"Audiophile Grade" Ethernet Switches - The new generation

[GuillaumeB]

Please Can you tell something more about your shielding experience ?

Well perhaps shielding is not the proper term. At the time, I was trying different constellations of the GISO Isolator which according to the manufacturer was „For the galvanic isolation of network data cables for audio use“.

I had connected it between my Router and Melco in a couple of different ways (with the provided interconnect, without, and in different directions) and one of the constellations really changed the sound signature. In some of the passages the sound was extremely spacious and sounded almost surreal but it others it was over the top. To much of a good thing and more artificial.

Not sure if this mirrors Guillaume‘s experience, but there was definitely some „dissonance“ going on.

Very interesting bacon!

This "extremely spacious and sounded almost surreal" description is exactly what I heard with the optical bridge between router and first (office) switch which feeds the SOtMs. On some tracks it was hugely impressive but something just didn't feel right, an observation confirmed by reverting to the normal Cat 7 run from router to switch.

The SOtMs daisy chained are great though but I need to revert back to one to properly evaluate the benefit of the second unit. My feeling is that it is a very worthwhile application but obviously this comes at considerable financial cost.   

The Gold M12 unit is arriving later this week and I am really looking forward to this. It will be interesting to see how it compares to 1 and 2 SOtMs. 

Cheers,

Guillaume