Investing in your audio system? (Part 3)

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One of the most important and often forgotten component in an audio system is a power conditioner. It does not look as fanciful as compared to a vinyl player, but the features it provides will substantially affect your system performance. Buying a power conditioner is similar to buying one-time payment insurance for your audio system. Once you owned one, you do not have to put thought into it again.

As the name applies, a power conditioner "conditions" incoming AC power for your audio system. In engineering terms, it means that it filters and cleans out unwanted noise from the incoming AC circuit. There are many causes of unwanted noise induced into a circuit, for example, machines with a motor such as a fan or a refrigerator. In general, a power conditioner will regulate the incoming voltage and improve the quality of power that will be utilised by your audio system.

Audio hardwares tend to be more sensitive in nature and their performance and quality will be greatly affected by inherent noise from the incoming power supply. To illustrate, have you ever experienced buzzing sounds from your speakers whenever a certain device is turned on, or do you hear any hissing sound coming from your speakers (no music playback) even when the level of your output is really low? This can be caused by AC noise, but it can also be a cause of noise induced from an unbalanced cable (if you are interested to know further, do let me know in the comments).

Many of us take this for granted when we ignore the fact that our residence power circuits have been shared by many appliances of different loading requirement. Chances of your audio system's AC supply being clean are relatively low and will cause unnecessary inconvenience towards your user experience.

Commonly, power conditioners will also include a surge protector feature in order to safeguard your hardware's longevity from unwanted power spikes. Do take note that a surge protector does not provide backup power in case of a power failure (e.g. blackout) as that is a job for an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). However, a surge protector will limit the spike in voltage power so as to prevent any chances of overloading in your audio hardware.

I am using a Furman AC 210A E power conditioner for my Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) due to its small footprint, though it is a little bit pricier as compared to its other counterpart that provides roughly around the same features. I chose the Furman's power conditioner as it provides conditioning and surge protector features in a compact chassis. The fuse can be replaced easily and is widely available for me to purchase in case of a power surge. For this particular model, the power output uses IEC connectors, and you might have to take that into consideration as it is quite difficult to find power strips with incoming IEC connectors. Despite that, fabricating an IEC power strip is relatively easy (if you have some electrical knowledge) as IEC connectors can be bought easily at Sim Lim Tower.

Furman Desktop Power Conditioner (IEC connector), my personal fabricated IEC Power Strip.

A common misconception I often hear is that people often associate power strips that come with surge protector with the ability to "clean up" incoming power. One would have to be mindful that a conditioning filter circuit requires a number of circuit components and chances of all of these dedicated conditioning components being packed into a compact size are quite low. Therefore, do not assume that a generic surge protector power strip will have power conditioning features.

Belkin 6 outlet surge protector power strip, a very common product available at local electronic stores. Good for protecting your hardware from power surges but does not filter unwanted noises. 

Belkin 6 outlet surge protector power strip, a very common product available at local electronic stores. Good for protecting your hardware from power surges but does not filter unwanted noises. 

If you are willing or have already invested an amount of money into your audio system, perhaps you should consider a power conditioner. Not only will it help to optimise your system performance, it also prolongs the longevity of your hardware.

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Network Hub VS Network Switch

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In my recent post about improving WiFi reception, we talked about extending your router's coverage by extending the network through powerline adapters. The adapters can be interfaced through the existing RJ-45 (Ethernet) ports, which are commonly provided as an added feature in a router. However, in today's modern home, there are many devices, for example, a Network Attached Storage (NAS) or a gaming console, that can really benefit from using a wired connection (for reliability and consistency in network services). In such cases, the provided Ethernet ports (usually 4) on the router will often be insufficient for you to interface all the devices physically.

Introducing a network switch or hub into your system is affordable and easy to integrate to expand your existing Ethernet ports on your router. However, I have also received many enquiries regarding the differences between the two and which device to purchase. The short and sweet answer would be to purchase a network switch, especially since they are very affordable nowadays.

A network hub is essentially non-applicable for most cases. In fact nowadays, the consumer electronic market does not even have options available for sale anymore. A hub is one of the cheapest and fastest way to integrate multiple devices into a common network. It basically replicates all data going through the hub and spam it to any devices connected to the same network. Thus, the network hub is very inefficient in managing network bandwidth as it causes many unnecessary networks traffics in order to operate.

On the other hand, the network switch is commonly referred to as a "smart" network hub because it has the ability to learn and manage network traffic flow efficiently. To further simplify, the network switch will first register any device "name" into its table connecting to it. The table will hold crucial information such as the device "name" and the corresponding port it is connected to it. Do take note that the device "name" is referred as a MAC address and this address is unique across different devices. With this feature, the network switch has improved bandwidth efficiency and network traffic.

