Another decidedly niche audio offering from me. Sorry. In another elsewhere, yes other elsewheres are out there, I know it smacks of disloyalty but now and again wanderlust must be assuaged. Anyway in this other place a fellow posted a piece about his experiences with ‘audiophile’ quality ethernet filters and such like. Snake oil ahoy I thought but I persisted and became intrigued as I am a little bit obsessed with reducing electrically generated noise in my kit and this post was in that ballpark. I started digging into it and came across the ifi Lan Silencer. It’s fair to say I was somewhat sceptical about this little device but it’s not ruinously expensive in audio terms at £89 and is returnable for up to thirty days if one is dissatisfied with it. So I thought why not I have nothing to lose and sent for one. It arrived late yesterday evening and I duly installed it. I slotted my ethernet cable into the female port and the male end of the little doohickey into the ethernet port of my streamer. I booted my streamer up and selected an album I know well, Myopia by Agnes Obel and settled back fully expecting to snort with derision at the complete lack of appreciable change to the SQ of my audio kit. I dare say you’re ahead of me here. It made a not in appreciable difference and it was immediately noticeable. I though my kit was pretty resolving, open and avid with good soundstaging and excellent instrument separation until I installed this little device. I then took the device out of the chain and played Myopia again and the change was again noticeable so I put it back and it’s going to stay there for the foreseeable. I am at a loss as to what exactly this thing is doing. I think it’s basically filtering out the electrical crap generated by my router and the noise picked up by my ethernet cable as it travels across to my streamer. It’s probably the most effective sub £100 I’ve ever spent on audio. I’ve spent all day listening to Qobuz streams and it’s quite astonishing how much cleaner, detailed and layered everything now sounds.
I know all this may sound a bit mad but I know what my kit sounded like prior to installing this and I know clearly how that sound has improved after introducing it into my system chain.
Tweak.
by 43 Comments
Much of my gear contains toroidal mains transformers, and I live in the sticks where the mains supply to my house is somewhat less than a pure 240V 50Hz sine wave.
A couple of years ago I installed a few iFi SilentPower mains DC Blockers (“Blocks any DC offset”) and the noise and hum is noticeably reduced.
So the chaps at iFi seem to know what they’re doing.
I have all my kit except my amps plugged into power cleaning strips. I don’t like what they do to amplifiers so those go straight into the wall. I run nearly everything balanced and do my best to kept cables well managed and pieces of kit isolated one from the other. Consequently I thought my rig to be very quiet when it comes to electrical slop but evidently I was wrong about that. It’s got me wondering if installing one of these doohickies on the TV would have some benefit.
Something on your TV mains power is a good idea. The two things most likely to have noisy switch-mode power supplies spewing out muck* are TVs and computers.
(*) although below the conducted emissions limits specified in IEC 61000, m’lud
I already have it plugged into a power cleaner and it behaves itself very well. It’s not something that I’m anywhere near as invested in as I am my audio kit, it’s just the unexpected success of this little experiment has made me curious as to whether seeking to filter out some nasties from the router would be of noticeable benefit to the picture quality which is already very good. I have way too much time on my hands!
Toroidal mains transformers TMFTL
Beat me to it Junes!
LANs carry a shitload of different data packets, using a shitload of protocols, so it would seem to be likely that the CAT5 or whatever you have has some sort of effect upon nearby electronic equipment. If the Russians can listen in on your network traffic from a van parked outside your home, I’m sure it’s possible that your streamer might be affected by the same electronic soup.
But how can you be sure that your gizmo isn’t just applying some form of filter that fools your ears into thinking things sound better?
I run three metres of CAT7 a well shielded cable from The Chord Company. If it’s fooling me I’m delighted it is. I’m currently listening to The Simple Acoustic Trio and I’ve never heard them sound better.
Surely if it sounds better to you, then it sounds better? Or is that too existential, V V?
Indeed. I’m the only arbiter of that. Nobody knows my kit like I do. It sounds better that’s the long and the short of it.
That’s fine and dandy, obviously. I just have sweaty recollections of conversations with my bank manager about some of the outgoing items on my statement, and having been invited to discuss the difference between wants and needs.
I had no great need for it or any overwhelming desire for it. It was simply a no risk experiment undertaken in the spirit of open minded enquiry. I was and remain taken aback to some degree at this little experiment turning out in the manner in which it has. I will reiterate yet again my firm stance that people that have never been in my room listening to my kit really don’t have the slightest idea how my audio rig sounded either before or after I conducted this little bit of fun. Taking all the variables into account it’s effected a positive audible change. I don’t know exactly why, I can and have surmised about what that may be but ultimately I don’t care. I only know that I can hear a difference. Any amount of naysaying won’t change that. I’m pleased with this little doohickey if it’s existence causes some others to work themselves up into a bit of a lather over it once again I really do not give a f*ck.
Well, you’ve got me interested. I have an Ethernet cable running into the back of my streaming preamp, although I mainly listen to vinyl or CD.
It’s worth a punt. Money back guarantee and thirty days to make ones mind up. Nothing to lose really. I read that some people hadn’t found it worthwhile but the majority reported positive results. I guess that’s down to the variables in individual set ups, power supplies etc. It’s worked for me. I thought my kit was free from ‘noise’ until I swapped out my single-ended interconnects for balanced some time ago and that made a noticeable difference. This has been akin to that. One more piece of the jigsaw added.
Never apologise for posting “niche audio offerings”, Mr P!
Well, really.!
This knocks my cd lens cleaner gubbins into a cocked hat. It almost makes me pleased to be cloth eared.
