"Audiophile Grade" Ethernet Switches - The new generation

[Flashman]

I would be interested in your findings @kerkhoffd if you are able to try the Bonn N8 during the holidays. I was rather amazed that a switch could have such a tangible difference. The Dutch reviews were spot on! I also have a friend who lives in England who had a positive experience with the device.

[struts]

Ehh, 4,5 minutes and all he said was that modern WiFi routers have plenty of bandwidth for an audio stream, that there’s a small difference in noise between ethernet and WiFi and that he’s heard differences between ethernet cables.

Hi @Antoine,

Did you try the EtherRegen into the Ethernet input of your Devialet yet?  If not, could you be persuaded to do so??  Veyr interested to hear how you think it compares.

[kerkhoffd]

I would be interested in your findings @kerkhoffd if you are able to try the Bonn N8 during the holidays.  I was rather amazed that a switch could have such a tangible difference.  The Dutch reviews were spot on!  I also have a friend who lives in England who had a positive experience with the device.

I just ordered one, and hope it will arrive next week. I will report the findings ofcourse. I am sure some switches will produce an even better result than I have heard from the Silent Angel switch on the audio-show, but I am not prepared to invest that much more money. I found a verdor in The Netherlands who gives a nice discount, so the Bonn N8 is now less than half the price of a EtherREGEN and one third of a standard SOTM switch. That is about the maximum I want to spend at the moment.

[kerkhoffd]

Earlier than expected, I got my hands on the Silent Angel Bonn N8 switch today. It is still early days, as I only have it connected and doing it's job for less than an hour, but as with many nice tweaks, the effect is easily and immediately audible. No uncertainty about that.

So here are my first impressions @Flashman: Although the effect is still growing, the reproduced music sounds different indeed. Apparent is the bigger and deeper soundstage. But there is something else. The music seems, to my ears at least, somewhat more balanced and natural sounding. The standard switch I used before made the music sound a bit sharp edged and sometimes made recordings sound a bit "thin". Very detailed, but less balanced as mids and lows were less present in the mix. This now is different. Details are still there, but they are less 'in your face'. Lows seem to go deeper, but are still very clear and maybe a bit more layered than before. So far I am impressed.

I will take some more time to let the new switch settle in, before I will report back with my final opinion. In comparison with the cost of some other brand switches this switch seems to do a nice job for those who want to tweak their streaming network without busting the bank.

[Flashman]

Earlier than expected, I got my hands on the Silent Angel Bonn N8 switch today. It is still early days, as I only have it connected and doing it's job for less than an hour, but as with many nice tweaks, the effect is easily and immediately audible. No uncertainty about that.

So here are my first impressions @Flashman: Although the effect is still growing, the reproduced music sounds different indeed. Apparent is the bigger and deeper soundstage. But there is something else. The music seems, to my ears at least, somewhat more balanced and natural sounding. The standard switch I used before made the music sound a bit sharp edged and sometimes made recordings sound a bit "thin". Very detailed, but less balanced as mids and lows were less present in the mix. This now is different. Details are still there, but they are less 'in your face'. Lows seem to go deeper, but are still very clear and maybe a bit more layered than before. So far I am impressed.

I will take some more time to let the new switch settle in, before I will report back with my final opinion. In comparison with the cost of some other brand switches this switch seems to do a nice job for those who want to tweak their streaming network without busting the bank.

Thanks for your report @kerkhoffd  Your findings echo mine.  I listened again last night to several songs and found many of the attributes that you cite.  I am still pretty amazed that a switch could make this much of a difference.  As with you, I wasn't willing to pay too much for a switch, as I had my doubts about its ability to make a difference in my system.  At a cost of USD339, this was a rather simple decision for me.

[kerkhoffd]

Interested to see how things develop. I just noticed I was able to play a fair bit louder too than usual without any of the sharpness resulting in a mild form of listening fatigue I encountered after fitting the IsoAcoustic Gaia II feet under my speakers.

[Flashman]

@kerkhoffd I did not mention that I, too, found the insertion of the Bonn N8 reduced listening fatigue. I'll report my other findings after a few days of listening.

[kerkhoffd]

Nice to read the notes we made on the performance of this switch are mostly the same and compare so favourably. I am not the best in describing what I hear exactly, so I always value the experience of others who do a better job in that area. Thanks for that @Flashman.

[Antoine]

Hi @Antoine,

Did you try the EtherRegen into the Ethernet input of your Devialet yet?  If not, could you be persuaded to do so??  Veyr interested to hear how you think it compares.

Hi Struts, no sorry, I haven’t tried that yet. My system sounds so good now I’m afraid to touch it. I really don’t know when I’ll test it.

Desert38 has connected his Devialet directly to the ER, his findings are here (they’re also in the listening impressions thread on audiophilestyle): https://devialetchat.com/Thread-Audiophi...5#pid89005

[baconbrain]

Over on the ASR forum a „what appeared to be“ new member blind AB tested the ER against a standard netgear switch and stated that he couldn’t tell the difference most of the time.

Would be great if one of our long term members here would give it a try.

Any takers?