LAN iSilencer Audiophile Ethernet Dongle Claims to 'Quiet Your Network'

erek

erek

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Audiophile Ethernet

“What we can say for sure, is that iFi-Audio’s claims seem to be significantly less wild than other recent audiophile computing gear we have reported upon. For example, the $1,250 AudioQuest Diamond RJ/E Ethernet cable mixed “Solid Perfect-Surface Silver Conductors” and carbon-loaded synthetics to shield and protect your wiring from RFI. Even more outlandish are the claims about the $500 SATA SSD cable with Superstar Crystals, which would apparently work its magic even if you didn’t plug it into an SSD. In recent months we have also reported on an audiophile SSD, and the similarly targeted Ethernet Switch UEF.”

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Source: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/ifi-audio-lan-isilencer-audiophile-ethernet-dongle
 
t1337duder said:
A lot of audiophile stuff is a scam. This was an interesting one, though.
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There is a high correlation with the word "audiophile" and extremely expensive items which make literally no measurable difference.
It does have 30% fewer side-fumbling novotrunions, and 12 more quads per channel though.

My favorite remains the directional ethernet cable to improve audio quality.
 
It’s all digital so I never understood

Maybe if it was some analog transmission

Why do some usb cables have built in common mode chokes?

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I'm not going to say that noise isn't a potential issue.

I used to have all sorts of problems with hearing my mouse movement and other electrical noise through my speakers. This happened both on on board audio and on my Creative X-Fi Titanium HD.

It hasn't happened since I moved to an external DAC.

I still take care to avoid ground loops which can be annoying and noisy. Occasionally if an analog signal needs to traverse two different outlets (source on one electrical outlet, amp on another, for instance) you can get an annoying ground loop hum, which can be solved with a ground loop isolator. But that is about the extent of it.

All of this other stuff is snake oil.
 
erek said:
It’s all digital so I never understood

Maybe if it was some analog transmission

Why do some usb cables have built in common mode chokes?
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It may be overused on older USB cables, not sure I ever had a problem with usb cables. But basically it's to suppress common mode noise from one system into another. That noise could then potentially affect other parts of the receiving system (maybe, for example, the noise could leak into an analog circuit like audio DAC) . The digital differential transmission itself should come through fine either way.

edit: good post on how ethernet uses 2 transformers, one is the isolation transformer to block DC (galvanic isolation), 2nd is the common mode choke to block high frequency common noise.
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/286381/how-does-ethernet-magnetics-work

edit2: "The digital differential transmission itself should come through fine either way." This sentence that I posted may not be correct. I mean the receiving chip could potentially receive the data incorrectly if there is large common mode noise coming through. So even though the differential data looks fine (if you ignore common mode noise), the receiving chip might malfunction under such common mode noise for example.
 
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A lot of audiophile stuff (always has been but even more so in the digital era) is almost impossible to make better, but

1) Listening to music is a completely subjective pleasure
2) Nothing is hurt outside your wallet and a small amount of human work going in an useless direction if you buy those scams
3) Lot of people out there, want to spend and thicker on HiFi and not interested in objective better sound, but to their hear test fell it is a better sound and in that regard I am sure that many of them do work, in the same ways placebo can be powerful to appease subjective uncomfort like pain and more and more used seriously.
And it is not like a really good way to look at all the actual sound wave and show no effect would work on them, the same way you cannot show 0 molecular difference between bio-milk and regular milk to some people and change their mind.

Has scam goes, audiophile HiFi jumbo one seem to be on the better side of scams and not something to worry too much about.

Have fun with that hobby, I would say.
 
LukeTbk said:
A lot of audiophile stuff (always has been but even more so in the digital era) is almost impossible to make better, but
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The audiophiles i know will openly admit music sounds better with this stuff purely because they know how much they spent on it. It's not even really hidden.
 
Verge said:
The audiophiles i know will openly admit music sounds better with this stuff purely because they know how much they spent on it. It's not even really hidden.
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Placebo study do seem to show that how much it cost does matter a lot, that why good scam should cost a lot, look impressive and have an impressive storyline-presentation about why it sound better.

