Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming LAN isolator anyone?

Thanks for the suggestion Crion. I was debating this very point and was leaning in the same direction. Your comment clarified my thinking: best have a device that will also work in other scenarios.

Dave

Based on what we have spent on our systems,I really don't think the cost of an GISO is an issue here!

So if it's noise we're getting rid of, then those with lots of noise will benefit a lot and those with little noise a little?

This is interesting but it would be good to have more hands on experience (did you try shielded cables?)

(Dont M avoid Gbit because of the noise?)

When you have the network running over power-lines (PLC) then an isolator would be a bigger benefit I guess.

I have been reading this thread on isolation with great interest these past few days as I am about to move myself and my Sooloos system to a new home in the next month or so. This of course means having to run new Ethernet cables etc.

I just ran across an interesting post on Andrew Everard�s blog on a similar topic. Andrew Everard is the audio editor for Gramophone.

Note his comment about �galvanic isolation� toward the end on his article.

I hope this is not too far off topic.

High-Resolution Audio - Now With Fiber

TP-Link might not be the most professional products out there (I have a AC1750 router from them). But sure for galvanic isolation this sure fits the bill much like wireless but without the hiccups.

So a Giso GB infront of it and we have a very clean and isolated link. Unfortunately the devices are active so they will probably bring their own wall-wart SMPS to the party.

Thanks for the very useful post, Marshman. Interesting read and food for thought.

I just talked with Ralf at Acousense and asked him about optical links in place of LAN cables. He uses some in his commercial installation but said the you only gain an overall advantage with optical over very long cable runs (100m in his case). Crion, Ralf also echoed your comment and said that the optical adapter devices themselves degrade the signal to some extent.

Anyway, the only way to find out is to experience it, so I've ordered a GISO GB from Ralf. I'll fit it at the 808v5 end of the 20m CAT7 LAN cable from the MD600.

I'll keep you posted on what improvement, if any, I get from this. My gut feel is that it'll either amount to little or no change, or a very significant change. Acousense offer a full refund within three weeks if the unit delivers no benefit in your system, so I'm only risking the cost of shipping the unit back to Germany.

Dave

There is a simple test that anyone can try to see if their setup will benefit from reconfiguration or additional galvanic isolation. There are two caveats though: It requires 2 people and the benefit will last for about 8 seconds. I however believe that 8 seconds will be enough for any difference to be noticed and provide the critical listener an opportunity to know whether to explore their options in more detail or simply be happy with their lot.

The experiment relies on the internal buffering on Meridian audio endpoints. The length of this buffering will depend on audio format (CD quality will provide longer potential to listen that 96/24) and very likely model. I have tried this on an MS600 and playing CD quality, approximately 8 seconds of audio was available.

The test simply relies on a second participant removing the LAN cable from the back of the audio endpoint. For the period that the LAN cable is removed, 100% galvanic isolation from the LAN is achieved.

If the LAN cable is inserted back into the audio endpoint before audio playback stops, I believe that playback will continue - I say 'believe' as I performed a similar test a few years back when testing network connectivity and error conditions and have forgotten exactly what the parameters that I used were. It should thus be possible for a blind test to be performed with the second participant running connected/disconnected at different points in time.

If differences are heard, then a second test can be performed which involves removing the LAN cable from the router/switch end of the link. This will indicate whether any observed differences is being introduced by the LAN cable or from other connected equipment.

Thanks Ian for that "Quicky" test
It's a good idea and the isolation is perfect.
I will try it out.
Thanks
Robert

Picked up my Giso GB today from the mailroom. Well built, packaged and included a very short cat6a (10Gbit) cable to connect to the audio endpoint, nice!

So, no bias building at all here then

Admirable building of tension though ...