“Slam” is your wife slamming the door after signing for the delivery of more audio gear…….LOL
Best audiophile switch
- Thread starter Frankie67
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...nothing more stressful than knowing a drop is coming and hearing Sweetie say: "I'm going to work from home today."
“Slam” gets used so often in audiophile reviews that it can sound funny or vague if you don’t know the context.
Here, ‘slam’ refers to transient impact and dynamic weight – the sense of immediacy and physical drive in the music, particularly in the bass and lower midrange. Christiaan’s point is that while the N1 introduces a gentler, more fluid balance, it preserves that attack and energy rather than softening or slowing it.
Here is the current network switch ranking from Hifi-Advice (not sure if pricing is up to date for 8/2025):
1. Silent Angel Bonn NX (€3,499 / ~$3,850) + Genesis GX Clock (€3,299 / ~$3,630) (HFA Favorite)
2. Network Acoustics Tempus (~€3,900 / ~$4,290)
3. XACT N1 (€6,000 / ~$6,600)
4. Ansuz D3 PowerSwitch (€5,795 / ~$6,375)
5. Silent Angel Bonn NX (€3,499 / ~$3,850)
6. Ansuz X-TC3 PowerSwitch (€2,295 / ~$2,525)
7. Silent Angel Bonn N8 Pro (€1,199 / ~$1,320)
Interesting to see how the budget is split in some of these solutions – with the Silent Angel combo, almost half the cost is in the Genesis GX clock. That shows how much emphasis is put on timing/jitter control versus the switch itself.(“Even with the addition of the GX, I detect no changes in the size of the soundstaging or the overall ambiance. However, now, I do hear higher inherent precision! And along with it, an increase in silence between the notes but, importantly, while retaining the decay, fluidity and flow”.)
To be fair, it’s not quite half the price when you look at the Tempus setup as tested: Tempus (€5,068 / ~$5,575) + Muon Pro Streaming Cable (€1,528 / ~$1,680) + Muon Pro Filter (or System?) (€1,764 / ~$1,940), for a total of approximately €8,360 / ~$9,200 (today’s price, VAT included).
I also liked Christiaan’s description of the full Network Acoustics kit:
‘…the stage extends further beyond the speakers and covers the entire room. Recordings with lots of ambient information benefit hugely, not only in the depth plane but also vertically, resulting in a soundstage that sometimes creates the illusion of having Dolby Atmos height channels installed. I don’t often hear products create more height, and I certainly would not expect this to happen due to using a different network switch, but there you go. This is how I heard it!’
At the same time, he often leans toward preferring network components that don’t alter the soundstage or add a signature.
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He didn’t compare Tempus with Muon Pro vs the N1. And he also stated that comparison was based on the first gen of the Tempus, so not with the MK2 of the power supply which makes a considerable improvement.
The Tempus definitely doesn’t alter the soundstage, rather provides a very natural and live like experience. It may be interesting to have a look at https://twitteringmachines.com/review-silent-angel-bonn-nx-network-switch-genesis-gx-word-clock/ which is a sound signature obviously HFA prefers (somewhat restricted/condensed).
The Tempus definitely doesn’t alter the soundstage, rather provides a very natural and live like experience. It may be interesting to have a look at https://twitteringmachines.com/review-silent-angel-bonn-nx-network-switch-genesis-gx-word-clock/ which is a sound signature obviously HFA prefers (somewhat restricted/condensed).
Republicoftexas69
Well-Known Member
EVERY switch has a clock of some sort. The chips would not function without one!
The Ansuz PowerSwitch models (including X‑TC3 and D3) have an internal clock, but I think not a high‑precision OCXO/master clock like the Genesis GX (external clock) or Network Acoustics Tempus.
