My experience with the LHY Audio SW8 network switch + LPS

[JaideepGiridhar]

I live in a rented Mumbai flat. The electrical wiring is ancient and, at best, unreliable. I've had to isolate my pre and power amplifier, streamer, upsampler and DAC to the extent that my budget (and landlord) allows, which I did after negotiations that lasted a year. The only section of my audio chain that was exposed to the vagaries of this pernicious power supply was streaming audio, which is the mainstay of my listening.

I was in the process of getting hold of a Silent Angel switch and power supply to remedy the situation when Krack, who's been my go-to for audio advice, suggested I buy the LHY SW6. Fortuitously, Sugumar, from whom I have bought a Denafrips Terminator, Lumin U2 and ProAc Response D2R, called me from Singapore to ask if there's anything I needed from Vinshine, which sells LHY. I ordered the SW8 (the SW6 was unavailable, and I took a punt on forsaking the external clock input). The unit was shipped to me last week. It's reassuringly heavy, of excellent build, and, more important, transformative.

I've spent close to a week playing tracks I'm very familiar with – I A/Bd without the switch – and the differences are palpable. Louis and Ella, Beck, Ali Farka Touré, Eva Cassidy and Low are some of the musicians I used to ascertain differences. The changes I found - in dynamic range, clarity, sound stage, air around the notes, blackness and musicality – weren't just incremental but evolutionary. This unit has transformed my listening experience. I cannot recommend it enough.

H/T: Krack.
Sidenote: An unintended consequence has been much greater fidelity in other streaming services, like Netflix, Hotstar etc.
Sidenote 1: Last I checked, Sugumar has an unsold LHY SW6, if anyone's interested.

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

There are nay sayers for everything. But your experience gells with mine. Cleaning everything going into a system, let it be power or network noise or vibration, gives great dividends in my observation.

By any chance are you using fiber anywhere in your Lan chain, as I've read that it also helps with galvanic isolation. But will still benefit from a optimised network switch at the end of the fiber , in order to clean up the residual ground plane noise and phase noise. So using a pair of FMC's and optical cable to feed the LHY SW-8 might be worth a try.

Please also consider a good Ethernet cable from LHY to the Lumin. I was stumped at the difference a SOTM cable made, though I am using an old TP link router, fed by a very noisy ethernet over power line adaptor, as there is no way to run a direct Lan cable into my room. But will be using fiber my next vacations to see how that works out.

Glad to read your report on the SW-8, please keep sharing more tweaks as you go down the road

 

[Miany]

Cleaning everything going into a system, let it be power or network noise or vibration, gives great dividends in my observation.

Second that.. one of the biggest improvements i ever had was putting everything into a power conditioner.

I use wifi into auralic streamer and honestly i dont find anything missing as of now. But wondering if buying an audiophile network switch like SW6 and going via ethernet into my streamer will make any difference.. I also have a DDC after the streamer.

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

Second that.. one of the biggest improvements i ever had was putting everything into a power conditioner.

I use wifi into auralic streamer and honestly i dont find anything missing as of now. But wondering if buying an audiophile network switch like SW6 and going via ethernet into my streamer will make any difference.. I also have a DDC after the streamer.

The only way to find out is to try one

Iam sure auralic must have tested tons of wifi chips and must have settled on the least noisy one, supplied again from their meticulously designed internal power supply. So its going to be definitely better than going from a normal noisy consumer based router supplied via a chi-fi LPSU. And not having multiple noisy ports will again add dividends. So to improve upon that will require some excellent switch / power supply / optical isolation / ethernet cabling. So if you want to try, you probably need to try this entire chain as a combination and see if it betters the Auralic.

 

[JaideepGiridhar]

There are nay sayers for everything. But your experience gells with mine. Cleaning everything going into a system, let it be power or network noise or vibration, gives great dividends in my observation.

By any chance are you using fiber anywhere in your Lan chain, as I've read that it also helps with galvanic isolation. But will still benefit from a optimised network switch at the end of the fiber , in order to clean up the residual ground plane noise and phase noise. So using a pair of FMC's and optical cable to feed the LHY SW-8 might be worth a try.

