Vdc and one 5Vdc.
The problem was that new devices, new cables always sounded great, but after 3 day's the sound always became dull. From that point the search began. I replaced my cabling, my power blocks, modified the streamer over and over, replaced power supplies and drilled a new ground electrode. Replaced my Dac 2 times. And after that I found out it was the ethernet which caused all the trouble. Not at once, but in day's.
Last year I modified a switch with an Ultra OCXO clock with incredible results, but after 48 hours the sound was more dead than alive. The interesting part is that it takes 48 hours as well for the clock to stabilize. In other words the more it stabilized the worse the sound. Of course the switch itself was not the problem. The problem is that other ethernet devices seemed to synchronize more and more to this Ultra clock.</p>