I use EtherRegen fed by high quality LiFePO4 battery power supply (that beats any active ps) and great Ethernet cables. However I mainly play music from the local Antipodes CX SSD storage for serious listening sessions (I use Qobuz just to search for new music and then I buy the files). So, I set my playlist up, I start the playback and I promptly get up from the sofa and go to disconnect the Ethernet cable from the CX (coming from the EtherRegen). Go back to the sofa and listen to the best audio quality your Antipodes can express. No ethernet switch, no ethernet cables, no extra EMI noise injected into the Antipodes.
Reconnecting the Ethernet will bring the Antipodes back online immediately.
It’s not your fault, the ethernet infrastructure at home is very polluted, starting from the main modem, the switches, the cables that catch noise…
It’s a type of noise that only we audiophiles with (very) good systems can hear as a slight but “significant” degradation of the audio quality.
Also consider that unplugging the 1 meter near EtherRegen from the CX (+EX) is clear even using 2x PinkFaun LAN isolators. I still use one PinkFaun on the EX ethernet input from the CX. The ethernet cable from CX to EX is the 75cm Audioquest Diamond RJ45 with 72V DBS screen.
Actually CX+EX sound excpetionally fine even when connected to the Ethernet but unplugging it gives an edge of improvement.
When someone asks me : are you really sure playing music from the internal SSD of your music server is better than playing it from a NAS in your home network? I promptly reply : YES, I’m sure
I assume when you disconnect you mean when playing a playlist from Qobuz (or Tidal)? So where do you think the music plays from once the Ethernet is disconnected (AMSv3.1)?
Is the Qobuz playlist transferred to the local SSD and you hear music from there or is the playlist transferred to M2 SATA or RAM (buffer) and played only from RAM?
Different types of memory with each possibly specific sound signature. Any idea (anyone?) how Antipodes handles playing playlists from memory when streaming from internet (or NAS)?
No Paul, when I disconnect the Ethernet cable from the Antipodes server I only listen to a playlist of files stored in the internal SSD. I think it’s not possible to listen to streaming services like Qobuz when Antipodes is not online.
However when Qobuz is playing I guess the system buffers (just some seconds) on RAM…
That is exactly the procedure I adopted with my K50 to compare ‘no ethernet’ to ‘various ethernet switches’. I compared a few switches including the ER and none of them were as good as no ethernet apart from the PhoenixNET which to my ears was as good as no ethernet.
My experience is different.
My k50 doesn’t sound any different while playing ssd music while Ethernet cable connected or not.
That said. It could be because the 2 sotm switches I have connected via fibre which feeds the k50 is doing a good job removing the Ethernet noise
I guess you are in a happy place and have no need to experiment further but the only way to verify your theory would be to take out the 2 sotm switches and see if you could then hear a difference.
I have done that. And I apologise beforehand for this is gonna further diffuse this discussion.
This sotm switches improves both my local and streamer music. But in a weird way.
And I don’t fully understand the whys of this.
If I boot up the k50 and Q up the ssd songs with the switches attached , then unplug the switches and play. I don’t hear any difference between Ethernet cable connected or not.
If on the other hand if the switches were not connected during k50 boot up (connected directly to router ) and I q up ssd or tidal music , I hear a difference.
The switches (or atleast 1 switch) is absolutely necessary for my k50 to play at a high quality level with emotional connection both local and tidal music. .
Without the switches connected , it plays really good. But it’s a case of a jaguar driver really really enjoying his car until he drives a Ferrari. He would be perfectly happy with his jag if he had not experienced the Ferrari.
@Darmstadtium cool. One interesting thing though is that you refer to ‘booting up’ the K50 with or without the switches in circuit. I just leave the K50 switch on and hot swop the switches in or out for comparison. I reboot my K50 as few times as I can (and as an aside I often leave the K50 playing random music from my internal ssd and merely turn off my power amps in between listening sessions).
Hi Gianluca, what software are you using exactly to play your music?
Me too I experience the best sound like this (squeeze/MPD)
I can also confirm that playing from a NAS to Antipodes S30 (Etherregen and AQ Vodka cable) buffers at least one complete song (wherever that may be in the Antipodes player) with very similar if not similar results. Roon is always one level below in sound quality.
I am comparing a dual setup with S30 in player mode only in combination with a Linux server that runs on Euphony OS that can buffer whole albums in RAM from NAS before serving them over upnp. Tidal will be buffered one or two songs with very comparable results.
I would use S30 only if it could buffer whole albums in RAM like this Linux server.
Of course K50/K30 owners have less control since the dual setup is incorporated in one box with limited software options. I am trying to understand how exactly Antipodes achieves this best sound quality making the best out of SSD, M2 and RAM.
Paul, I use ROON (server on CX and player on EX). Do you think Squeezeplayer would sound better? I find ROON very user-friendly and I feel bad to leave it, but I’d do it for the sake of audio quality.
Like @PaulW says, I always find Roon at least one level of sound quality below par. I had thought recently that it had caught up but it was not the case.
For me, Squeeze on the K50 server and Squeeze (Squeezelite) on the K50 player is still the best sound quality.
I find the best sound I can get comes form using HQPlayer as player, Roon is unsurpassed as Server software for me. I bought HQPlayer (good support from Jussi).
Squeezebox as Player is next best- free and already loaded into Antipodes software!
Roon as Player, while it is behind these two, is still a Jag. But not a Tesla Plaid.
It’s not really possible to get HQPlayer to pass music without processing it. The designer doesn’t want it used that way. It is possible to keep it from doing any scaling though. To my ears it still sounds better than Roon.
I think that Squeeze is easily the best sounding option.
Roon has by far the best interface for exploring a music library. I use Roon with HQPlayer integration when doing discovery of music on my NAS or from Qobuz. I use Squeeze for playing music off my K30’s SSD that contains upscaled versions of my favorite albums. It takes only a few clicks to switch between them using the Antipodes Player dashboard.
