Vincent1234

So true, thank you! Actually I am rather annoyed by some of the negative comments here. I am sure that negative news travels faster than positive news, unfortunately. I hope I belong to the majority of owners who are really happy with the current developments. To those that still have special wishes, please realize it might be just only a few of you that e.g. thrive on using extensive metadata. I myself am primarily listening to music. When I need more info Google is my friend.

I'm sorry about your troubles. I also own a W20 and it might be useful to you to know I had no troubles updating whatsoever and I'm also using its USB output to my DAC. I trust this can be solved quickly.

Besides these possible early bugs, I am pleasantly surprised with 4.0! Finally the long awaited Android phone aurender app works great and fast too! My thanks and compliments!

Awesome! 👍🏻

The effect should be the same for playing off streaming services and playing off the HDD. It's all about prohibiting noise entering your system through Ethernet. Unplugging is indeed a very simple test that works. Good luck!

I wouldn't be surprised if it will. Just ask your audio dealer if you can try one at home. Let us know your thoughts, please.

Simply unplugging the Ethernet cable is what I suggested in my earlier post too. The best way to silence the nay-sayers. 😉

It's not an equalizer, but a filtering of common mode noise. I kindly refer to my previous posts explaining more. Happy it works out for you!

Indeed I think that's the case. However the W20SE apparently has a double isolation. And I believe even very cheap switches also have some sort of galvanic isolation. But still there are big differences in how they impact the sound quality. They can be expensive, but they don't need to be. For more info you can just check out Alpha Audio's (it's a Dutch site, but also available in English) recent test of about 10 switches. One of the cheaper and still pretty good ones was EUR 30 at the time; now about EUR 40.

You're very welcome. I realized just now that your W20SE already has galvanic isolation on its Ethernet input (which my older W20 apparently hasn't). This will likely decrease the impact of an audiophile switch (your Telegartner switch might be pretty good too) and of a high quality 'last' Ethernet cable. However, my recent experience with similar upgrades was simply astounding. E.g. I recently bought the Crystal Connect Da Vinci Ethernet cable as an upgrade over my previous Crystal Monet Ethernet cable (which is already crazy good). Yes, it is really very expensive, but the improvements were pretty incredible too. So in my situation it was worth every penny. In any case the old adagium always remains: try (and listen!) before you buy. 😉 Hope it will bring you further gains.

Sure. If I understand you correctly, you can now choose to feed your Aurenders via the current optical cable or via the new 'regular' Ethernet. In this case it could be worthwhile to try a good switch (like the Bonn N8 or - better but much more expensive - Melco S100) near your Aurenders and from there use a high-quality Ethernet cable (which I called 'network cable' earlier) as the last cable between that switch and your Aurenders. The last cable has the most audible impact. The other cables can improve sound quality too, but less so. So I would primarily invest in the last cable. Keep the audiophile switch close to the Aurenders so you will only need 1-1,5 m. of this more expensive cable. This way you could avoid using optical connections altogether. However, the Melco switch can also accept optical inputs, as an option and at an additional price. So in that case you could also experiment by testing your current optical connection as the input for the Melco versus the Ethernet input. In both cases you would use an Ethernet output to the Aurenders. My expectation would be however that full Ethernet will likely sound the best (as opposed to using optical). Sorry if I make it a bit complex. There are many ways to do this. A good dealer should be able to advise you in more detail based on your actual situation. Hope this helps.

Suggest to try my simple test mentioned above and see if you can hear a difference. Easy and for free. 😉

@Ponzi Yes, it can make a difference, as an optical connection will employ galvanic isolation. But.. using an optical connection also means you will have a double signal conversion: first from electric to optical and second back again from optical to electric. This can cause troubles too. In my experience a (very) good network cable will sound better than an optical solution.

I fully support you! The W20 is VERY sensitive to the Ethernet connection and pollution coming in through it. That's why I invested in a Melco S100 switch with a very silent Farad S3 LPS. It made a huge difference; in fact, improving my network was the single most cost-effective upgrade I have made in many years. If you think the iFi made a difference (and I'm sure it did), I would kindly advise you to try a better switch such as the Melco too. Furthermore I'd recommend to experiment with better network cables; especially the last one connected to your Aurender will make a very big impact. Just try it and trust your ears. I am sure many will still laugh at us though, unfortunately. To those laughing: no, this is not about the ones and zeroes. They will reach your Aurender just fine, even with the cheapest of cables, routers and switches. The TCP/IP protocol is very solid. This is about common mode noise entering your Aurender through Ethernet. And common mode noise travels through the whole of your system and is screwing up fine details, especially in your DAC. This is not fantasy but science; common mode noise can be heard and measured (check Alpha Audio's recent extensive switch tests). Simple test for the non-believers: start playing a track on your Aurender and then listen to the same track again after having unplugged your network cable. Easy, right? Very likely you will hear a significant improvement.

I don't doubt at all. Based on my own experience and on others' responses. Actually, they fell off their chairs and couldn't believe their ears hearing the difference. Really..