21-Jun-2019, 12:28
I’m going to be repeating some stuff here but I think its worth it in the context of this discussion about switches. But first onto the subject of cognitive dissonance. This really rang a bell for me, given that I recently installed a USB reclocking device, ran it in for >400 hours then removed it because it had robbed my system of some of its magic. In my case, cognitive dissonance could be summarised as the conscious improvement of hi-fi related values like frequency extension, image size and focus vs the poorer rendition of what my subconscious brain recognises as musicians singing and playing instruments. In summary I got more of the hi-fi values but my subconscious was less convinced that it was created by real musicians. My system became more hi-fi-like and less natural. It was at this point I realised that I couldn’t just blindly follow other’s advice without carefully listening to the results. The 30 day trial period suddenly gained a whole new importance.
So back to switches. About 18 months ago the flavour of the moment was the AQVox Switch and specifically their SE version. I purchased a unit to go between my router and my Innuos Zenith SE. I liked the result, with a significant improvement in both hi-fi related qualities and musicality. At that point I considered my system to be very close to well balanced and musical. I felt that my room had a small problem around 120Hz (mid-tone of a double bass), but otherwise I was extremely happy with how it all sounded.
One of the after-affects of installing the USB re-clocker was the discovery that my system really did not like wall-wart type SMPSs. The AQVox SE is powered with just such a module, which I’d plugged into my non-hi-fi household mains. In their literature, AQVox state that their PS is fully optimised and they could not find anything to better it, including their own, much more expensive LPS. I decided to investigate this claim. Given my surprise and delight at the outstanding SQ of the Innuos Zenith SE, I decided to contact Sean Jacobs and ordered one of his CHC DC2 LPSs. When the unit arrived, I placed it on a small Atacama mini-stand and hooked it up to the AQVox. How to summarise the result....let’s cut straight to the fully run-in state. From a hi-fi perspective, music has more body, the frequency extremes are more extended, imaging is more focused and defined and the soundstage has gained in layering but also has a more believable wholeness....the system now projects a ‘whole room acoustic’ ....in terms of subconscious qualities, there’s more of a feeling of voicing coming from humans instead of being slightly disembodied, brass coming from horns, guitars with nylon or steel strings, small or large wooden bodies, fingers sliding on strings etc. The pace of the music increased as did the sense of rhythmic interplay between musicians. Frankly if I’d changed the AQVox for another, more accomplished switch I’d be entirely thrilled with the result. I was shocked that a power supply on a switch could make such a fundamental difference and of course, soon after I’d heard the impact of the DC2 I realised I should have gone for a DC3 with optional Mundorf caps. Following up with Sean Jacobs, I arranged to trade in the DC2 for a DC3 and a couple of months later I experienced another jump in performance similar to the one I’d had before. Remarkable.
In light of the above I elected to upgrade router and ethernet cables and to add DC3s to modem, router and extender (which required extensive modification). With these mods in place 2 things happened....the anomaly in the bass disappeared and music took on a ‘live’ feeling in terms of listener engagement, performance venue creation and rhythmic interaction. The only time there was any ‘cognitive dissonance’ along this journey was immediately following installation of consumer grade networking products which can sound pretty weird in the first 24 hours but soon settle in to provide a stable,natural sounding performance.
In summary, while I found the switch performance to be most helpful in improving my system’s performance, at least in my case, the power supplies used to drive the whole network seemed to make a far more fundamental and valuable contribution.
So back to switches. About 18 months ago the flavour of the moment was the AQVox Switch and specifically their SE version. I purchased a unit to go between my router and my Innuos Zenith SE. I liked the result, with a significant improvement in both hi-fi related qualities and musicality. At that point I considered my system to be very close to well balanced and musical. I felt that my room had a small problem around 120Hz (mid-tone of a double bass), but otherwise I was extremely happy with how it all sounded.
One of the after-affects of installing the USB re-clocker was the discovery that my system really did not like wall-wart type SMPSs. The AQVox SE is powered with just such a module, which I’d plugged into my non-hi-fi household mains. In their literature, AQVox state that their PS is fully optimised and they could not find anything to better it, including their own, much more expensive LPS. I decided to investigate this claim. Given my surprise and delight at the outstanding SQ of the Innuos Zenith SE, I decided to contact Sean Jacobs and ordered one of his CHC DC2 LPSs. When the unit arrived, I placed it on a small Atacama mini-stand and hooked it up to the AQVox. How to summarise the result....let’s cut straight to the fully run-in state. From a hi-fi perspective, music has more body, the frequency extremes are more extended, imaging is more focused and defined and the soundstage has gained in layering but also has a more believable wholeness....the system now projects a ‘whole room acoustic’ ....in terms of subconscious qualities, there’s more of a feeling of voicing coming from humans instead of being slightly disembodied, brass coming from horns, guitars with nylon or steel strings, small or large wooden bodies, fingers sliding on strings etc. The pace of the music increased as did the sense of rhythmic interplay between musicians. Frankly if I’d changed the AQVox for another, more accomplished switch I’d be entirely thrilled with the result. I was shocked that a power supply on a switch could make such a fundamental difference and of course, soon after I’d heard the impact of the DC2 I realised I should have gone for a DC3 with optional Mundorf caps. Following up with Sean Jacobs, I arranged to trade in the DC2 for a DC3 and a couple of months later I experienced another jump in performance similar to the one I’d had before. Remarkable.
In light of the above I elected to upgrade router and ethernet cables and to add DC3s to modem, router and extender (which required extensive modification). With these mods in place 2 things happened....the anomaly in the bass disappeared and music took on a ‘live’ feeling in terms of listener engagement, performance venue creation and rhythmic interaction. The only time there was any ‘cognitive dissonance’ along this journey was immediately following installation of consumer grade networking products which can sound pretty weird in the first 24 hours but soon settle in to provide a stable,natural sounding performance.
In summary, while I found the switch performance to be most helpful in improving my system’s performance, at least in my case, the power supplies used to drive the whole network seemed to make a far more fundamental and valuable contribution.
