Linn have used SMPS for years. The highly acclaimed $40k NGKDS uses one. I do not think they would be using one in their flagship product if they felt its performance was not superior to other alternatives
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Linn get this right, as in the analogue world do Rega. The danger is when we extrapolate from this that any SMPS other than a cheap one is therefore as good.
I guess with that logic the same can be said about LPS’s as well 
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Absolutely.
Though of course we are all shaped by our experiences. Mine suggests that the performance spectrum of LPS’s I’ve heard overlaps with the performance spectrum of SMPS’s I’ve heard - and that experience informs my general (thought not universal) preference for LPS by default.
Your mileage may vary.
Also dCS are using switch-mode power supplies:
The amplifiers are powered by a combination of linear and switch-mode power supplies
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We are indeed. In fact, I believe all of our current devices are powered by hybrid power supplies - part linear, part switch-mode - not just the amplifiers.
Linear supplies are great at isolating from spurious mains activity, and switch-modes are great at providing stable DC, so it’s the best of both worlds. There’s also some further efforts with things like synchronising the switching elements to the unit’s clock circuitry to improve the ultimate audio performance of the system.
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Thanks James for clarifying. These further efforts: do you mean they are likely to appear in future dCS products, or already in existing ones?
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I don’t think anyone who worries about/upgrades a switch PSU ever does so because they think their data integrity needs improving. There is more to the output of a switch than data integrity. Any switch, whether “audiophile” or not, which meets some pretty basic specs should provide data integrity, regardless of power supply.
Already in current ones, and I believe we have been doing it for quite some time previously as well (though I would need to check in with the engineers on the PSU architecture of our older products).
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I’m pretty sure we’ve covered all this (and more) in the previous Ethernet thread, unless you have some new info to share?
We have. This thread started with a specific ask for recommendations for a non-audiophile switch ie. a switch required and expected to provide additional ports in classic IT network style rather than a switch to provide sonic goodness.
While it’s something of a tradition on hifi forums to drift off-topic, or for someone to latch a new question onto an existing thread, I suspect we’re done here.
Where is the difference? If you can outline why xyz sounds better than my Cisco switch and I would be willing to test a “audiophile switch”. But it has to meet the specifications.
Torben
You’re joking, right? As @Anupc says, this has all been covered in the related thread. All audiophile switches will “meet the specifications” for data integrity and any related regulations regarding safety etc. They simply go further in reducing the noise reaching the streamer than the galvanic isolation inherent in every audiophile and non-audiophile switch on the market.
This is neither black magic nor rocket science.
@torbenrick , please can you share the latest schematic of your streaming setup? If it is still as it was last time you did so, there would be little or no sonic advantage to deploying an audiophile switch instead of the 2960 in your setup. The only thing it could do near a router is to separate out audio from non-audio data streams if you use a switch with only your audio stuff attached.
In the schematic I last saw, the last component before your Linn streamer was a Startech FMC. This is where an audiophile switch would go if it’s to make the difference others hear. Hence advice from me and others to stick with the 2960.
No - the specification are outlined clearly in the beginning of this thread.
But never mind
Torben
Ah, I thought you meant technical specifications not your own requirements. Apologies. Then:
- there will be audiophile switches which meet all your specs… except the bit about being non-audiophile! My switches only have 2 ports so I have no dog in this fight.
- There is little or nothing to be gained by replacing this switch, in this position doing this job, with an audiophile one anyway.
Long may your 2960 live and rule.
Nigel
I have here in my setup a 2960 (for tv, aTV and Mac) in parallel wit an Innuos switch (or Melco, or Ansuz during my tests, hopefully a Nordost soon). It‘s hard to believe that the Cissco can‘t touch any of these though it‘s performance is really good for its price.
Add on: I bought a 2960 for a friend with Naim / Focal setup because of its performance ( my friend didn’t want to spend that much money).
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Hi Nigel,
…not necessarily, a problem I frequently find is that we’ll get a customer reporting that either the app or the kit isn’t working - quite often “I think this started after the last firmware update” will be added too.
(As an aside - generally if we break something in a firmware update there are blatant tell-tale signs that give it away - mainly that if we’ve broken something the evening and night after the new release goes live my phone will be pinging like an old back and white submarine movie. When you have thousands of units being updated in an evening then things that you’ve actually broken stand out very obviously.)
As with anything that any of us deal with day-to-day at work you generally have a feel for what something’s likely to be and you know that generally whether something is going to be a network issue that you have to get to the bottom of and, although you might be able to prove (by substitution) that the issue is caused by the brand new amazing sounding audiophile switch that has just been installed (which we have seen specific examples off elsewhere on this forum) or by simplifying the customers network, the perception will generally be that it is down to us (the manufacturer) to “make it work” with whatever the flawed kit is - whether that’s an “amazing sounding” Ethernet switch that kills UPnP, routers or network extenders that start to drop UDP packets after some unspecified amount of time or whatever else…
Phil
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Good post, Phil, though I have to say I have had various switches here (for R&D purposes!) in the last couple of years and have never had any of them give any such issues. They’ve all been unmanaged, they simply receive and forward. I can of course imagine a managed switch being, well, mismanaged and giving such issues through user error but everything I’ve tried has been plug and play and untouched thereafter.
Nigel
Hi Nigel,
Obviously I can’t name but if you search around on here there are reports of even third revision “audiophile” switches that I understand are built around a basic unmanaged switch but still manage to do odd things like break UPnP discovery.
I have personal involvement with identifying an issue with another audiophile switch that is based around a managed switch (but they do have access to “techs” who should definitely know what they are doing) and is set up to have 4 x 1000/100/10 ports and 4 x 100/10 ports and if you happen to put a Roon Core on a gigabit port (which is what they are there for) and a streamer on one of the 100 meg ports (which is what they are there for too) then Roon glitches and is basically unusable / unlistenable.
The manufacturer tried to tell me that it was because 100meg wasn’t fast enough for Roon but I proved through that if everything was plugged into the gig ports then it all works fine and if everything was plugged into the 100meg ports then it also worked fine (and after a quick trip to eBay also proved through that Roon will work on a 10 meg network), it’s just the internal crossing of data within the switch between the gig and 100meg ports that is broken … unfortunately they wouldn’t allow me to access the switch configuration to try to identify and resolve the issue for them.
Phil
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