Please also consider a good Ethernet cable from LHY to the Lumin. I was stumped at the difference a SOTM cable made, though I am using an old TP link router, fed by a very noisy ethernet over power line adaptor, as there is no way to run a direct Lan cable into my room. But will be using fiber my next vacations to see how that works out.

Glad to read your report on the SW-8, please keep sharing more tweaks as you go down the road

There are nay sayers for everything. But your experience gells with mine. Cleaning everything going into a system, let it be power or network noise or vibration, gives great dividends in my observation.

By any chance are you using fiber anywhere in your Lan chain, as I've read that it also helps with galvanic isolation. But will still benefit from a optimised network switch at the end of the fiber , in order to clean up the residual ground plane noise and phase noise. So using a pair of FMC's and optical cable to feed the LHY SW-8 might be worth a try.

Please also consider a good Ethernet cable from LHY to the Lumin. I was stumped at the difference a SOTM cable made, though I am using an old TP link router, fed by a very noisy ethernet over power line adaptor, as there is no way to run a direct Lan cable into my room. But will be using fiber my next vacations to see how that works out.

Glad to read your report on the SW-8, please keep sharing more tweaks as you go down the road

Thanks for your note.

Naysayers will neigh, I suppose.

I plan to get two FMCs with SFP modules to place between the switch and my streamer. Do you have any brand recommendations?

I use an AudioQuest Pearl ethernet cable and it's made a significant difference. I plan to get either a Furutech or Pangea as backup.

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

Thanks for your note.

Naysayers will neigh, I suppose.

I plan to get two FMCs with SFP modules to place between the switch and my streamer. Do you have any brand recommendations?

I use an AudioQuest Pearl ethernet cable and it's made a significant difference. I plan to get either a Furutech or Pangea as backup.

You are most welcome

There are lots of recommendations as to what works with lumin streamers in the below threads, however many or most of them were not available in India when I last checked a few months back, but better to search again.

Lumin X1 Fiber Optic Network Discussions

Originally Posted by wklie There is now an audiophile version of the Cisco SG112-24 Compact switch modified with Connor Winfield OCXO. This dealer als

www.audioshark.org

SFP Modules for Lumin Streamer

Just read an interesting thread on the use of SFP modules with Lumin X1 or U2 products. The posts recommended the Finisar FTLF1318P3BTL, which I ordered today. May I ask whether Lumin preferred 1G connectivity over 10G connectivity. Was a bit disappointed not to be able to use my former SFP+...

community.roonlabs.com

And coming to your plan to use FMC before the streamer, it would be better to experiment going fiber into the LHY switch vis - a vis going fiber into the Lumin. From my reading on the net, most folks are not liking going FMC direct into the streamer as it seems to make the sound very dry though with an improvement in clarity, and are preferring having a switch to clean up the FMC noise ( even with a LPSU ) as it seems to make the sound more organic and natural. So please try and see which ever configuration you prefer.

 

[Miany]

So to improve upon that will require some excellent switch / power supply / optical isolation / ethernet cabling. So if you want to try, you probably need to try this entire chain as a combination and see if it betters the Auralic.

I guess i will skip this for the moment. That will be too many rabbit-holes to handle at once . And if i remember correctly, Auralic also recommends using WIFI for maximum fidelity.

 

[drkrack]

H/T: Krack.
Sidenote: An unintended consequence has been much greater fidelity in other streaming services, like Netflix, Hotstar etc.
Sidenote 1: Last I checked, Sugumar has an unsold LHY SW6, if anyone's interested.

Glad that you took the plunge!
I had almost made up my mind on buying an audiophile switch, Ended up with Silent Angel switch LPSU and Streamer Combo which was a Big Upgrade from my Consumer grade Switch With LPSU. Luckily @IndianEars or @mustafakk posted Ethergen LPSU in classifieds last year when I was looking for upgrade. That Ethergen with an afterdark external clock brought about a mind blowing change to the SQ. We were looking at improvisation in all aspects power cables, ICs, speaker Cables, USB cables, Sockets, Plugs, Power Regeneration Apart from Speakers /Room Synergy but did not pay much attention to Etherenet Signal Cleaning Solutions. Retrospectively thinking it was a big lacunae or ignorance in our thinking, which is changed now. You could see my ignorance about denying Audiophile Switch improving SQ ; in my 2yr old replies on this same forum. Gladly that has changed now!
The 5.2.4 HT setup improved much more than stereo setup in all aspects. The SQ of Netflix was finally comparable to Blurays.

