G'day everybody, in this video, I go through the results of the smooth lan blind testing, and I'll tell you all about my observations when it was in and out.
Mine came in a couple weeks ago and I did not care for it right off the bat. It felt like i was missing details here and there. I put it back in with a dh labs reunion ethernet cable and holy smokes it is not coming out. This was one of the best tweaks I have bought in years.
@Ian-nc4im Awesome story Ian👌 I love hearing about other people realising just how good these Stack Audio products are. Enjoy the music!!! It should still have all the detail but with a more analogue sounding presentation. It also does take a little while for the smooth land to burn in completely, so I say to people, give it a week or two to really settle into the system. It sounds like the extra time you've given it and the cable have worked well in your system. Great news. 🎧🙂👌
I’ve had one in since it was released, a fantastic piece if kit and delivers a very noticeable improvement, the noise floor is lowered, everything just seems tighter, always great when you purchase something and it exceeds your expectations, and the customer service sets the standard others should follow
Overall, I found the overall presentation of the music to be more relaxed with the Smooth LAN in the system. I would be interested in hearing your test of multiple Stack Smooth LAN devices in your cable from the modem/router to your digital server.
Hi Drago yes that's how it sounded here in the room, so you've nailed it mate, it just is a smoother more relaxed presentation without any loss of detail. It's quite nice I really like it I'm going to reach out to Josh and see if he will send me another one over to try at the other end of my cable run. We will have a chat about that on the channel if I'm hearing any further improvement.🎧👍🙂
Great review Shane. I'm waiting for my dealer to get some Waversa LAN stuff in. It's much more expensive. I think it starts at $1300. He's already heard it and he reckons it's impressive and even better as you go up the chain. I'm worried he'll give me the expensive stuff to try out at home...last time he did that with power conditioning I bought the whole 13k worth.
Very interesting! OCD Mikey Powell's philosophy is to buy the best equipment so tweaks are unnecessary. Not that $200 pounds is so bad a try! I am very curious how the Smooth Lan would be on my Playback Designs MPS-X streamer! I will be getting the Shunyata Theta LAN cable($500 US) that just came out to rave reviews from my wall Ethernet outlet to my streamer. Thanks!
Hi there, I have a playback designs digital setup, and I can assure people that the smooth lan did improve the presentation as I said in my final thoughts video. There's around a 5% improvement, and that was definitely audible when it was in my system going through my MPT-8 with the server / roon core option.👍🙂🎧
Thank again for the hard work Shane! My score was 2 out of 4 😏. Not shure if the sound thru RU-vid has something to do with my results. Anyway I do believe strongly in cleaning your network to improve the sound quality- I am using an EtherRegen close to my streamer and when I added an IFi LAN Isilencer at the other end (close to my router, downstairs about 50 feet away) the SQ improved quite a bit: particularly in the bass area and in musicality in general…
Awesome Francois, Yes I do believe the differences were more profound in my room, and I tried to get that across in my final thoughts video. It is a bit difficult being at the mercy of RU-vid's audio compression, which really does erase much of the nuances that you hear in the music when you put something like this in your signal path.👍🙂🎧
Thanks for sharing your wrap-up, Shane. I had listened extensively to all versions for the four tracks. I found only my comments posted for tracks 3 and 4, which agreed with the benefits of the Smooth LAN being in the system. I don’t know why my comments didn’t post on my preference between the versions for tracks 1 and 2. Tho it’s hard to “unsee” the key to recreate my original two posts for versions 1 and 2 for track 1 and version 3 and 4 for track 2, I agree with the benefits of the Stack Audio product being present in those tracks as well. I’m wondering what it inside the box. Did you pop the hood and see what is inside? I suspect Theo put some of his magic nanoparticle materials inside to quiet down the circuit of the box. Can you remind me if you put this box on a couple AUVA EQ CSA1’s.
Hi mate, I did have it sitting on one CSA 1 because it's fairly light and was able to balance comfortably on one CSA 1. I then tried it without the CSA 1 underneath it. I could not hear any audible difference between having the CSA 1 isolation under it or not.👍🙂🎧
Purchased a SmoothLan and I couldn’t stream from my modem my dac/streamer kept searching for the internet I put back my Waversa and everything back to normal very strange
@stevelambert6489 Hi Steve, Yes, that is very strange. I'd reach out to Josh from stack audio and explain that to him, there may be something there that he can help you with that I'm not aware of. That's a first for me.👍🎧
Morning everyone from rain swept tropical Scotland 😁 good evening shane 😁 I hope this message finds everyone safe and well 😁 sorry for late response but my team won the double beating the auld enemy again which never gets old and our record against them this season is played 5 won 4 draw the other 🤣🤣🤣🤣 anyway enough talking about hiw good we were against the manky mob on the otherside of glasgow who play in ibrox, I got 2 correct, the last 2 🤣🤣🤣🤣 to be honest the other 2 where close and I really depends on the recording etc and the type of music, anyway please stay safe everyone and look after yourselves 😁😁😁😁
Awesome Paul congrats on the win. And well done on staying the course with the blind testing. It's people like yourself that make all of this worthwhile for me, and it keeps me motivated to do more of it. 👍🎧😁🙏
Hi mate, At the moment, I have it coming out of the router. Then I have a 10m RJ45 cable going into the Ether Regions switch. I've got another Smooth Lan coming over, which I'm going to put on the RJ45 cable input of the Ether Regions switch, so in effect, one either end of the 10 m cable. I'll be reporting in on the channel about how that sounds and whether there's any improvement having a second one in the signal path.👍🎧
GM☕️🦘 The thing with a “cheap as chips “ addition to your excellent system..it’s able to exploit that 5 percent improvement..given a first rate streamer and DAC🤔 On RU-vid..there’s outrageously expensive HIFI Network Switches along with better quality connections….its another aspect to this passion..there’s more than ones and zeros . This was a great video, as for the few videos I commented on..they all sounded great ..true some had a little tighter bass and those stood out for me and my senior ears. Once again , a great video and you and yours have a great week.
That's probably an interesting test for you to do Shane. Test it on some lesser quality equipment. After all, the top of the line stuff you use probably already has some great isolation from interference. There might be more than 5 percent to gain on lesser quality equipment.
Thanks mate I always appreciate your commentary here on the channel. You're a valued member of the "An Aussie Audiophile" family. It's this community that really inspires me to keep going and doing this. All of your above points are valid and absolutely correct as far as I'm concerned. There are definitely more than just 1s and 0s in digital, and cleaning up the signal path for digital really does help the downstream components to be able to give their best to our ears.👍🎧😁
Hi mate, I haven't pulled the thing apart to have a look, but essentially, the answers in the name gives the presentation more of an analogue sound to my ears.👍🙂🎧
