Chord Indigo Tuned Aray vs. AQ Vodka Diamond or Melco for fraction

I changed from Cinnamon to Vodka between my switch and the streamer and nas and was very pleased with the difference, in terms of the 'realness' of the sound. I use Cinnamon between the switch and the router. 

Last year I bought a used Cisco 2960 switch for £49 and the difference was greater than that gained from spending £500 on the two AQ wires. You may like to try this first. 

As for the Diamond wires, and the Chord, they are simply too expensive for me. Once you are into that price level you'd be better looking at speaker and din to xlr cables first. I only bought the Vodkas after having an SL full loom. 

Thank you HH

I have the SL speaker cable but DIN/XLR is a big investment for 300DR, i am using witchhats DIN/XLR... maybe later..

I look for a Cisco 2960 in Turkey but they are not available 8port version used for that kind of pricing, since i can not use PayPal at the moment it is difficult to shop from eBay....

is there a new version of Cisco that i can order from amazon or something? 

In that case I'd say go for the Vodka, solely because I found it was significantly better. The others just seem too expensive to justify in the context of a 272. Perhaps the best thing is to get your PayPal sorted out and get a used switch. The new equivalents are something like £500 I think. This is all based on my own experience and I'm sure there are better wires and switches, if you are willing to pay for them. 

I compared a few brands (1.5m length) between my FMC bridge and the Sonore microRendu/DAC V1. The AQ Vodka was one of them and led the pack until I tried the  Tera Grand 'Category 7 Ultra Flat Braided Cables'. I could hear even more detail with this cable but the 'tone' is like the AQ V. Best of all it is priced right (check out their website) so easy on the pocket to try it out! 

Brilliant posted:

I compared a few brands (1.5m length) between my FMC bridge and the Sonore microRendu/DAC V1. The AQ Vodka was one of them and led the pack until I tried the  Tera Grand 'Category 7 Ultra Flat Braided Cables'. I could hear even more detail with this cable but the 'tone' is like the AQ V. Best of all it is priced right (check out their website) so easy on the pocket to try it out! 

Once again, I can conform the "goodness" of the Tera Grand 'Category 7 Ultra Flat Braided (and non) Cables. I had cat 6 SFTP ethernet cables from the NAS to (dedicated) Switch and to the NDS; swapped them with the above Cat 7 and there is a clear increase in transparency, detail and flow.

Just my 2 cents of course.

If you've got the time and inclination (and cash) then AQVOX can help with an 'Audiophile' network switch. Want more, then upgrade the PSU and add fancy Ethernet cables 

Personally, i'd look at something like the new Core or a Melco server as the way forward. This would get the best out of your 272 setup rather than fiddling with cables, which to me would be something to do at the end once you'd exhausted all the other options. 

So  my options 

Core or melco ? 

Or

Switch - cisco used there are two 8 switch models are they different?

Will melco/core is an improvement over a switch?

And last last but not least vodka vs tera grand, very big price difference, they look like my cinnamons, will they be improved on Them? 

Or Innuos Zenith Mk ii, Melco N1A mk 2 is expensive now

Just bought An L version cisco from US

I will wait a server shootout naim vs melco vs zenith and decide on that later 

Now cables, I think I can risk with tetra and then try vodka

The Cisco seems a forum favourite so that should sort you out for a while 

Tera is not shipping to Turkey

I wonder about melco cables, Anyone? 

First option imo is to try a pair of FMC (fiber media convertors). TP Links can be had from $50-70 for a pair depending on if 10/100 or 1000, and then figure in a power supply for the upstream one (iFi wall wart at $50 is fine or go as crazy as you like) and then optical cable length of choice ($9-20 for 1meter). In my systems, both main and office, they made a significant difference for a LOT less than one of these fancy ethernet cables or switches. All you need to concern yourself with then is the last bit of ethernet cable from the FMC to streamer. 

Of course both Melco and Core are nice, but if you don't want to spend $$$ and you have storage (i.e. NAS) already, then give the FMC's a go for not much money. 

Emre posted:

Just bought An L version cisco from US

I will wait a server shootout naim vs melco vs zenith and decide on that later 

Now cables, I think I can risk with tetra and then try vodka

Mine is an 8TC-L, which is what was recommended to me by Simon. It sounds like yours is the same. 

The tetra leads sound a bit fishy to me. 

Tera Grand

@ HH - fishy HaHa !

I was very sceptical. Yet I found the build quality to be high, much smaller and more flexible than AQ V with similar presentation yet more detail especially in lower freq. at a price not even worth mentioning! Best to try one, no other way to understand it.

edit - did I say I was Honestly Hooked' ?

@EMRE - There is a seller on the big auction site and Amazon,that I can vouch for -name starts with V !

No affiliation.

More audiophile switchery 

james n posted:

If you've got the time and inclination (and cash) then AQVOX can help with an 'Audiophile' network switch. Want more, then upgrade the PSU and add fancy Ethernet cables 

Personally, i'd look at something like the new Core or a Melco server as the way forward. This would get the best out of your 272 setup rather than fiddling with cables, which to me would be something to do at the end once you'd exhausted all the other options. 

