Video: Tackling Ethernet Noise with Nordost's QNET

The further you get into the audiophile hobby, the more you tend to obsess about noise. After the system is set up and completed, noise becomes the metaphoric villain you must vanquish in all its forms and through all its entry points.

Why? Because if the system is set up well and you're a practiced listener, you can hear the result every time you snuff out some small source of sound-disrupting noise. It becomes an ongoing war to find and remove sources of noise in fine-tuning a serious HiFi system.

We're not talking about crowd noise, road noise, or that noise machine on your bedside table. The noise audiophiles dislike so much is more insidious and harder to detect. It's remnants of a switching frequency riding on a lower frequency and modulating its way down into the audio band. It's a multiple of 60Hz ripple that wasn't rejected by a supply. It's a shrouding of sonic detail because of dielectric release, eddy currents, RF influence, or any number of things.

Noise shows up all over a system. In recent years, the HiFi industry has become aware of a new and pervasive type of noise affecting the modern audiophile significantly: Noise on the Ethernet line.

Our latest video discusses recent experiences with removing Ethernet noise thanks to Nordost's new QNet network switch. We also take a closer look at the companion linear power supply (LPS) and another noise worker from Nordost, the curious QPoint.