The SW-8 atop an Apple SuperDrive tucked just so between Apple's screen and its lazy Susan stand. By logging into my Qobuz Sublime account then opening up its 'my purchases' panel, I had instant access to all the albums I had downloaded copies of on the iMac's FusionDrive. Now I could toggle between local and cloudy files until the cows came home; which in Ireland actually never go anywhere to need coming home from. And the winner was?

¾th there. Before the 'approved' cable at left rang the bell, I used a 0.5m bottom-of-the-barrel generic. Skinny, blue, cheap and utterly ghastly, it nonetheless passed data without a single glitch. The Ethernet Police knew all this going in to deny any potential for sonic improvements beyond. Thankfully their gang hasn't the funds to patrol our country-bumpkin lanes. I never get any of their tickets. What speed limit? Shuttling between local and cloud files had obviously narrowed the difference gap. All hail the mighty tiger fish, LHY Audio's namesake. Yet parity hadn't been reached; yet. Streaming Qobuz even at 24/96 was still a bit drier and flatter, serving up the same files stored locally still juicier and richer. If your mileage varies, salutations to ye, self flagellations for me. To be sure, the difference had shrunk enough to no longer diss 'serious' buzzing to the Qobuz. But having choices, I still preferred my own files. Undeniably though the SW-8 had more than split the earlier disparity. Reclocking and thereby isolating the router feed definitely had aural merit. I already knew that this box was here to stay.

My question was, could true parity be within reach when the French cable said hello? Or did cloud streaming need still more help? SOtM told me that they run three of their Ethernet switches in series connected with specialty cables fitted with inline noise filters. I couldn't see myself do that. But the theme of at least doubling up is becoming more commonplace in high-rent streaming. Antipodes, Euphony and Pink Faun all promote two of their music computers in series, one for the heavy processing work like library population/navigation and upsampling, the other for the signal output to the downstream DAC. Are the days of the simple CDP behind us for good? Of course the one-box CD player eventually split into transport and DAC dualism. Perhaps the time has come for elite music servers to do the same? Just then reader Rodney Ulbrich checked in. "I hate to bother you with this question but, I own a Taiko Extreme and Aurender N30, both costly. Today I hooked up my friend's MacBook Pro with Roon for kicks. I honestly don't see a need for more. I see you used an iMac. Are you still using this as your main music source? I'm curious because I know you could use whatever you wanted." It takes one to know one. Yes and yes.

Also just then Melco news: "Switched on and up you can be with Melco's new S100/2 network switch [£2'099]. When conceptualizing their gen2 version, Melco's engineers saw increased demands placed on home-based networks and data switches where beside hifi kit, extra bandwidth consumption comes from TVs, set-top boxes and gaming consoles. So their S100/2 benefits from an upgrade to 6x1GB RJ45 ports coupled with 2x100MB ports for audio. The configuration retains the speed-mix advantages of the original S100 but adds greater speed to bandwidth-hungry devices. Internally it gains an improved power circuit board with a carefully selected AC adapter. The S100/2 also retains the small-form-factor pluggable connections of the original model which allow upgrades to optical fiber connections. Finally an LED indicator on/off button allows users to switch off the flashing effect as data transfers."

Accountants appreciate that the SW-8 costs less than 1/3rd. Serial monogamists could thus slave three LHY in series and still come out ahead. Country bumpkins like yours truly are content with just one.

Attentive readers extricated something else from the Melco post. The Japanese engineers consider 'slow' 100MB ports superior for audio than 1GB gaming/video ports. In a similar vein, streaming's dual computer advocates state that the high-speed processors for computation-intense up/resampling and navigation of huge libraries plus subscription integration are noisier per se plus require bigger inherently noisier power supplies. It's why in their audio not housekeeping halves, dual schemes run slower less power-hungry quieter processors. We might call it the speed-kills counter parade to digital's obsession with ever higher sample rates. Faster isn't always better. Cees Ruijtenberg, maker of my Sonnet DAC, is adamant in fact. A key facilitator of Pasithea's amazingly low noise floor is circuitry designed especially for the lowest possible power draw. It makes a very simple small lightweight power supply sufficient. Bigger isn't always better. That's back at player software like Audirvana. Not only does it minimize background computing threads to reduce the load on a PC's processors. Its OS also takes up the smallest possible footprint for the same reason. The upshot behind all this is probably to tread lightly so nobody knows you're there.

I'm here! When the French cable inserted, it made its presence felt in no uncertain terms. What my iMac's network card saw now was a 1m proper cable and reclocked Ethernet signal, not a 20m CAT8a leading straight back to a fiber-optic router with typical SMPS aka wall wart. A 20cm length would have sufficed for the final link. I just couldn't even source a 50cm stretch in time. So one meter it was. We already established upgrading throwaway generic to €100-delivered cable with premium plugs. Would an audiophile-approved designer leash make more of a difference still? That's off my beat, remember?

By now I was fresh out of floobie dust. Not that more was even necessary. Parity. I'd achieved "the state or condition of being equal especially as regards status or pay". In a sonic context it seems like a very boring word. What's parity sound like? It all depends on our status quo. Given how very happy I am with my streaming of local files vs €20K headless servers, achieving parity for cloud files was mega. Doing it for ~€700 all in so switch plus cable merely added more width to my grin. Finally Qobuz Sublime was on the level and fit for (cough) serious listening. Done. Dusted. Gracias to LHY Audio for hammering three more nails in the coffin of overpriced 'audiophile' servers. No more night missions for the undead. The SW-8 as stocking stuffer for audio dads and moms? Hear here!