Hacker News Reader

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Ethernet signals not just differential, but magnetically isolated? All ethernet signals go through transformers to mitigate noise, ESD and ground loops. [1]

[1] http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/Appnotes/VPPD-01740.pd...

View on HN

Yes, that's correct. As long as the switch isn't horribly non-compliant (such as EMI/EMC issues), and whatever you're plugging the other end into has a properly designed port with proper grounding, there's basically no way it will affect an audio system.

The product is complete pseudoscience, and looking at the site of the company that makes it, almost all their other stuff seems to be based on nonsense too.

Hell, even if the switch was incompliant and noisy af, if tcp/ip packets got through, it would not affect audio quality.

Yeah, with a bit of distance. I mean like if it's half a meter away from your speaker cables or amplifier, a switch putting out excessive EMI could couple noise in to that over the air. But it will do absolutely nothing to the actual data.

EMI can be a real problem especially for things like recording electric guitars, because electric guitar pickups are basically antennas and have to be exposed to be able to pick up the strings.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com