 In my profession you talk with many people and that includes people with far more knowledge than me. That's great for it lets you think about how you look at the world, or in this case at digital audio. I frequently get comments that bits are bits and therefore nothing can go wrong. Frequent viewers know that my experiences differ and I am not the only one. Until a short while ago someone I take quite seriously said to me that if all is well designed it should work flawlessly. A correct statement of course. Taking that as a starting point I evaluated my experiences over the last years, focusing on the most criticized videos, well relatively seen for the worst case only, has a very low percentage negative comments and that includes the internet trolls. It all started with the Sonora MicroRendu, a small box that receives audio over the network and sends it over USB audio class 2 to the DAC and does that so that it sounds clearly better than when the DAC is connected directly to that computer. Now following the adage that it should work flawlessly when designed well, you could say that the computer has a poorly designed USB port. And you might be right, since the USB port on a computer has loads of high frequency pollution from other clocks in the computer, might have a very polluted ground plane, a very polluted 5 volt power feed needed for many DACs for identification and so on. But then the SOtM-SMS200 network bridge came on review and that sounded a tiny bit better. Followed up by the SOtM-SMS200 Ultra that sounded so much better again that I now have to conclude that both the MicroRendu and the SMS200, although better designed than the USB port on the computer, were not designed optimally either. Changing the power supply of any audio device of quality normally changes the sound too. Raspberry Pi's with an audio hatboard, sound card for normal people, sounds better when powered from an audiophile quality power supply. Often that is a linear power supply, one that uses a real transformer and thus is bulky. So often we speak of a linear power supply as a quality power supply but that only goes in our audiophile bubble. But a really well-designed switching mode power supply usually is more expensive than a linear type of the same class. And the medium quality power supplies like a linear type by Audiophonics and the switching mode power supply by iFi perform about equally. Could we say here again that when properly designed there should be no difference? Perhaps the most criticized reviews were the AcuFox and SOtM network switches. To be honest I doubted for a long time to do the review. Only when I had some people I take seriously had commented very positively on the AcuFox I decided to do the review. And rightly so, see my review. The SOtM switch only sounds a tiny bit better, actually hardly worth mentioning when used with Ethernet cable. But using fiber optic cables it sounds again better. In the meantime people had reported to me that a second hand 100 megabit Cisco router would sound as good or even better. So I got me one on amazon.de for 79 euros and it sounded a lot better than the four different consumer grade switches I have lying around in the house. But I prefer the AcuFox AcuSwitch SE and the SOtM remain the winner. People that say that bits are bits are only right if the equipment used is designed and built up to spec. It also proves that affordable equipment almost always is either poorly designed, poorly built or both. No surprise considering they start at only 25 euros while a comparable professional switch will set you back somewhere between 700 and 1000 euros, prices including 21% VAT. Those cheap switches work fine for almost anything safe audio. Now what should I tell you? That you should never buy a cheap switch since they are poorly designed and built? Or should I tell you that you can start with such a switch and if you are not satisfied try a better one? Oh and by the way, that 4000 euros stereo you have is also poorly designed and built. You should go for at least a 10 fold investment. Those are also not perfectly designed and built but not as bad as your 4000 euro set. I hope you get the concept of cynicism. Due to personal circumstances, this week a shorter video but then again a video I wanted to make for some time now. What qualities people need will differ. Since most of us can't afford perfectly designed and built equipment, it would be idiotic to only accept the perfect and by the way, you know my saying, perfect is a goal, not a reality. Next week there will be another video, as always at 5pm central european time. If you don't want to miss that, subscribe to this channel or follow me on the social media so you'll be warned when a new video is out. If you like this video, give it a thumbs up. Many thanks to all that support this channel financially, it keeps me independent and thus trustworthy. If you also feel like supporting my work, the links are in the comments below this video on Youtube. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music.