I get it everyone wants to get the absolute most out of their Hardware with
gaming computers we're always chasing the bottleneck because my
thing my GPU is my power supply enough for the new generation and with audio
it's a similar story audio files are always looking for ways to improve
Clarity and reduce unwanted noise that is untrue to the original recording that
is why it came as no surprise to me that
the aquavox switch SE an audiophile
network switch that promises to improve the sound quality of streamed audio
exists and even has loads of positive
reviews some claiming an immediate Improvement and that straight away they
could hear the difference don't get me wrong we have tried some weird
techniques to mitigate bottlenecks in a PC but they all share something that the
focus of today's video does not they should at least work in theory to be
clear I don't blame people for wanting to find unique new ways to chase
Perfection but an 800 Euro version of a
30 dollar network switch from D-Link this is not the way and we're going to
explain why and even run some blind
tests to prove it just like I'm gonna
prove that this is the segue to our sponsor signal RGB with signal RGB you
can control and sync your RGB with one free app browse their library of over 60
game Integrations at the link down below
thank you from the outside this switch
looks nearly identical to the thirty dollar D-Link dgs 108 that it's based on
and that's because it's not a special
edition or a different model op Fox is
buying these switches and then allegedly modifying them to sound much better
frankly for me that makes believing this even harder I cannot wait to open this
thing up and find out what they have modified other than this sticker on the
top even the box is the same they put a
sticker on the included power supply but they couldn't be ours to change it for
like a cleaner power one like really you
guys oh they put two stickers on it sorry excuse me please use the included
power supply only this is for safety and
audio file reasons you know what I love that I'm just going to explain
everything I do as for audio file reasons oh and this is for audiophile
reasons you simply wouldn't understand they really couldn't have been bothered
to at least make a sticker this just seems to be glued to the Box you know if
you're gonna snake oil at least snake oil well right no I'm not gonna be like
that I'm gonna be open-minded we're gonna go to their product page and see
what changes they made for the switch our many customers say this is the
switch I agree so far if you think the unmodified D-Link switch might be a good
choice it is not if you own a good Nas
Source like a Melco I'm afraid to Google this I'm about to find find the dumbest
audiophile crap aren't I look at all wow look at all these different colors of
thread trusted by the best and Nike how
much am I going to pay for an external two terabyte storage device it's over
three thousand dollars for a two terabyte Nas this is for
safety and audiophile reasons Nas server via AQ switch sounds far better as
internal hard disk or external USB hard drive
what is the logic there they say it sounds better if you have a server that
runs through this switch versus if you just play the file locally on your
computer pick a lane Ock Vox first you say cables are bad we must be careful of
the directionality so we do not distort the audio and then you want us to add
literally up to you know a hundred meters of network cable just so we can
have your special switches which one is it improving and amplifying the video
and audio signal for longer Lan connection that is actually a function
okay you can use it as a repeater if you need to go more than 100 meters
so fair enough here's what they've
actually modified internal ultra low noise voltage regulation Jitter
reduction re-clocker signal shaper Emi Eliminator denoiser uh those are the
same thing modified and optimized external power supply with two asterisks
now hold on just a gosh darn minute here where's the one that came with the
D-Link switch because I pretty much promise you that this is either the same
or Worse Shenzhen young hope Electronics
technology company
additional modification we ask for your understanding that we will not give any
details here must be Trade Secrets the enclosures are Hollow sealed and all
modifications are covered with a resin compound we may not actually be able to
see what they did oh we'll see what they did the internal power supply circuits
are now carefully optimized with additional Ultra fast capacitors if we
were talking mosfets okay but fast capacitors capacitors don't go fast we
have also been able to optimize the power supply even further I don't believe you this has not been opened you
put a silver sticker here I'm quite certain that's all you did because this
is still sealed wait they have an FAQ section debunking
audiophile from other brands
other switch manufacturers are claiming
that switch is connected to each other in series with short cables are
improving the sound quality In fairness to opbox that is mind-bendingly stupid
this paragraph means absolutely nothing
at once they debunk audiophile from
someone else while also saying that it does something thereby embracing it
serious I have an open mind with this okay no I'm trying to have an open mind
that product page was great because it gives us a couple things we can actually
test first streaming high quality audio over our local network from a Nas or
network attached storage for this test we'll have two separate Nas systems
posting the exact same music files over the SMB file protocol each on a
different subnet both will be plugged into the same Nick on our client
computer with one running over the 30 D-Link switch and the other over the 800
audiophile version of it our lovely subjects will then be asked to come in
and compare between the two to see if they can tell a difference and if they
do find a difference tell us which is the better listening experience then we
will test an audiophile streaming service specifically Deezer as that's
the highest quality option available in Canada as of the time of recording in
this test we don't really have an easy way to switch between the switches so
