Gustard Audio N18 Pro HiFi Network Switch World Premiere Review
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- Опубліковано 4 жов 2024
- Gustard Audio N18 Pro Network Switch
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½ Price: USD $530 (Feb, 2024)
htinyurl.com/N18Pro
amzn.to/49y3669
Pros: Good Noise Control, Slight Sound Improvements.
Cons: Price is a Little High.
(All Rating is based on price and sound quality, Product Sample Provided By Manufacturer)
Room Size: 26 ft x 16 ft.
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Front End,
Gustard Audio N18 Pro: amzn.to/49y3669
Musician Pegasus II R2R DAC: ebay.us/aMHKAr
EverSolo DMP-A8 Streamer PreDAC: ebay.us/4LG6yJ
WiiM Pro Music Streamer: amzn.to/44d2EqC
Sony HAP-Z1ES: ebay.us/zqQRFU
Denon DP-47F Turntable (fully modified) with DL-301MK II MC Cartridge: amzn.to/3FxjTbK
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KEF R3 Meta: amzn.to/46VGo69
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Denon PMA-2000 IVR: ebay.us/qSbQs7
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Oyaide Neo Class A USB Cable: amzn.to/49JhN6u
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Fanmuisc ZY-363 USB A to C Cable: amzn.to/47FrstM
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Viborg Pure Silver RCA Cable: ebay.us/v5eCov
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Excellent review, now we need a shootout between this Gustard and the LHY Audio SW-8!
I use a IFI isilence and works…..very very recomended to use this kind of stuff
The switch is there to help lowering the noise floor towards the DAC by adding an extra layer of galvanic isolation. For every active cable you plug into the switch you are contaminating it and ruin its potential. (I see you have many cheap(?) cables hooked up)
You would get a better result if you only plug in the minimum amount of ethernet cables , from a fairly low noise source, and used shielded audio grade ethernet cables instead, that help protect the low noise floor.
If you have a laptop hooked up to the switch(?) then that will also likely ruin the noise floor potential of the switch and your downstream digital domain gear.
Note that a switch makes your dac perform better for the same reason a streamer makes the dac sound better, they lower the noise floor towards your DAC. But one has to be cautious and protect the noise floor in the digital domain, and really think about what you hook up to the digital domain gear, if you want the bigger improvements.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi. Gustard recommends to use SFP module between router and switch. Have you ever tested it with SFP module ? Do you think it makes difference compared to RJ 45 ? Thanks
Pretty much sounds like what I was expecting. Tiny improvements, but then what else could someone expect from a network switch?
I'd say more than a few folk reading this would be expecting nil audible change due to packets, buffering, error correction yadda yadda.
Good switch is important for sound when streaming . SFP run improves it further
A C18 clock will add some improvements too
A lot of people don't understand why a good network switch can have an audible benefit. It's not about data integrity, but all about (ground) noise. It's really hard to block noise from digital ICs and switching power supplies from the digital inputs of your DAC or streamer. I have a streamer that can play standalone. The moment I pull out the ethernet cable the sound becomes cleaner. Like Tharbamar states: a minor improvement, but the music become a bit cleaner and realistic. I like classical music, so when I listen to a symphony, I just start the playlist, pull out the ethernet-cable and enjoy the music.....
How about just use wifi?
@d5397 That depends. Some streamers have an excellent wireless connection that works better than the Ethernet connection. I used a SOtM sMS-200ultra Neo for a while and found it played better with a Wi-Fi dongle, but even this streamer played better stand-alone. The Wi-Fi dongle also produced noise.
By the way, regardless of how good the transmission quality you improve with your in house equipments but the source if it is from internet then the bottom net still is your ISP.
Unless your streamer device can buffer the source from internet using normal transitions and then streaming out to the decoder or player.
Excellent review, mirrors my experience with high-end switches, noticeable improvement but the value proposition will be determined by individuals in their own systems so it is difficult to recommend these units.
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Thanks for the review!
Almost 600 dollars is too steep for me though. I think I will get a 60 dollar linear power supply for my router instead. I already have one for my streamer.
Hi :)
Did you had the chance to compare with an lhy switch?
Thanks ;)
I have not, thanks
Could it be a nice upgrade for my Gustard A26 streamer's or should I just instead buying a better external streamer ?
external streamer please.
Both! 😉
In your system, I think you would see more improvement by investing in a better streamer than either the Wiim or Eversolo.
Streaming is only for background music and to discover new music.
Mostly listen to DSD or Vinyl.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
Is the Sony Hap-Z1ES a true server? Can other streamers detect it as a server when connected to the internet? I’m trying to get one but that’s the only question I have. Thanks.
