AQVox AQ-SWITCH-8

[Confused]

Hallo, it seems tempting to try it out.

I wonder if will help with an Aurender, I listen to Tidal 99% of the time. If I monitor the router I can see that the Aurender receives the complete track in the start of the playlist—when it comes to the end of the track it plays it downloads the next track, what do you think will it help?

Kind regards Morten

An interesting question.  I have asked myself many similar questions.  Consider that you can run Devialet AIR with a couple of seconds of buffer selected.  If you then pull out the Ethernet cable completely, perfect music continues to play, albeit for those two seconds only.  So what then does a nice switch or even an expensive Ethernet cable bring to the party?  I have seen stuff like this debated endlessly over on Computer Audiophile, many opinions, many facts mixed in with 'alternative facts', never conclusive.

I have to say I find it very difficult to rationalise how something like the AQVOX switch can possibly help.  Having said that, there are now a few user reviews that I have seen and they are all positive.  Maybe every single person that has tried one has been duped by expectation bias?  Mine should arrive late next week, I am hoping I'll have it time for the Easter break.  Part of me thinks that I am crazy to have bought one of these things.  Having said that, I am confident that it is highly unlikely to do anything negative to sound quality.  So no harm will done, except for some minor damage to my bank balance!  Oddly enough, I have been thinking of getting a second switch for a while, so I can take my cheapo Virgin Media router out of the chain between my PC and hifi.  So my old switch can be repurposed to skip the router. Time will tell if the AQVOX is merely a very expensive way of doing this!