the subject will be asked to switch between two network cables that are
marked with an LTT Store cable type with a known color so we've got blue and
purple all the content will be auditioned using the JDS Labs element 3
DAC and amp paired with the abyss ab1266
reference headphones and over six thousand dollar pair of cans designed to
be the apex of the headphone world as per Abyss marketing Hello Alex hello put
the headphones on you have two tracks in front of you take a listen to the tracks
in the left and right window can you hear a difference between the two don't
overthink it just answer honestly oh no I don't hear a difference at all I mean
they so I'm basically the same no difference there is more of something in
the right one it is more of something is
slightly more but there's more I would describe it as more I think I think just
because I right at the beginning the one
on the left sounded better I think I'm gonna stick with that just
at the end there I thought maybe the
voice on the first one I thought it sounded like a little bit more
full maybe there seemed like more information there than on the on the
right one it seemed like maybe there was a little bit less no I cannot tell a
difference not at all I was listening for compression artifacts like if you're
trying to see if I can tell the difference between MP3 and uncompressed
and I couldn't hear any is there any difference no in really
high quality recordings when a ride symbol stops and they move to something
else it decays like forever and on
crappy recordings that just turns into a mess once it starts getting pretty quiet
and on this one you just keep on hearing it get really nice and low until it like
on both of them I think these are functionally identical
there's no difference for me talk to the camera oh sorry I can't tell yeah the
first one feels a lot more open it feels like you're you're there with the music
like they're performing live the second one it sounds like you're listening it
through headphones it's really clear but it's not as I mean it doesn't sound like
you're you're actually there I wouldn't I don't know which one is necessarily
better because I feel like they both kind of have their pros and cons but I
kind of like the first one just because I haven't had an experience like that
these are identical straight up just identical I'm trying I'm trying to be a
critical listener here there are two network cables plugged into the computer in front of you one is purple and the
other is blue you're gonna audition whatever track you would like from
Deezer and I want you to switch between the network cables As You Wish can you
hear a difference between the two this has been really for some like like
Ethernet card that's like made for audio
files it is isn't it there's not a huge
difference because at the first time it sounded better to me the purple one but
now that I switched again to the blue one
the difference is just a little bit like
if I'm being absolutely completely honest and I'm not trying to
and like convince you that I'm an audio file I don't hear any difference
this song rules but uh the switch isn't doing
I can't hear any difference it supposed to be a really noticeable difference
because maybe my ears aren't trained enough but I don't really hear that much
of a difference between the two tracks no I cannot tell a difference
you can't tell the difference foreign
it's the same it's the same did anyone actually say something they're making
things up purple sounded worse if these are like
this it supposed to sound the same I'm gonna be real mad at myself I would say
with confidence particularly with these two songs blue is better for some reason
what a surprise our test subjects were not able to discern a difference or even
regularly select the aquavox compared to
the 30 D-Link switch as a better listening experience why we'll explain
that in a moment but first we're going to open them both up and have a look at
at least the changes OC Fox thinks they
to the original well they put these screws on really
tight crud what the hell they glued them
they glued the damn screws crap they really loaded this thing up
with glue they do not want you opening this
it's a glued boy and this gives us a
closer look at the switch board itself there's our processor here's the new
version of the dgs 108 here's the aquavox based on the older versions
you've got one of these for every two ports and then
basically Jake come here for a second
there is an oscillator here did they put
like a jewel on top of it oh my God thinking that anyone who opens this
would be stupid enough to think that that makes it a crystal oscillator what
other purpose could there be we have a we have an electronics engineer sort of
here yeah hey timing it appears that
over the clock gen which I believe that is is that correct probably put a jewel
which I guess makes it a crystal oscillator
I get yeah I've never seen anything like
this they also had to machine Away part of the heatsink to do it in order to do
that and they put some hot glue on there I mean that's actually not that
unreasonable if they don't want stuff moving around but now what I'd like to
know next we're going to go ahead and take off the board here oh my God these
are glued too are you serious right now they glued the board into the chassis I
want to see if they actually so all these components that they've just
dunked goo over I want to see if they actually desoldered and re-soldered them
because I should be able to tell the difference between a factory solder job and a hand solder job is that just like
an Illuminati sticker shut up kind of looks like
oh that might have been glass at least oh it has the same like Illuminati
symbol on it it has that yeah
well no I want to know if they've even bothered to replace the actual
oscillator under there oh I see yeah I can't see the markings on it how
convenient to just hide under the guise of Trade Secrets but actually you just
didn't do anything oh my God
what no no no it's worse than that they scratched it off
I'm pretty sure it's scuffed up it's hard to tell the difference between my
scuffs and and bear scuffs but the way