Hmm, I'm not convinced. The Melco and Core seem a very expensive way of doing what a nas does but with less flexibility. When I tested a UnitiServe against a nas the latter was better. The Core may be better than the Serve but from the reports I've read it's not. The only way to know is to try of course, but £2,000 is a lot to spend. I'm very pleased with the Vodka cables, which cost he £350 for the pair one is 1.5m and the other 0.75m. The switch was £49. Both together give a very good improvement, but I agree entirely that it's icing on the cake, which finished off the system nicely, after sorting out the mains, stand and cabling.

I agree, cables makes a big difference depending on setup, tooked AQ diamond away & put Chord c-stream in, oh my, two songs was enough, swapped two times just in case, it was very clear what was the difference. AQ stays by a big marigin. However, it depends very much about setup, speakers, amp, cables, switch. It can be also other way around.

FMC this is new Stuff!  

This is a switch that uses optical cable rather than ethernet between the nas ando switch?  But i don't recall any optical out from nas 

Now I will try my new/old switch and see/hear how it goes.

Then will get a short patch of fancy cable between switch and 272

Tera seems to be more and less same quality with my beldin cat7/telegathner cable

Any shootout vodka vs Diamond? 

i really would not use FMC - I  really see  no point unless you have firm details on the sync clock jitter and common mode noise from the FMC - you won't get the benefits and possibly drawbacks of both physical links unless you want to longer than 100 metres... For Fibre i would ensure you use SFP modules built into your switch, host or router  - otherwise keep well clear and use regular twisted pair ethernet cables.

For those that don't know what a fibre SFP module looks like:

and it plugs into an appropriate socket on your device..

BTW some of the Cisco 2960 switches that seem to be moderately popular on this forum can take SFP modules on the uplink connectors which you can of course use as a regular switch port.

Simon,

Again, like a lot of controversial stuff surrounding computer audio, all I know is what I hear, and what I heard for a very modest outlay was nothing but good. Same with a lot of folks over on CA. But I'm also not using a Naim streamer (just V1 and amp) so YMMV. I tried a used Cisco switch but it was so fan noisy sent it back. I'm just suggesting FMC's as a punt before spending three figures on fancy audiophile switches and cables. Plus the FMC's are easily moved on for a lot less loss than any hifi cable. I already had power supplies around so it wasn't any true investment on my part. 

Best,

CP

I have used both AQ cinnamon and Melco lan cables. I could not live with the Cinnamon as I found it detailed but too bright and lacking in body. The Melco cable is much better, not so "hi-fi", but still acoustic guitars sound more like they have strings attached to a slab of solid wood rather than a hollow wooden body. I finally settled on MeiCord which is not so ear-catching at first but you would appreciate its presentation over time. All cables are nicely constructed so no worries here. Mind you, if your system sounds warmer than mine you may prefer brighter cables. Actually there some no-brand cheap Lan cables I quite like too. Why not buy some cheap ones and try them out. You may be surprised! Generally I like UTP cables more.

audio manufacturers will then to use well constructed cat cable and connectors  and hopefully correct terminal  . if that is so then they will all perform the same   10s of pounds not £100s. switches will be more variable .the switch is more important than cables BUY what you can and forget about them

Emre, I've used AQ Vodka,Diamond and Vertere and liked them all and I would rank them by sound not to mention Vertere are hand made in UK and AQ China....I support USA and European mfg products just me....

1. Vertere

2. AQ Diamond

3. AQ Vodka

there is a 15-25% more detail between vodka & diamond I went with Vertere since they mfg the SuperLumina cables and sound, but the Vodka would be the minimum on would put on every connection from modem to N272 every connection brings out that much more detail.

greekspec2 posted:

Emre, I've used AQ Vodka,Diamond and Vertere and liked them all and I would rank them by sound not to mention Vertere are hand made in UK and AQ China....I support USA and European mfg products just me....

1. Vertere

2. AQ Diamond

3. AQ Vodka

there is a 15-25% more detail between vodka & diamond I went with Vertere since they mfg the SuperLumina cables and sound, but the Vodka would be the minimum on would put on every connection from modem to N272 every connection brings out that much more detail.

We have similar setups except sopras, did you blind test them with your wife/partner?  You tried good cables, I find it surprising the gap you heard vodka vs diamond

Not much left to do for my 272 based system, just ethernet cables and  premimium din/xlr ( which I won't due to cost )

I ordered cisco switch, wait for it and then buy the ethernet cables at end of April when I will be in London, maybe I can even try them

Any good London retailer to test cables on Naim? 

Thank you all

Even if Vertere have been good with interconnects & speaker cables it does not guarantee that digital ethernet cables are similar sound or level. Have seen some Vertere USB cable measurements & listening tests, those were bad. However, like to test one some day. Seems also quite a few Chord ethernet users here, maybe they use Melco