It's worth considering the potential mechanisms involved here. The TCP/IP packets themselves are unchanged. What is changing are the sources of extraneous electrical noise and the paths by which that noise may enter your system and interfere with the analogue sections of it (especially within the DAC).
Routers (and their power supplies) are great sources of noise that could interfere with the operation of your DAC (or the DAC inside the Touch) or your pre/power amps. The noise can enter via the signal/ground lines of any cables connected to your system. Both mains and line level cables can carry noise into your system, as can ethernet cables into the Touch and the coax cable between your Touch and an external DAC. Steps to managing this noise can include: 1) using Toslink to connect Touch to DAC (galvanic isolation) 2) use of mains filters on switched power supplies 3) replacing cheap and nasty switched supplies on routers with quiter ones 4) using wi-fi instead of wired ethernet 5) ensuring there is no electrical path between router and Touch (ethernet connections are SUPPOSED to have isolating transformers at each end...) 6) avoiding shielded ethernet cables that might cause an unwanted connection to the ground plane. 7) using different DAC's 8) using shielded mains cables 9) ensuring that you have a good clean solid mains connection to earth 10) ensuring all audio cables and connectors are in good condition The interposition of a switch between router an Touch may be breaking a galvanic link between router and Touch (some routers may have imperfect isolation on their LAN sockets). One test to identify possible sources of noise involves physically disconnecting the router mains plug from the wall during playback...playback will continue from the Touch buffer for quite a while. Can you hear a difference? -- Phil Leigh You want to see the signal path BEFORE it gets onto a CD/vinyl...it ain't what you'd call minimal... Touch(wired/XP) - Audiolense 3.3/2.0+INGUZ DRC - MF M1 DAC - Linn 5103 - full Aktiv 5.1 system (6x LK140's, ESPEK/TRIKAN/KATAN/SEIZMIK 10.5), Pekin Tuner, Townsend Supertweeters, Blue Jeans Belden Digital,Kimber 8TC Speaker & Chord Signature Plus Interconnect cables Stax4070+SRM7/II phones Kitchen Boom, Outdoors: SB Radio, Harmony One remote for everything. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Phil Leigh's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=85 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=90824 _______________________________________________ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