And Fitter is correct @pencilsqueezer. Never apologise for “niche audio” offerings. Though I’m still not sure some of the stuff isn’t made up…
If it’s made up Freddy it isn’t being made up by me although there is the possibility that it’s being made up elsewhere and cunningly and insidiously implanted in my noggin by nefarious means by persons unknown who in turn may or may not be being made up by other beings unknown for some unfathomable arcane and esoteric purposes. We will probably never know in this world or the next.
You are undoubtedly correct about the knowing, the not knowing and the persons unknowns. To be clear, I really enjoy your niche audio threads, all the advice offered by various people. It’s all helped me with my Pure v Ruark wars.
All very deafist, I call it. Blatant deafism. I’m going to boycott this thread in protest. Ah, crap, too late! Ok, I’m going to boycott something else instead. One of the Wordle threads, perhaps. That’ll teach yous.
That’s another thing. I’m very impressed/jealous that you can clearly hear a difference and improvements . Your ears are clearly a cut above!
Oh please I beg you don’t boycott a Wordle thread. Anything but that.
Don’t want to upset you again so I won’t comment. If you are happy with it then that’s great.
Diolch.
I listened to a magnificently nerdy pod on clean power (in a home recording context but the same applies). Amongst other things they recommended your own route back to earth (big metal spike in the garden I think) and dismantling plug boards and cleaning all the internal metal contacts. Love it.
I’ve known guys and it’s nearly always guys who had a seperate electricity spur installed just to run their kit. I’ve never been one for polishing plugs but yet again I’ve known blokes who do. I do have limits mostly due to cash restraints. If I was a wealthy individual I would wholeheartedly throw myself with wild abandon into complete audiophile insanity.
@pencilsqueezer
You already have mate!😀
I am mearly slightly touched. I have the sickness but it’s not the particularly virulent English Bent variety.
This thread is making me moist.
It does doesn’t it.
I hd to do some work on my connections today.
Sandpaper and WD40 got the brake lights on my trailer going again.
In a more serious note I have 2 questions
Are you able to describe how it sounds better- presence? Clarity?
And a question for you both @pencilsqueezer and @fentonsteve
Have you guys had your ears tested. If so what were the results? . I ask this having worn hearing aids , especially fir music, over the last year and wondering would I notice his?
And another hand up for the continuation of these hi fi geek posts.
I haven’t had my ears tested, no, but the whole point is “does it sound better to me?” There’s no objective absolutely 100% perfect sound.
I do semi-regularly use test tones to set up PA rigs, last time I could hear well above 15kHz, which is not bad going for 55 year-old lugholes which have been exposed to My Bloody Valentine. I put it down to my dull daytime office job, which gives them a rest.
An answer to your first question Junior. It’s always fraught describing sound but putting it simply it was to coin a much used phrase as if a veil has been lifted. The noise floor seems to have dropped. Fine detail is easier to discern, bass is less wooly and a measure of harshness has gone from the upper mids and treble. Soundstage width and height remains the same but depth has increased creating a more discernable three dimensional space and instrument separation has increased. My kit was good before but this little tweak has definitely effected a difference. I tried removing it again yesterday and streamed a couple of albums then I installed it again and just as it was the first time the improvement was immediate. I think it’s filtering out electrically generated noise from my router and possibly touches of interference picked up by my ethernet cable on it’s journey to my streamer. Obviously it’s not doing anything to the actual data packets or making any difference to jitter or the clocking. It’s just filtering out electronic goop.
As for your second question. No I’ve not had my hearing checked mainly because accessing health care at the moment is a hassle and I’ve got enough going on with my ongoing hip replacement shenanigans and cataract problems. I don’t drive and my nearest hospital is twenty miles away so organising travel there and back is a pain in the proverbial. I know my hearing is compromised. I have a touch of tinnitus in my left ear from too many loud gigs in my younger days but I can hear well enough overall if not with the acuity of youth. I can certainly hear the differences between pieces of kit well enough to make an informed judgement about them. Like many others here I’ve been involved in hifi system building for many decades. I trust my ears and my judgement. I’m not interested in the opinions of people who haven’t had first hand experience of my kit in my space. That would be akin to accepting as accurate a review of a film, a book or a piece of music from someone who had never seen, read or heard it.
👍
All of this reminds me of that thing in Q mazagine back in the day with people putting their CDs in the freezer. Remember *that*?
What I have learned during 40 years in the audio engineering trade is “don’t knock it until you’ve tried it”. There’s usually a fairly robust explanation but it can involve quite complex physics.
The effect of Electro-Magnetic Interference is discernable and repeatable, but you need about half a million quid and a lot of RF test equipment to set up an EMI measuring chamber.
Well I created a stand to raise the height of one of my speakers out of some bits of 2 x 0.5” planks of wood painted with Humbrol black enamel paint and fitted with self adhesive felt feet. What it lacks in precision hi-fi engineering it gains in sheer DIY chutzpah!
Speaker positioning, listener positioning, room acoustics, and the interface between them: there is literally a paper in that. Probbaly more than one.
There is indeed. I’ve even seen a video presented by a very serious looking balding cove wearing a knitted tie standing in front of a whiteboard covered in mysterious squiggles and numbers.
You’ve seen my video??
I do. They tasted worse.
Should have tried them with Mean Mr. Mustard.
I never did that or draw around the outer rim of them to block light particles from escaping. I didn’t and still don’t subscribe to silver cables sounding ‘brighter’ or placing magic rocks on top of components to improve the sound. I don’t think three legs are better than four legs on pieces of kit or that sticking shiny discs randomly on walls is the equivalent of proper acoustic room treatments. There is a lot of nonsense that floating around at the outer edges of audio. Removing electrically generated noise as much as possible from audio chains isn’t amongst it. Doing so reaps benefits.