To all Vivaldi owners, what are the best external audiophile switch and streamer that you’ve listened to in a Vivaldi stack? Thanks. Franco
can’t speak for Vivaldi (Rossini owner…) but I tested Melco S100, Innuos, Cisco, Ansuz A2/A3/D switches …bought after many months of testing the Ansuz D3. The Innuos and Ansuz need a lot of time to burn in, so if you try to test one of these make sure, that you have them min. 2-3 weeks in your setup.
Melco plays a tad more “bright”, Innuos slightly “warm”, Ansuz plays between them and pictures an incredible “3D-room” in my setup.
1 Like
Again, as a Rossini owner, I liked my Innuos Phoenix Net, but found the Network Acoustics rubicon even better (they have since replaced this with the Tempus).
I’m now using the rubicon’s optical connections to connect everything bar the Rossini, which, to my ears, sounds stunning.
I felt the Uptone Audio Etherregen was a tad clinical, but it’s a great unit and priced well.
I”ve tried others, but these were the best I’ve heard to date.
1 Like
Pink Faun LAN Isolator into Uptone EtherRegen / Ultracap LPS 1.2 > AQ Diamond RJ/E > Aurender W20SE > AQ Diamond dual AES/EBU > Apex Vivaldi (Wordclock out into Aurender)
1 Like
When will the new EtherRegen be available?
I currently own a SoTM SHN 10G switch powered by a linear Plixir PSU. Have never heard the EtherRegen (ER) in my system. Has anyone A/B compared Sotm and ER? One of the features that I like about ER is that it can be grounded whilst SoTM cannot.
I ran two SoTMs in series connected via optical SFPs, this configuration was actually very good. I didn’t feel this was as good as my current setup, but better to my mind than the Etherregen.
The SoTM’s also get expensive when you go down the road of external clocks, and multiple switches/psu’s!
I use the new Auralic Aries 2.2 with Shunyata Omega USB cable. No switch needed because I use it wireless. For me it sounds perfect.
2 Likes
Hmmm wireless 
I tried wireless to a MacBook Pro for Apple Music and Tidal app and via Ethernet not did notice a difference in SQ with WLAN. I prefer wireless. One less cable.
Roon Core running on a sonicTransporter i5 connected via an EtherREGEN, both bought on reviews/leaps of faith and not compared with anything else with audiophile ambitions. The last cable from the EtherREGEN to the Upsampler is a custom Cat6 cable with the shield lifted at the DAC end.
One of the projects on my list is to route fiber all the way to the bigrig, another one is to replace the Uptone wall wart on the EtherREGEN with a SGC JS-4 as soon as they start shipping…
I use the Bartók Apex and i bought the Nordost Qnet with the Qsource and it was a huge up-grade in sound. More dark, more detail, bass more punch but what i saw increase most it was the sound stage that was already superb.
I also bought the QKore 6 to the grounding that took all i told to another level, this was probably the best up-grade I remember doing without spend a lot of money, best buck for buck up-grade.
For the user who does not have a good WiFi network (you?), it can of course also be used with a cable. You don’t need a switch now (in my case). And it sounds better in my opinion and according to Auralic.
Speedtest on my ipad:
Wondering whether anyone has ever tried connecting a separate, dedicated modem directly to the upsampler/streamer. I have now purchased a long ethernet cable from Entreq (grounded cable) which I will use in order to connect my Vivaldi upsampler to the Vodafone modem (via the ethernet switch) (as my system is currently connected to the ethernet socket on the wall). TBD whether in this new setup I will still need to employ the optic-fiber converter.
Having said that, I am wondering whether a dedicated modem (used only for the audio system and separate from the “general” modem) could add value in terms of SQ. I am sure that the modem which feeds everything in the house injects every sort of noise into the audio system. Does this make sense? Han anyone tried it?
Thanks,
Franco
Yes, I tried that and I heard no difference. In the current situation, a cable directly from a Netgear Orbi Pro router to the streamer and the same but with WiFi. Wifi already removes a lot of interference and yes, as I said before, it sounds better…
1 Like
Thanks Rudy. Do you mean that you’ve tried a separate modem dedicated to the hi-fi only with an Ethernet cable direct to the upsampler?
Yes, with my old Netgear router, separate from the Orbi. I didn’t hear any difference at all.
1 Like
Not sure that we’re talking about the same thing as I am thinking about two completely separate lines (two discrete fiber lines).
No, i do not use fiber (anymore).
1 Like