While all Ethernet switches require a clock to function because they manage packet timing, filters are different: a passive inline filter like NA Muon Pro (just RJ45 in and out) can work without a clock because it doesn’t handle timing, it only suppresses noise. But there’s at least one filter that I know of with only RJ45 in and out that actually reclocks and regenerates the signal, so it does contain a clock. The Reiki Audio SuperSwitch, for example, has an internal 25 MHz clock, though it’s not a high-precision master clock like an OCXO design.
It’s important to distinguish not only whether a switch has a clock, but also the quality of that clock—without falling into inaudible, unnecessary FOMO or overreach ;-) —and, in some designs, whether it supports connecting an external, higher-grade clock if that’s a priority for you. A higher-quality clock can tighten a switch’s presentation, making the sound more upbeat, cleaner, precise, and transparent.
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where is that facepalm emoji when you need it? Having read about the various methods they use that are meant to reduce EMI/RFI, I was thinking it was one of those one port in and one port out designs. Kind of like a Muon Pro but with different ways of reducing noise. But it is indeed a switch. In fact, it is a PowerSwitch.EVERY switch has a clock of some sort. The chips would not function without one!
The design decision about internal vs. external LPS is interesting too.
I did read that review. Michael Lavorgna definitely takes a more skeptical stance on high-end switches and mostly compares the Bonn NX + Genesis GX against a $30 generic switch. He even writes:
That’s a very different perspective from Christiaan at HFA, who compares across several high-end switches and streamers. Michael also admits he had a hard time hearing a clear improvement. On this forum we’re all past the “do switches matter” debate and are comparing the benefits between different audiophile-grade options, so context matters here
what is your view on the strengths/weaknesses of the following (if that is the right question)?EVERY switch has a clock of some sort. The chips would not function without one!
- Store-and-forward switching involves receiving and buffering the entire data frame before forwarding it, allowing for error checking and potentially a more robust reclocking process.
- Cut-through switching begins forwarding the frame as soon as the destination address is read, resulting in lower latency but less opportunity for extensive reclocking or error checking.
Neither architecture affects sound quality. Well, you'd have to be listening to music using an extraordinarily overloaded network and experiencing dropouts if it were to do so, and this is not what most people mean by sound quality when they talk about streamed music, switches and filters.
Ethernet is asynchronous by design, that's an important reason for why it has worked reliably for decades.
A switch can only take away more or less RFI noise. It's not shaping a music signal like in the analog(ue) domain from the DAC output onwards, it's just moving data. All it can do is to forward more or less RFI noise with that data.Then the N1 might not be the best fit for you (aside from the budget factor, of course). From what I understand, its strength is more in delivering a natural and laid‑back sonic character without losing precision or impact, leaning toward a gentler balance rather than slam and energy.
Of course, that raises a subtle but important question: is that slam and energy truly in the music before it reaches the switch, or is it being added (or ‘EQ’d’) by the switch itself? Or is it being shaped somewhere along the chain – by the switch, the network, or any of the devices in between?
in a switch, there is no EQ as such. As you say, the "slam" is either in the original music or is not; a good switch will better reveal whether it is.
Is your use of an external LPS meant to reduce RFI entering your switch?
And what is the relative value of differences in the quality of clock used vs. the differences in using an external LPS? I know they are both necessary (quality clock and LPS) from my own experiments, but is one a larger key to the puzzle than the other?
Yes. Separation of power supply from sensitive circuitry always makes sense to me.
A power supply of some sort is obviously necessary; a high quality LPS is of course optional but can make a huge difference.
By comparison, a clock might make a tiny tiny difference if it's particularly quiet/noisy but accuracy/stability is a red herring. There is no jitter in ethernet - well, the word is used by network engineers but it means something completely different from the jitter of which we speak in post-streamer digital land. Ethernet is asynchonous by design and definition, so there is only a sequencing consideration, not a timing one; there is no mechanism by which timing information is carried in or with the data packets reaching the streamer.
So in my world, power supplies trounce clocks for their potential impact on sound quality.
You obviously hear what you hear with your own experiementation and are convinced a clock makes a difference to a switch's performance. I am not, but it's ok that we differ!
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