Quote:
Originally Posted by For The Love of Music
There are so many variables, I’m not sure anything stomps over anything unless it’s in your setup.
In response to noise, my system is dark, like midnight black. I was complaining about a very faint hum on my Aurender, N10 and I thought I had found it earlier but noticed one of my dimmer switches affects this, it is so subtle I don’t care and I’m compulsive about detail.
Low and high AC impedance leakage may exist, I don’t know. I did try the iFi groundhog for 4/5 days and thought it worked but it actually took away resolution and dynamics. However this may be a solution for others and back to my opening statement of so many variables.
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There are so many variables, I agree. I think that some of the differences different folks are reporting are due to sometimes slight and sometimes considerable, configuration differences. Take for example your experiences with the iFi Groundhog. Some guys from that computer audio forum are reporting that things got better the more they "grounded everything", some guys experiences were that things were better, as in your case, when a subset of things were "grounded". So, at the end of the day, you go with what works. Personally, I admire your interest in trying things out and experimentation to see what works best for you.
Admittedly, my comment about the forthcoming EtherREGEN might "read" as a bit "emphatic", for the lack of a better term, but having read the extensive information and design criteria that Alex Crespi has described in how he and John Swenson are "pulling out all the stops" on the EtherREGEN, it's quite possible (maybe even likely?) it will raise the bar with respect to audio performance for an "audiophile-grade" Ethernet switches. They've gone through virtually every component of the switch, down to the wiring and number of the isolation transformers in the Ethernet receivers to optimize audio performance. They also created a "moat", much as they did with the LPS-1.2 power supply, separating the power on the "input side" from the "output side" so that low- and high-impedance AC leakage currents cannot cross over to the output side of the switch and be "carried downstream" by the Ethernet cable.
I've personally experienced a number of "breakthrough" products just in the last 2-3 months with respect to my digital front end. Getting the Shunyata Alpha USB cable was an absolute revelation, and completely re-set the bar, in my experience, of what a USB cable could bring to the quality of the musical presentation. Virtually the same thing happened when evaluating the late development versions of the just-released Shunyata Ethernet cables. Even the "entry-level" Venom Ethernet outperformed the Audioquest (incl. Vodka), Wireworld, and Supra Ethernet cables I got in to detemine which Ethernet cable to use for my digital front end. And, as good as those cables were (and they were all quite good), the Venom Ethernet considerably outperformed them in virtually every regard. It wasn't even a contest, in fact.
Then the Sonore OpticalModule arrived, and established a new level of performance for FMCs that is, I would surmise, comparable to the GigaFOIL.
And, as you've very accurately pointed out, the new power supplies and Ghent DC cables are bringing a lot of performance to the table, too.
The way I see it is,
"its all good!" 
Its like all the new amazing new mirrorless digital cameras on the market now: We are "living with an embarassment of riches" these days.
As Hans Beekhuyzen says, "Enjoy the music!"
