Could the Gustard accept both 50 and 75 ohm from the same port ?
Itās possible to do manually with the implementation of a digital switch with a set of source followers that can be switched in depending on the desired impedance, but doing that, and doing it automatically, is probably not something Gustard (or frankly any audio manufacturer) would spend their design budget doing.
Is it possible that given the short distance of travel the signal loss between the impedance mismatch is negligible to the extent the manufacturer recommend using either output?
That is a distinct possibility. Itās the āit may not really matterā approach, I suppose. But IMO if youāre going to go through the trouble of doing it, spend less and use the correct adapters rather than more on a cable that is claimed to have some capability that is not inherently possible. Not to say you shouldnāt use good RF cables; you should, but buy them from companies who do this kind of thing for a living, like Times Wire and Cable or Belden. Iām all for audiophile cable searching when it comes to things analog and even digital, but until an audio company can prove they know even the remotest thing about RF transmission (even at a lowly 10MHz!), Iāll go to a specialty house for something like that.
2 Likes
Good points. Can you provide a link to a 50mhz cable you think is a good value ?
Theyāre available from a bunch of places. Look for patch cords using either RG8X, LMR-240, or LMR-400 cable. They will all work, but have different loss characteristics (which really shouldnāt matter for 10MHz) and more importantly have different flexibility. So to some degree it depends on how tricky your routing will be. Buy from a source that can provide test information for each cable they build - dB loss, VSWR, the usual. Tested cables can be found from Fairview, L-com, Custom Cable Connection, Mouser, Graybar, Digikeyā¦ even Amazon. Buy a couple of different varieties. You may be surprised at one type being better than another. I tried LMR-400 thinking itās the lowest loss, lowest VSWR cable so it must be the best. Turns out in my system I preferred a cable using RG8X. Iām using a nano. In a friendās system using a Ref10 SE120, he told me the LMR-400 worked best for him.
2 Likes
Coming back to the topicā¦ I am curious why would anybody need external clock input on a ethernet switch? The clock on the switch has nothing to do with a digital audio clockā¦ They are not related in any senseā¦
1 Like
Just try it and you will know. I first had the RS130 connected to my LHY SW10. That was a clear improvement. Now I upgraded to the LHY OCK-2s. Thatās even more of an improvement.
Next, is to also put a clock cable to the SW10 and see if that will even further improveā¦
I am sorry, I misunderstood the topic. I was thinking that somebody wants to hook a switch to an master clock device. That would be weird. But I see that you are talking about an ethernet switch / master clock combo! Why, on the Earth, would somebody need something like that? Master clock is last century technology, if you have good DAC it can ruin the sound. With present availability of affordable femto clock technology it is always best option to have a good clock as near to the DAC chip as possibleā¦ But anyway if you want to use master clock anyway then is more useful to have it in a separate boxā¦ I do not understand people constantly moanig about how ethernet is dirty and noisy and then in all that electronic dust and noise you pack a master clock in the same box! Why?!?
2 Likes
Because thereās an apparent advantage?
As I said, I tried and found their to be an upgrade in the SW10 clock performance over the RS130.
You may continue doubting (or rejecting) based on your own reasoning, or just try and maybe (positively) be surprised by the perceived result. Itās all up to you.
No I can not be āsurprisedā with something like that, have too much expirience with digital gear to know that there is no difference. But, anyway, I do not care if somebody belives whatever he wants, spending itās own money. I am just curious about engeering part of the device. It is very odd to put a master clock in very noisy housing. External clock is usefull only when there are many digital devices to hook at. If an external clock is really altering your sound (sometimes it can happen, but not for better), then I think is time to think about buying better DAC.
1 Like
I use the clock for the RS130. The dac is a PS Audio MK2 and quite Ok from the clock perspective IMO.
In engineering, more often than not, contrary effects of desired functionality need to be overcome in a functional design. Thatās the engineering challenge. Buying or not is up to the customer. To you not, apparently and thatās fine by me.
2 Likes
You donāt have any experience with top tier audio, you only on Wiim level streamer. Please go away.
1 Like
I promise you anything , the day they can afford it, they will immediately upgrade to better dacs and streamers, the ones always complain about things they canāt have, and peddle lies to make themselves feel better.
I donāt mind, when I was broke I used to tell myself same lies while I owned Wiim streamer, lol. Itās a human nature.
After all Porsche and Ferrari still get you from A to B, is true in some sense. But no need to disparage someoneās product choices unless they are usually jealous or filled with envy.
1 Like
Well there are no contrary effects, just unlogical connections. In digital chain you can have only one master clock. In your case it is a external clock. But here you have two problems. First is - how to transport the clock from RS130 to PS Audio (which is very fine DAC, so we have a problem elsewhere). Yu probably go with AES or I2S, but there you have an intristic jitter in the cable which is greater than intristic jitter in the DAC.
But, no worry, your DAC has a protection measure against that - a jitter suppressor whis renders any incoming clock irrelevant. So, simply said, you can have the most accurate clock on the world hookes to RS130, your PS audio DAC doe not care for that at all because it will sync everything ot its own clock. Which is, needles to say, anyway of much better quality than your external clock. So, why you provided your system with an inferior clock is the question on which only you know the answer. But, as I said - anyway there is no influence of your master clock on your DAC. Lucky you. So, if you want to have benefits of an external clock - then buy yourself a DAC with a capability to connect external 10 Mhz clock. Only in that configuration your external clock has any sense.
2 Likes
You definitely do need a real DAC.
Articles about switches:
Alpha Audio never explain their methods and findings and always have unsupported claims which they want to look serious and āscientificā. This is pure snake oil marketing. When somebody wants from you to pay them in order to get explanation and methods used - it must be a scam.
2 Likes
The most powerful audio network switch ever: Melco Audio S1 Switch :
https://tw-my--hiend-com.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=zh-TW&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=zh-TW&_x_tr_pto=wapp
There is no such a thing as āaudiophile network switchā except in marketing. There is no theoretical chance for a switch to influence the sound. Every ordinary network switch has galvanicaly isolated and balanced connection between two points. And if you want to be bulletproof sure that no EM noise is transfered between the switch and streamer - you can isolate them optically for less than 100$. There is also a lot of discussion between IT illiterate people about network switch clocks - they too canāt have even a theoretical influence on the digital audio clocks or sound going out from a streamer.
I can see that this Melco has a linear power supply. This is the worst thing you can do to your network switch.
2 Likes