News LAN iSilencer Audiophile Ethernet Dongle Claims to 'Quiet Your Network'

[bill001g]

Cable runs need to be referenced to ground in some way, be it through a high-value resistor, TVS diode, MOV or other at at least one end to prevent charge buildup from eventually exceeding the isolation voltage.

Ethernet uses differential voltage between the 2 wires that make up the pair it does not compare the voltages to ground. They unfortunately have the 802.3 standard locked behind a paywall now days.

 

[InvalidError]

Ethernet uses differential voltage between the 2 wires that make up the pair it does not compare the voltages to ground.

What I wrote had absolutely nothing to do with differential signalling, it has to do with static and other charge accumulation on a fully isolated cable inevitably causing it to exceed isolation withstand voltage so there needs to be some sufficiently low resistance path to ground to bleed accumulated charges before it can get that high.

If you look at schematics of just about any EMI-compliant implementation of Ethernet on PCBs, they all use magnetics with a line-side center-tap which connects to ground through a 1-100nF EMI suppression capacitor. In schematics that include provisions for shielded cables, the shield also connects to that same cap. DC leakage through the EMI capacitor would be another way of preventing slow charge buildup on the cable over time.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

I’ve just decided that I can now hear the noise on my ethernet line when I play music so I guess I need one of these

I plan on getting upgraded to robot ears soon, it’ll be painful, but worth it

I ripped that last part off of grandma’s boy movie sort of

in the movie, he says metal legs, but I need ears for this conversation

View: https://youtu.be/kpeVTa1Ab7Q

 

[sklogic]

The funny part is that any ethernet data pair is galvanically isolated (see magnetics). Snake oil salesmen are shameless.

 

[InvalidError]

The funny part is that any ethernet data pair is galvanically isolated (see magnetics). Snake oil salesmen are shameless.

Not completely: typical EMI-compliant implementations will shunt common-mode noise to ground in an attempt to keep inside noise in and pass EMC testing more easily, which will also send some of the cable's common-mode noise to the ground plane where it adds to overall system noise.

 

[jubuttib]

"Meanwhile, the concept of galvanic isolation is used in mainstream electronic circuit design, but we can’t find any purported audio benefits for the technology."

Must not have looked very hard, there are plenty of examples of galvanic isolation being used in audio, like optical audio transfer. Benefits include things like avoiding ground loops. Not really meaningful here tho. I should try an optical USB sometime actually, my microphone attached to my headphones and plugged into my USB audio interface makes a fair bit of low frequency noise, but only when I wear the headphones, and it disappears when I touch a USB port on my computer. Seems like some kind of ground loop issue bleeding into the mic preamp side, not having the USB electrically connected to the PC (interface has its own power supply) could help.