that the original one is marked this looks like new scuffs Jake that looks
like sandpaper yeah yeah
Jake I kind of want to go for gold with these screws
clear I'm not blaming you if you bought into something like this like you got
taken for a ride but that's not your fault people shouldn't be allowed to
Market this kind of stuff because the reality of it is not everybody has time
to look into every thing that they buy right you have to try to you know you
have to trust people and there's so many great reviews oh my God Jake
what that's what inside
more Illuminati triangle Crystal things
what is going on what is the point of putting these in here where they are
glued and screwed and glued and screwed
again I don't know just like I mean I think we
made it deep enough to know that at most they've swapped out a couple caps as
much as we've mocked this product I want to make it clear that if you bought one
you are not the problem the problem is their marketing because it sounds like
the kind of thing that could make a difference so why didn't it well there
are a number of reasons first and foremost the signals that are passed
over a network connection like this fancy switch are digital meaning that
while there are indeed electrical pulses flying down the cable they represent
ones and zeros that make up a digital signal the digital nature of the signal
is important for a number of reasons first and foremost unlike in an analog
signal where interference can skew the information being transmitted like the
scratchiness that you might hear when listening to a radio with poor reception
in a digital signal where the electrical pulses in the cable are converted into
ones and zeros if those ones and zeros are received incorrectly or out of order
it would result in corrupt data and that
can happen it's even common when transmitting data over an Ethernet or
other cable these signaling protocols though usually have some form of error
correction so when you're using a remote streaming service over https like
Spotify or Deezer or a local stream over SMB like with a Nas they transmit
traffic over the TCP Internet Protocol which has a number of error detecting
and correcting features that make it effectively errorless what that means is
that regardless of the network switch in between you will be receiving exactly
the same ones and zeros that make up your audio stream or file in exactly the
same order and if you weren't the file wouldn't even play without fixing the
corruption if there even is a way to do that but wait there's more simple layer
2 Network switches like this one aren't even aware of the TCP connection that is
happening over them they simply receive packets that is the pieces of data that
make up an Ethernet connection with a destination Mac Address and a 4 forward
them to the interface with the matching Mac Address they don't even know what
kind of traffic they're carrying let alone have the capacity to optimize it
to add insult to injury streaming services typically deliver their content
over an https connection which is encrypted and will even run their own
secondary encryption to protect the content from pirating local file sharing
can also be encrypted in some situations which means even if a network switch
wanted to know what was being transferred to try to optimize it it
wouldn't be able to read the data of course that says nothing about the
amount of processing that would be required to analyze all of that data and
optimize it this 3 watt 30 switch is not
even going to begin to be able to do that which raises the question what did
they actually change oh I see we've done this slightly out of order I already
opened it spoiler they didn't change much of anything so where are the
positive reviews coming from well there are a number of possibilities one is the
placebo nobody likes feeling like they got taken
for a ride and if you bought something you would want to think that it's making
a difference this probably accounts for at least some of it it's also possible
that this switch could have been part of a larger upgrade for someone all of
which would have been done at the same time and predictably would sound a lot
better than whatever their old equipment was as for why a system integrator or a
VAR evaluated reseller would include something like this in their quote well
that's where things get really skeezy because oftentimes those types of
companies know full well that the cables and optimizers that they're installing
are pure snake oil so they make more money by patting out the invoice with
nonsense they know doesn't do anything for customers who might not necessarily
have the time or inclination to look it up because they think they're trusting
an expert and that's really challenging because even if they did look this up
even if they did do their research all they would have found was rave reviews
from people talking about how great it is which is validated by their own
experience with how much better their music sounds so the situation sucks what
doesn't suck is the segue to our sponsor grammarly thanks to grammarly for
sponsoring this video when it comes to work communication is key even if you
don't have a writing job miscommunication can cause confusion and
misalignment with your team leading to projects being delayed and that's why we
recommend checking out grammarly premium's Advanced tone suggestions it
can help reframe your communication to be positive and productive to get
everyone on the same page grammarly premiums tone rewrite suggestions also
reframe negative language to be more solution focused simply install the
desktop app log in and start typing actually we've got people here on the
business team that use grammarly to help keep their writing professional mistake
free and clear with grammarly you can work smarter not harder because the
right tone is going to help you move your project forward rather than allow
it to stall go to grammarly.com LTT to
sign up and get 20 off grammarly premium to help you get your work done and build
strong relationships until they meet you in person
if you guys enjoyed this video you might also enjoy our video on the thousand
dollar HDMI cable HDMI thousand dollars must be great
right