"Audiophile Grade" Ethernet Switches - The new generation

[GuillaumeB]

Alpha-Audio did a remarkable blind-test, campairing seven audiophile switches. They invited some readers to participate, and just published their findings (in Dutch).

Switches tested:

- Standaard Netgear (To get used to sound / baseline) (149 euro, 24 poorten)
- Fidelizer EtherStream (399 euro)
- Ansus switch (1999 euro)
- Fiber (250 euro compleet)
- Silent Angel Bonn N8 (395 euro)
- SoTM – basismodel (999 euro)
- Meraki enterprise 8-poort met fiber en PoE (799 euro)

Aim was to determine wheather differences could be heard and, if so, which switch would score best in a blind-test.

For those interested (they also included some diagrams with scores per switch):
https://www.alpha-audio.nl/review/zeven-...test-blind

Nice, and thanks for sharing this!!

Reassuring to see that SOtM is at the top of the pile, even if the differences are fairly modest.

Although I never compared the base model to the version with the sCLK-EX module which I own, I did notice a pretty decent uptick in performance when connecting to a master clock (Cybershaft OP14). Then of course running two units in bridged mode (connected by fibre using SFP ports) with both clocked was another fair decent improvement.

I do however agree with the conclusions of their shootout: namely that the differences are pretty small compared to other components and tweaks, however they are clearly audible. I do find the clocking aspect very interesting however since to my ears this is where the real magic happens.

Cheers,

Guillaume