Usb or Ethernet connected test?
Franco, feel free to totally ignore this if you donāt think itās relevantā¦
I have a Scarlatti stack and use the following chain for streaming from Roon:
PC (with Roon & Qobuz) ā ethernet ā SOtM sMS-200 Ultra streamer (with 10MHz BNC input) ā USB ā Scarlatti clock
Both the SOtM streamer and Scarlatti clock are fed from a [cheapish] LHY Audio 10MHz clock.
Streaming is almost on par with CD playback. But clearly, my Scarlatti stack isnāt in the same league as your Vivaldi.
But could you get hold of a SOtM sMS-200 Ultra (with 10MHz input) just to try?
Mani.
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@T38.45 I am the friend that has the Oladra. Iām not sure I understand your question and whether you are asking how the Oladra is connected, if so I use the BNC output as I find it the best sounding to my ears.
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Thanks Mani. I am already using a SotM sNH-10G ethernet switch with a SoTM PSU and I was thinking to listen to the new model etherregen when it comes out and potentially replace it with this one.
Also l want to try audition whether a different PSU (Plixir?) would make a difference.
Do you mean replacing the Vivaldi upsampler with the SOtM sMS-200 Ultra (with 10MHz input) and why? Are you sure?
The idea would be to synchronise the streamer (the SOtM) and your Vivaldi clock to your 10MHz Mutec, as your current streamer (built into your Vivaldi upsampler) doesnāt have a 10MHz input.
But quite honestly, I suspect this is a stupid ideaā¦ in your case, with the Vivaldi.
In my case, both the SOtM streamer and Scarlatti clock (connected together via USB) are synchronised to the external 10MHz clock. I have no idea why it would be the case, but doing this seems to provide a massive uptake in SQ.
I just wondered if playing around with an external streamer with a 10MHz input might be worth tryingā¦
Mani.
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this is interesting: on youtube a tp-link vs nordost switch in a/b!
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That was more interesting than I expected! Even listening on my laptop, I thought I heard differences, rewound to repeat, and preferred the second on both. I would of course have liked two things:
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Stick with the same song (Normal by Katie Pruitt?) for the third (with Q Source PSU) demo as for TP-Link vs Q Net; why switch songs?
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To see evidence it was the same recording in each comparison.
I once went to a Chord Company cable demo which was laughable: changed songs, changed volume, probably changed resolution material and all sorts of amateur psych games stuff in play (foot-tapping colleague alongside the audience anyone?). Just hilariousā¦ And the suspicious in me thinks this is why they changed songs. Itās impossible to know whether they used the identical recording on the before and after demos, but if youāve already gone to hi-res on your second, where do you then go on your third.
Yes, Iām in the trade and, yes, Iām being outrageously cynical.
I suspect the Q Net performs better than the TP-Link regardless, but not to the extent it makes for good Youtube porn. Iāve never heard any difference in any similar Youtube demo before, which is what makes me uncharacteristically suspicious.
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I thought it would be fun for somebody who says switches arenāt different 
anyway, I will test Qswitch soon in my setup
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Jason from Stereophile just tested the Oladraā¦rave review! He prefers AES and roon off (agreed with his findings about roon as well 
) connected to Vivaldi Apex. Would be great to have a statement from him how the Innuos Statement compares to Oladra since he got both units.
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Iām not sure the vid would convince anyone who thinks switches are all the same to change their mindsā¦ but look forward to hearing how you get on with the QNet compared with your Ansuz.
Let us know too whether you are listening to it with the stand āThe Nordost QNET Stand is a must-have for anyone looking to take the performance of their QNET Network Switch to the next level. With its impeccable design, it is sure to provide listeners with a noiseless digital experience, allowing them to enjoy the music even more.ā and/or the QSource Linear PSU which costs almost as much as the switch.
Hope this solves your UPnP issue as well as sounding good.
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Itād be interesting to see the insides of the QNet; We might be able to better separate reality from the marketing-hype (thatās not a suggestion to void your warranty by the way 
)
Interesting to read this review. Thanks for posting 
Am I missing something important, though? Why not run the Oladra straight into the Vivaldi DAC, instead of the Upsampler? Is the Upsampler not surplus to requirements in this setup?
Either way, Iād be very, very interested to understand when the Vivaldi Clock would/wouldnāt make a difference. As Iāve said (probably too) many times, the Vivaldi Clock is one of the bigger upgrades Iāve made. Quite attached to it 
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JVS doesnāt state anywhere in the review whether heās upsampling sources or not. He presumably does, otherwise it would make absolute sense to go direct into the DAC.
I suppose if the intent is to always use the Oladraās (supposedly?) best output, i.e. clocked outputs like AES3, then the dCS component has to be in āAudioā sync mode, in which use-case there wouldnāt any reason to have the dCS Master clock in place - the DAC canāt have the reference clock coming from two different sources.
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I posted a youtube link from a hifi show where they compared in an a/b test Qswitch vs standard switch. Imho one can here the difference even with youtubeās SQ. But Iām afraid I wonāt open the switch when availableā¦.guess my dealer wouldnāt like it that much
You did post and I posted in reply. Definitely a difference to these ears but until I/you perform the same test in my/your own system where we know exactly the same track/resolution is being played we need to be cautious. Iām afraid the change of track for the change of power supply confirms my suspicions that this is not all that it seems. Why not stick with the same track and show the even greater difference with switch and PSU?
Agreed, same parameters are important, otherwise itās not possible to compare!
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I like the Antipodes K50v1 and the S/PDIF output is very, very good, but I doubt even the OLADRA digital output would be as good as the OLADRA using ethernet with the Vivaldi upsampler and clock.
This might be worth doing to save buying the Vivaldi upsampler and clock, I just doubt it would sound as good as the three combined.
That makes sense to me, Jeremy. What doesnāt make sense is the system as I understand it in the Stereophile review.
I get that the Upsampler would be needed if Jason wanted to upsample sources (as @Anupc says), but if heās not then surely:
Source file or stream > Oladraās innards > Upsampler > DAC
ā¦is all just a verifiably identical DATA stream until it hits the DAC itself. And if thatās the case, why not just lift out the Oladra? The only thing I can think of is if the clocking provided by the Oladra to the Upsampler is superior to that from the Vivaldi Clock. And I find that hard to believe, since unless Iāve missed something else the Oladra doesnāt also synchronise clocks between Upsampler and DAC.
Hereās the comparison that I think should have been done:
A: Ethernet > Oladra > DAC
B: Ethernet > Upsampler / Clock / DAC
And if A is even close to B then that would be wonderful news. Fewer boxes, simpler cabling, a way to try Roonās front end with different players etc. And yes, cheaper! (Iām also not too attached to upsampling ā a listen with PAR has convinced me that itās not a given that itās beneficial. But thatās likely another thread.)
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It doesnāt make sense to me either and your suggested comparison would be far more enlightening. Iām increasingly starting to distrust many reviewsā¦
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Also, in case you missed JVSā footnote;
So, the entire review was done with recovered clocking. Not the best way to review via a dCS system.
That said, based on the review, it seems the key value of the Oladra is in its synchronous interfaces (similar to the Grimm MU1), so, I can maybe understand JVSās (less than ideal) decision. 
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