Employing Power and Etherenet ( if you use Streamer either for Audio or Video) Cleaning Solutions is a great way to improvise source fidelity. I've found them to be universally beneficial irrespective of amp and speaker setups. Understandably its an expensive upgrade for a seemingly minute job it has to do, but once you are used to it, there's no going back! Now @JaideepGiridhar can't listen to streaming without an audiophile switch with LPSU and clock.

 

[captainsubtext]

Glad that you took the plunge!
I had almost made up my mind on buying an audiophile switch, Ended up with Silent Angel switch LPSU and Streamer Combo which was a Big Upgrade from my Consumer grade Switch With LPSU. Luckily @IndianEars or @mustafakk posted Ethergen LPSU in classifieds last year when I was looking for upgrade. That Ethergen with an afterdark external clock brought about a mind blowing change to the SQ. We were looking at improvisation in all aspects power cables, ICs, speaker Cables, USB cables, Sockets, Plugs, Power Regeneration Apart from Speakers /Room Synergy but did not pay much attention to Etherenet Signal Cleaning Solutions. Retrospectively thinking it was a big lacunae or ignorance in our thinking, which is changed now. You could see my ignorance about denying Audiophile Switch improving SQ ; in my 2yr old replies on this same forum. Gladly that has changed now!
The 5.2.4 HT setup improved much more than stereo setup in all aspects. The SQ of Netflix was finally comparable to Blurays.

Employing Power and Etherenet ( if you use Streamer either for Audio or Video) Cleaning Solutions is a great way to improvise source fidelity. I've found them to be universally beneficial irrespective of amp and speaker setups. Understandably its an expensive upgrade for a seemingly minute job it has to do, but once you are used to it, there's no going back! Now @JaideepGiridhar can't listen to streaming without an audiophile switch with LPSU and clock.

a contrarian view (perhaps because of the dac I use).

I’ve seen no change in quality on the holo may dac regardless of source - have run a pi, mac mini, ddc (gustard/audio gd/auralic Aries) and sfp+ transceivers.

A lot has to do with how good the PLL and jitter reduction/cancellation is on your dac/streamer at the end of the day.

 

[mbhangui]

A lot has to do with how good the PLL and jitter reduction/cancellation is on your dac/streamer at the end of the day.

that's been my experience too. I also have the pleasure of having pi2aes, one of the worst device when it comes to PLL. Just turn on a tubelight and the whole device goes crazy trying to stabilize. To make it work, I really had to spend lot of effort to reduce noise and electrical isolation.

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

a contrarian view (perhaps because of the dac I use).

I’ve seen no change in quality on the holo may dac regardless of source - have run a pi, mac mini, ddc (gustard/audio gd/auralic Aries) and sfp+ transceivers.

A lot has to do with how good the PLL and jitter reduction/cancellation is on your dac/streamer at the end of the day.

All views are welcome

I've read too that the holo may dac is more immune to source noise and jitter than the others. Another is the newer Cengrand DS dac, which actually goes to great lengths to discard the source clock completely and generate its own clocked upsampled streams. So mainly depends on the design goals of the designer it seems.

Thankfully my old dac is not as robust as these modern dacs, otherwise I would have been bummed to find that my streamer was a waste of money

 

[reignofchaos]

a contrarian view (perhaps because of the dac I use).

I’ve seen no change in quality on the holo may dac regardless of source - have run a pi, mac mini, ddc (gustard/audio gd/auralic Aries) and sfp+ transceivers.

A lot has to do with how good the PLL and jitter reduction/cancellation is on your dac/streamer at the end of the day.

Wow a Holo May in Bangalore. This is one DAC I'd love to listen to sometime.

The jitter reduction in that DAC is significantly better than others I believe.