Yes any UPnP capable streamers can stream from it, that's how do in house DSD streaming, thanks
What is your opinion on the Topping L70 for the money and is it better quality than SMSL sh9 and Topiing L50? Thanks
First of all the way of transfer the streaming data not same as normal communication data.
Normal communication have error correction build in to correct it by resend the invalid transfered data.
But streaming data cannot do data error correction because any data received will directly play (regardless video or only audio) so any resend will pause the playback.
So the codec have to take care the corrupted data when doing decoding. If more invalid data received then more noises the playback.
Like USB streaming a better cable can get better sound.
So if network cable using shorter length cable and replace the UTP to STP might help also.
By the way, our normal network from CAT 1 TO CAT 7 all using UTP (unshielded twiced pair) Only CAT 8 is using STP (shielded twiced pair) so might able to reduce the interference give better streaming data quality.
That's a better argument than most people make. However what is more important is the type of transport being used to deliver the data. If it's UDP data, transmission errors or dropped packets will definitely cause an issue with the sound. But it will sound more like what you're used to when cell phones cut in and out than something that unnaturally colors the sound. So far as I am aware, almost all audio streaming services use TCP which has a CRC and retransmission mechanism built into the protocol that is completely transparent to the audio application. There is also generally a faily generous buffer of what has been transmitted vs. what is actually being played in any given moment. Similar to how when you watch a UA-cam video you can see that more than you have watched has been transmitted.
@@rix911 as mentioned when using udp it is fast transmission less overhead and required less processing power. But it is no crc( data correction) so it cannot confirm any data lost.
But normally data will dropped in udp is because data conjuction or traffics over switches cabability.
If using tcp it have crc to check and packets lost or data corruption so can be request resend.
But the player must able to do buffering to receive the data as much as fast as possible in order to play continuously.
👍👍
I tried and return it next day thanks to jeff bezos to accept my return lol
There is no connection between the integrity of the signal and the "quality" of the ethernet switch. The entire world of modern communications is built on the OSI model, and all layers are independent of each other. The only way that an ethernet switch could locally change the sound of your audio is if the streaming device is so poorly designed that very low voltage signals bleed into the signal path. That is not a sympton of a problem with the network, but rather a poorly designed decoding/source device.
TCP, checksums, and retransmits completely alleviate any of these concerns. You're way more likely to get noise out of AC mains than you are an Ethernet network. What happens when you run 48v POE on a financial network processing billions of dollars of transactions? Bit perfect transmissions, 24x7. You're talking about things you don't understand.
Did you download an image of an HDCD or high resolution audio file over a 'dirty network'? Does that mean it is forever tainted? Absolutely not. These types of arguments completely expose the farce that is Hi-Fi. If it is bit perfect, and confirmed via CRC check in the packet transmission then you have EXACTLY what was at the source. There is no room for ambiguity.
You’re not getting the point here, I never said anything about POE in my video or data transmissions here never said a word in video but if you want to talk about networking and technology I can do it all day long but that’s not the point here, all it (N18 Pro) improves is power supply compare to average switches.
End of discussion.
your comment clearly shows that you don’t even bother to watch video.
Edit: I clearly commented in the video,
“I was kind of skeptical because numbers are numbers everything come in packet and everything is corrected right so whatever they send it I will have it here correctly whatever the data or the audio data that they send it to my streaming music so there is no error there in even streaming 4K movies or whatever you know even Wi-Fi, via Wi-Fi everything's working fine”
@@Tharbamar perhaps that was an aggressive response but you’re not understanding what I’m trying to say. The point is even with POE at 48v the signal is still perfect. This isn’t an analog transmission, or even an uncorrected differential voltage signal. This is a digital representation of the original data, and it is guaranteed by the transmission method to be faithful transmission of the original data. This isn’t a .001% THD discussion, this is a 100% guaranteed transmission based on physics and math. That’s like saying the moon might accidentally move away from the earth 1.75” instead of 1.5” this year due to inconsistency in the laws of physics. Sounds crazy right? That’s because it doesn’t happen. If there are errors in transmission, the CRC check catches it. This isn’t up for debate. I’m sorry if I am being abrupt. I would very much love to have a conversation about technology if you would be interested in going deep into this topic in one of your videos. It would benefit everyone. You’re a great voice in this industry.
This man is 100% correct. The digital data encapsulated in a TCP/IP packet will not be affected by a linear power supply or fancy capacitors. This just not how Ethernet works. This product is a complete and total waste of money.
@@Tharbamar "A TCP segment consists of a segment header and a data section. The segment header contains 10 mandatory fields, and an optional extension field (Options, pink background in table). The data section follows the header and is the payload data carried for the application" - where is "audio" in it? There's none.
I didn’t know you were a fellow Swiftie 🩷
Yep I love later albums.