And people that buy them I am sure, many will prefer what they hear, so it kind of work for them in a way. And for some stuff, like Tarantino that like the idea of light going through a silver picture when he watched a film or imagining the needle going through the shape of the sound on a vinyl it is at least honest that it is not necessarily about a superior objective wave affair and not something one can argue about.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I'm not going to say that noise isn't a potential issue.

I used to have all sorts of problems with hearing my mouse movement and other electrical noise through my speakers. This happened both on on board audio and on my Creative X-Fi Titanium HD.

It hasn't happened since I moved to an external DAC.

I still take care to avoid ground loops which can be annoying and noisy. Occasionally if an analog signal needs to traverse two different outlets (source on one electrical outlet, amp on another, for instance) you can get an annoying ground loop hum, which can be solved with a ground loop isolator. But that is about the extent of it.

All of this other stuff is snake oil.
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That's why, if HDMI isn't an option, I prefer a sound card with Dolby Digital encoding and an optical connection to a receiver/decoder. No electrical connection to the processor/amp. Unfortunately, DD encoding is getting hard to find.
 
jfreund said:
Dolby Digital encoding and an optical connection to a receiver/decoder. No electrical connection to the processor/amp. Unfortunately, DD encoding is getting hard to find.
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yup, i use optical too. i just recently tried the AAFaudiopackDCH realtek/SB drivers, i now have DD(via DDL) in games for the first time in ages(w10 1809?, cant remember when it broke) and media files still work correctly. this pos would be completely useless in my setup.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I'm not going to say that noise isn't a potential issue.

I used to have all sorts of problems with hearing my mouse movement and other electrical noise through my speakers. This happened both on on board audio and on my Creative X-Fi Titanium HD.

It hasn't happened since I moved to an external DAC.

I still take care to avoid ground loops which can be annoying and noisy. Occasionally if an analog signal needs to traverse two different outlets (source on one electrical outlet, amp on another, for instance) you can get an annoying ground loop hum, which can be solved with a ground loop isolator. But that is about the extent of it.

All of this other stuff is snake oil.
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You’ve got ground lift plugs and whatnot or what, bud?

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erek said:
You’ve got ground lift plugs and whatnot or what, bud?
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https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-HD...D2G4/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=hum+destroyer&sr=8-4

I use these on installs where customer or I use 3.5mm out from device. Obviously older installs without digital receiving capabilities. I stay far away from wireless when possible except mics. If device has 3 prong plug, especially a laptop, hum/interference will follow. The plugs you posted should cease to exist just like suicide plugs (triple tap blocks).
 
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I just opted for a couple of Mikrotik CRS309-1g-8S-IN switches. Hard to get EMI over fiber-optic......
 
OutOfPhase said:
My favorite remains the directional ethernet cable to improve audio quality.
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What are you talking about? Those conductors were harvested from specially farmed electric eels that were forced to swim in one direction by a precisely generated vortex their entire lives!
 
erek said:
You’ve got ground lift plugs and whatnot or what, bud?

View attachment 558045
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I'm not sure if those would help, but I usually use ground loop isolators on the RCA connections:

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I'm not sure what you are supposed to connect the little brown ground wires too. I've just left mine disconnected, and every time I've had a noisy ground loop they have silenced them.

This has only been a problem for me when I have systems that pull too much power for one outlet. Like my desktop for instance. I can't have my PC and my amp/sub on the same outlet as that would just pop the breaker at full load. IN my case it made sense to keep the external DAC and headphone amp on the same outlet as the PC, and then I run RCA from the headphone amp to the speaker amp and sub, but that resulted in a 60hz hum which went away with a GLI. on the rca connection.

They are usually cheap. Used to be ~$5. Probably closer to $10 in our inflation times.
 
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erek said:
It’s all digital so I never understood

Maybe if it was some analog transmission

Why do some usb cables have built in common mode chokes?

View attachment 557910
Click to expand...
I did have an issue where I ran a long USB cable (10 feet) from a computer to a CNC machine. The cable ran near the shop vac for dust collection. I had a problem with the computer loosing connection to the CNC control board. I bought a fancy AC conditioner to plug the computer and CNC into, no help. Finally bough my one of those ferrite kits off Amazon and stuck 4 of those bad boys on the USB cable and it never disconnected again. I never really believed in those ferrite cores before. But then again a vacuum is not ideal.
 
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