Concluding
Contents
What have we learned now? A few things:
- A clean power supply on a switch lowers noise from the Ethernet port
- A linear power supply usually has lower noise
- Not every linear power supply is fast enough!
- A power filter can help greatly in lowering noise
- A switch with low noise out of the port, makes for less jitter
- The difference in jitter is simply audible in practice
This research managed to establish a direct link between the noise produced from a power supply, noise coming out of the Ethernet port of the switch and then the jitter value in the streamer / dac. Our listening test also confirmed this.
Sir,
Thank you!
Sean
Sirs,
Trying to follow your D-Link advice but cannot distinguish DGS-108 Version 3 from 4.
D-link does not assist and email to D-Link not returned.
Mine also says on Box: 8 port Gigabit desktop switch. One light on each port.
On bottom says: H/W Ver.:E1.
Very much enjoy your testing!
Best!
Sean
Hi Sean. Version E1 is version 4. Version 3 is indicated as C6.
I’ve used an iFi SupaNova (included filter) power cable in the network box + an IEC C14 to Schucko female before the distributor for switches. This way all the equipment (router, switches, media converters) benefit from the power filtering.
For grounding the switches (better said, EMI/RFI draining) one can also use the ToughCable Connector Ground from Ubiquiti which can be plugged in one free Ethernet port. I prefer padding the interior of metal casing of the switch with copper adhesive foil and insert a drain copper wire or screw and then plug it (with a regular banana connector) to the special jack in the iFi / SilentPower AC iPurifier (that can be plugged in a free Schucko outlet).
a question: what kind of filters did you use?
It is a filter between the power supply and the switch.
the question was more related to brand and model
Can you elaborate bit more on this?
“What we clearly see with all switches is that it is crucial to ground things properly: that significantly reduces the noise floor. “
What else do you need to know? Grounding the switch – for example the casing – lowers noise.
There’s no ground connectors on normal switches so I o wondering how you go about this. Entreq for example have ground RJ45 connectors connected to ground boxes. But as I understand you you mean adding a cable to the chassis somewhere and connect to mains ground or?
The D-Link switch has a grounding screw on the case, for instance. Connect a wire from the case, with the D-Link from the screw, to the earth connection of an earthed plug and put that plug into an earthed socket. We tested it like that a few times, and it is clearly audible.
Only do so when you know what you are doing.