The cost difference between the two options above have dropped significantly to a point where it just does not make sense to invest in a new or used network hub anymore. The next question would be which performance range of network switch I should purchase. Prices of a Gigabit switch are relatively affordable today. For instance, I purchased an 8 Port TP-LINK Gigabit Switch for about 35 SGD during one of the IT shows back in 2014. Investing in a Gigabit switch would be much more advisable today as Gigabit broadband plans are getting more common.

A desktop style ethernet network switch. A very compact package of 8 Gigabit ports, good for applications where space is very limited. 

If you are going to interface different terminals, such as computer, media streaming box or smart television for reliable wired connection, you would benefit from this additional network switch interface (given that you have run out of Ethernet ports on your router). There is a difference between a home and external (Wide Area Network, WAN) network. To categorise them, the devices that are connected to the home network interfaces such as router or switch will be affected by the lowest throughput speed of any interface in the system chain. To illustrate, a laptop connected to a switch (1 Gigabit) accessing data from a NAS connected to the router (200 Megabit) will only have a throughput speed of 200 Megabit at most. This performance is bottlenecked by the throughput speed of the router and can be easily rectified by connecting the NAS directly to the switch to achieve a "home to home" network.

In contrast, the external network throughput speed will be determined by the Internet plans you have purchased from the Internet service provider (ISP). Therefore, the overall performance in your network will always be determined by the lowest throughput speed interface in your system.

 

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Investing in your audio system? (Part 2)

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In my previous post, we have discussed the importance of audio file formats. As a short refresher, the type of audio format you are listening to will affect the quality of sound your speakers are producing. Lossy compressed files such as .mp3 have a low fidelity representation of your music as it uses psychoacoustics algorithms to remove recorded components that are not important. High-end audio systems such as studio monitors or reference earphones will emphasise the flaws of these lossy compressed files and will obstruct the enjoyments to your listening experience.

Once you have invested in a library of high-quality songs that are to your liking, the next step would be a bit more interesting as we can finally talk about the hardware, specifically the interface. Onboard interfaces that are bundled with your media devices such as phones, laptops, and even mp3 players are usually not applicable for driving monitor speakers. This mainly boils down to two reasons, namely the quality of the digital to analog (DA) converters and the signal strength from the audio output (e.g. headphone output) in your devices.

DA converters that are inbuilt into your gadgets are typically below average in terms of data decoding capabilities, which affects the signal integrity of the files. The footprints of these converters are small, as they are designed to fit into a portable device, thus they do not have sophisticated DA circuitry to execute the task. Therefore, getting a DA converter, which has the specifications that are relevant to your playbacks files, would do just fine. To illustrate, if you are mainly listening to standard audio CDs (which are sampled at 44.1KHz, 16 bits) and do not see yourself spending more money into other formats (price can differ quite exponentially), a DA converter that supports 44.1KHz / 16 bits sampling rate will be acceptable for this scenario.

Due to my scope of work, I am currently using either the Avid Mbox Pro Generation 3 or the Dante Virtual Soundcard (with Dante supported devices) for my recording / mixing applications. As I do not solely listen to playback audio on my system, I would require some preamps input (audio input) for my recording purposes. These interfaces are specifically used for music production as they provide both an abundant of input and outputs buses for me to route and process the signals simultaneously.

The Avid MBox Pro 3 I used at home

There are many variations in interfacing your DA converters; the most common being connecting through a USB cable. Other options include FireWire, Thunderbolt and Ethernet connectivity. It is important to note that an audio amplifier is different from DA converters (though these features can be bundled together). While a converter decodes your digital files into analog signals, an amplifier will boost the signal strength. Therefore, buying an expensive audio amplifier while being connected to your onboard DA converters will not have any significant improvement in sonic fidelity.

The Yamaha devices (Dante enabled) I used at work

On the other hand, there are very limited options in the market for portable devices such as mobile phones or mp3 players to provide alternative outputs other than the standard headphone output. As a result, many individuals choose to use a portable amplifier to increase the gain of the output, allowing the device to drive higher fidelity headphones (higher impedance). Do keep in mind that even though the signal is high enough to drive these power-hungry components, you are still using the onboard DA converters and the quality varies widely across products.

As for myself, if I am listening to music on the go, I will take the sonic characteristic (headphone / earphone) and convenience as my main consideration points. Hence, I would require my media devices to be as portable as possible while retaining the enjoyment in the listening experience. I do not use a portable audio amplifier on my iPod classic, as I disliked the introduction of the extra bulk and weight. Many years ago, I started using the AKG K450. This headphone is not only lightweight but does not require additional amplifications in order to drive the unit. Furthermore, I am fond of the K450's characteristic. Its sonic representation is impressive for such a compact footprint. Since then, my portable listening rig only includes an iPod classic and my traveling headphone.

The AKG K450 and K451 (currently using) headphone.

DA converters are crucial components, as they will affect your overall audio system performance. They might not be as fancy looking as monitor speakers but they are often considered the backbone of your system rig.

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