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The DXE-ISO-PLUS filter thread for various network, cable experiments


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Out of curiosity, I bought two pairs and the positive improvements are there, better base, high frequency lack of glare, all the important perspectives you want to improve.  However, I got pops noise here and there, like I am listening to LPs.  Given the positive side, I feel I can even live with those pops.  My digital chain is like following:

NAS-ASUS 5G Router-Netgear GS305 switch - Apple Mac Mini M1 - HQPlayer-SOtM SMS s200 - Mutec USB 3+ - Metrnum Pavan DAC.  Apple Mac Mini and SOtM s200 are linked through Bridge.  The two pair of DX Plus are used between M1 and SMs100, and between GS305 to M1.  Any ideas what can cause those pops.  

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4 hours ago, One and a half said:

I hope the pops weren't there always.... 

Suggest to move one pair between the NAS and the router away from the output of the Mac mini and sms 100. Reason being there could be adverse reaction there.

Good suggestions!  That is going to be my next step.  Unfortunately the pops were there always, in the frequency of once every 10 to 15 seconds.  The intensity is trivial but noticeable.  I checked the traffic of information, there was no sign of information spikes at all.  

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33 minutes ago, roman410 said:

Interesting, I also use bridging connection on my windows 10 NUC, and DX filters but do not experiencing this behavior.

I will try first connect all your devices thru Netgear switch ( router, streamer, nas and bridged mac mini). If that do not help next I will try eliminating bridging connection.

Thank you!  I see the similarity between yours and mine, given yours is much more sophisticated.  Do you use HQPlayer as well?  I somehow feel the dense data flow of HQPlayer output processed by Mac Mini may cause extra difficulty.  

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On 6/8/2021 at 5:55 PM, One and a half said:

Ticks are usually due to starving buffers in the music player. I haven't used HQPlayer for a while, but there are settings that can increase the buffer and should remove the ticks.

Can also be due to aggressive USB audiophile type cables, which have too much capacitance, that can also affect playback more severely, like dropout, or white noise.

Yes, the consideration of starving buffer certainly makes sense. Thank you.  I actually increased the buffer time from 20ms to 50ms in HQP settings.  The pops were completely eliminated.  I should say before I changed the buffer time, the pops situation had already been greatly mitigated over the time, could be the burn-in process as I noticed that,  every time I change the network configuration, even with minor variations, it takes time to stabilize everything.  
 

However, when I was adding the second pair of DX between the switch and the Mac Mini M1, the pops came back.  The pops did not go away even when I changed the buffer time from 50ms to 100ms.  Could be the burning-in again or some other unknown incompatibility.  Well, to me the most important part is between Mac Mini and SoTM 200, given that I transfer the current album to Mac Mini, and temporarily stored there before being processed by the HQPlayer.  I think the entire timing of digital playback should be largely dictated by the Mutec USB 3+.
 

The SQ improvement is quite obvious in my system.  

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  • 3 weeks later...

 

Spent a few weeks with DX Plus on.  Have enjoyed the sounds I heard but I would not say it was earth-shattering improvement.  As I said I enjoyed the lack of glare from tremble. As I noticed in the past I tend to be  extremely sensitive to the high frequency, to a point, that I don’t like speakers with tweeters made of high modulus materials.  During these few weeks, I also had another system change, specifically an interphase software which prepares a temporary file before it is fed into HQPLAYER.  So a few days ago, I took DX Plus out, as recommended by one contributor here but also my standard practice.  Without DX Plus but with the newly installed software in place, the impact are quite obvious, especially myself being under the exposure of DX for a few weeks. The most important thing missing  without DX Plus is the articulation of music passage, for every instrument and the combinations of them.  Without DX Plus, everything tended to collapse more closely together, ultimately the sound stage was not as wide as the when DX Plus being used.  I forgot to pay closer attention to the depth of the sound stage.  But the impact already big enough for me to switch back to DX Plus after one day.  

 
As I reported here previously, I noticed the hiccups caused by the installation of DX Plus.  Given the software I just installed, I realised that I may not need the DX Plus installed between the switch and Mac Mini.  So I took it out and appeared there was no sign of SQ deteriorating.  So the only connection DX Plus being used has been between Mac Mini and Sotm sMS 200.  To me, the impact of SQ is well worth the money spent on a pair of DX Plus.  
 
For the software I mentioned above, I encountered some problem with information overflow, meaning when the software feeding the temp file to HQPlayer and fetching the file from NAS at the same time.  The Router I am using, ASUS AX5400, may be too fast which causing the interruption of HQP playback.  So I installed the other pair of DX Plus between NAS and Router.  This proved to be a very effective way to regulate the information flow.  I notice, with DX Plus between NAS and the router, the file transfer speed is perfectly stabilized at 12.4MB/sec, through the traffic monitoring function provided by the browser-based ASUS app.  No matter how short or long a track is, the close-to-perfect trapezoidal shape of profile is generated with height always being 12.4MB/sec, with time duration depending on the individual track length.  
 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 8 months later...

