I second your sentiment. From some of his posts that I have unfortunately come across, he sure sounds like a special dude…sorry if you are a gal.
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Well, there are of course two basic approaches to streaming:
- taking a basic consumer multi-tasking computer and trying to optimise it for playing music.
- designing a device from the ground up using microprocessors specifically and solely for the purpose of playing music.
They are radically different and I have only ever engaged in the latter. A lot of these Sonore-type devices seem to be aimed at the former, which is why I’ve never been interested in them.
It is nice to know we have a mutual bond over a power strip!
I used one of these when I first put in fibre. Has been sitting in the loft for a while.
I’m told they are a lot better for wired ethernet as they do clever things that a consumer Netgear GS-108 doesn’t. It cost me £50 (about $70) on eBay. It’s fanless, but gets hot and has a big heatsink at the back.
If I have 10 minutes to waste I might put it back in and see if it sounds any different using as the sending switch next to my modem.
I put some anti-microphonic foam inside and wall-mounted it. See here:
You really want the non-PoE (power over ethernet) version of this switch. PoE injects 48v into the ethernet cord to power devices that support PoE. Hence the heat from the unit. It’s probably noisier electrically, too.
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This is really interesting. I hadn’t thought about the potential issues from a PoE switch. I am using one by Ubiquiti, but I’ve connected it to my EtherRegen using fiber. Does this negate the issues I would have heard using ethernet?
Edit: I have three wifi access points powered by the switch over ethernet, which is why I’m worried about the noise. Hopefully the fiber prevents the noise from getting to my audio system.
Now you’ve got me. What’s Poe?
Power over Ethernet. A DC voltage is sent in the same way USB provides +5 to power equipment (though PoE is different parameters).
Yes, fiber would isolate the PoE current.
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You can turn the PoE off and it was showing as inactive anyway.
More to the point, I could not access my Roon server through my audio access point wifi, but I could access it connected to my modem wifi. That means a connection issue through the Cisco switch. Rather than trying to work out why, I just put the Netgear one back in and poured myself a gin. See above Ethernet Cables and Sound It’s not just for show. A good result in my book.
Good morning Guy’s,
We finally have a difference!
The first two pictures are with the Jcat ultra and the thirt directly from the router. In both occasions there are still two ultra clock’s involved in the dac. I have set the scope at peak instead of average samples. This way every detail is pictured. I had to trigger the samples several times when I was streaming from the router. A few times it came up with the wrong waveform. Please click and swap the images to see the differences.
On request! A picture with FFT. The FFT is set to 100hz per division. The FFT is not at the trigger point, but at the beginning of the sample.
The pictures above were taken from the album Lorde Pure Heroine - Royals. I will make a second comparison with another album. I only may post 5 reply’s in a row. So please leave a reaction so I can post the second comparison.
Thanks for the measurements. We shall discuss later, when you are able to,post your entire study. Thanks again.
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Thanks! These are great. They are from an album of Steve Straus - Youngstown. First two with Jcat ultra second two directly from the router.
Now the first two from the Jcat Ultra, Then one that seems good and came directly from the router, after this one that is grazy. I shot more pictures that came from the router and looked like that.
What is happening? The first two are from the Jcat ultra. The third and the fourth are from the router. Grazy enough it produced twice the same waveform. Between the two it also produced one that looks like the waveform the Jcat produced several times.
When you look closely to the picture’s above. You can see all four were taken with 20ms per division. The last two are completely out of time. Most left in the picture you can see it started on a point where the first two were already in the third division. The trigger is in all four pictures in the middle of the screen. In the second half of the pictures you can see they catch up speed, but they didn’t manage in time. Most right in the picture you can still see several deviations.
I think this is called Jitter! The complete sample was shot in a 50ms frame. Consider what this does on a complete track. Where it is on and of track.
Problem identified 
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Just took the time to review your measurements, specially from your last post (number 398) Just to confirm, they were all taken from the analog output of your dac? Should this be so, it indeed appears to be some serious timing issues.
If I understand correctly, this is not properly jitter, because we are in the analog domain (although it can be caused by jitter) - but I might as well be wrong here.
What stands out for me most is that the differences are not subtle at all, making one wonder which is the “correct” waveform.
Maybe someone more knowledgeable could jump in, and help us extract more juice from your pics.
Anyhow, thanks again. This is wonderful effort.
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