A couple of months ago, for some activities to test a streaming-to-HQPLAYER interface, I was forced to switched from a relative expensive router, ASUS AX5400 to a more economical one, TPLink 1750.  This change caused some significant reduction in sound quality, mainly on soundstage size and resolution.  The Digital chain configuration is NAS->Extender•••>Router->switch->Mac Mini M1->EtherRegen Switch ->SoTM NAA->DAC.  The NAA and Mac Mini were connected in a Bridged Mode, something I personally found very important to SQ for my system.  It should be note that between Mac Mini M1 and EtherRegen, a pair of DXE-ISO-PLUS was used, so was between the switch and Mac Mini M1.  I only had two pairs of DXE-ISO-PLUS back to then.  But the finding about the impact of router variations really caught my attention since it was so far away from Mac Mini, and more importantly, all the files downloaded from NAS were temporarily reprocessed and stored in MacMini before being fed to HQPLAYER and to NAA.  So the router is doing nothing except indirectly regulate the information traffic for the HQP Playback.  With this learning, I recently purchased another pair of DXE-ISO-PLUS, inserting it between the router (of course, the ASUS AX5400) and the switch.  The result is even a richer and denser information, with better articulation at the peak of large scale complex orchestra music, to me always the most challenge part of classical music playbacks.  

 
I also noticed a very important details regarding the implementation of adding DXE-ISO-PLUS, which can be obvious for most of us.  This is that the alignment of both units of a pair should be respected.  Ideally, all the pairs used should align in one direction.  I noticed the improvement of lack of constrains in sounds when the alignment is respected.  This alignment is implicitly represented in the attached instruction of DXE-ISO-PLUS shipment.
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  • 4 months later...
On 7/9/2022 at 9:18 PM, WuBai said:

Update to my initial observations.  I moved my server to the same room as my streamer instead of relying on the wifi.  At first I had both my server and streamer connected to an Asus AC-1900 that is also feeding my Nvidia Shield in my living room.  It was a definite downgrade compared to having both boxes in separate rooms.

 

Thinking that Asus pulling double duty as Wifi and switch was a bad idea, I found a cheap TrendNet 5-port 10/100Mps switch that operates on 5Vdc.  This was great for a couple of reasons.  First it allowed me to force both my streamer and server to connected at a low speed which always sounds much better in my system.  Second, I could use my extra rail on my Shanti LPS to power the switch.  Now things really improved and were better than when the boxes were in different rooms.

 

I then took out the DX filters and attached one between the server and the switch.  Got very digital sounding and bothered my ears and I could feel a headache starting.  I am very sensitive to certain levels of filtration.  I don't know if it has to do with the bass or not, but although it might not sound too different to everyone, if it is wrong then I can immediately feel it and it gives me a headache.  So the DX filter wasn't doing too good here...but wait...

 

I reversed the direction just to check.

 

Yup, that digital feeling was gone and my ears could relax and there was a definite improvement in clarity across the board.  So then I decided to remove it from that location and connect it between the streamer and switch.  Immediately this was a better location for it.  I reversed the directions again, and one side definitely had that more strained 'digital' sound to it that bothered my ears, so in the end I felt only one DX filter on between the switch and the streamer.

 

I tried another one between the server and switch as well, this configuration having two DX filters in it.  It was a downgrade and I lost a lot of dynamics.  So for me, one was good and an upgrade and I'm happy I kept these little things!

 

As a side note:  I've heard of people on other forums making fun of EtherRegens or DX filters or all sorts of things with a super smug attitude saying something like "We swapped out the cable back and forth and nobody could hear a difference"  or "We put a EtherRegen in and it sounded exactly the same."  Then they laugh it up and think everyone is an idiot.

 

It makes me cringe because it shows that they don't even know the basics of how this stuff works.  You can't just pause the music, put in a filter, then press play again.  It will sound exactly the same!  You can take it out and put it back in a thousand times, and it will sound the same and you will sit there with a smug attitude thinking you're a genius.

 

No.  In order to test it you have to play a track.  Stop the track, add/remove the switch.  Then you need to play a new track for one second then go back to the original track that you were playing.  You need to wipe the memory of that song and have it reload again in memory through the switch.  You can't just press pause and play again.  You also can't press pause, put in the switch then rewind to the beginning.  The song is already in the streamer's memory and no matter what you add or take away at that point will make zero audible difference.  You have to force the player to completely refresh the bits through whatever device you've added or removed, and you can only do that by changing tracks and then going back to the original track.  Just makes me shake my head when these genius scientists with their expensive equipment don't even know the basics.  But then again, I didn't quadruple blind underwater A/B multiple dimension test it in a controlled laboratory in Switzerland to be sure, so my mind just must be playing tricks on me. 

 

DX Filter ended up being a very inexpensive tweak and definitely worthwhile.  Very system/setup dependent so don't be like me and pass judgement too soon.  Play around and experiment with it and you might find it a worthy tool in your arsenal.

 

Cheers 

I also reported early on that I noticed the direction of the unit makes the difference.  Wonder if you have pictures of how they are connected.  

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  • 3 months later...

Back to a few months ago, I noticed the details embedded in their instruction/introduction of how to implementing it.  In their web page, there is a chart show how to connect a router to a transmission receiver.  In that chart, the pair of DX-ISO—PLUS are aligned in such a way, that the letters printed on the small box, as DX - Ethernet cable DX.  I used to have the love-n-hate feelings as well, until I realized that a few pairs I used, some of them are matched as DX - ethernet cable - XD, the last XD obviously should be flipped but I cannot type it here for obvious reason.  Now half a year later, I realized I have not done a single change around DX—ISO - I feel I closed that book for myself.  😀
 

 

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