Greetings Everyone,
I visited Steve's place about a month ago to have my Diamond SX updated and will post about that on another thread. He was kind enough to replace for free a few older chips with new ones. This reflects his attention to detail and provide the best to all his customers.
I purchased his new SM for the purpose of converting my TV toslink to coax and feed into the Diamond SX. I already have a LPS but according to both Steve and Paul79, not all LPS are created equal. I was unaware you need a rapid responsive LPS for optimal benefit. While toslink fed into a quality toslink capable dac, I am unable to make a true A to B comparison because the dac changed too. The benefit was however impressive. My wife for simplicity streams internet music through GOOGLE TV which now for me is enjoyable AND only a subtle difference than what I believe is the current gold standard of Ethernet to I2S implementation by Steve.
I believe Steve has been very innovative this last year on both fronts. SM to COAX with BNC adapters is superior to my non-updated Ethernet input. Those with Ethernet input SX dac, you need to have it modified to current standards. I had one of the first Ethernet modules and even had it modified October, 2017. The current modifications are far superior.
From reading threads here and talking with Steve, my estimation is both the SM and Ethernet input have similar measurements regarding exceedingly low Jitter. This is probably why I am having a hard time discerning any audible differences.
Because of these benefits, I ordered Steve's BNC reference cable and compared to the very reputable Antipodes Reference COAX/BNC adapter cable. BNC is far superior input and out of the gate the difference was not subtle. Both cables are of similar but obviously not exact design, which places emphasis on the BNC connection and if possible avoid the adapter to or from RCA, if able.
For those who own the SM and SX, the modifications are nominal and I personally have not had this level of benefit for the price.
I did not add in my subjective thoughts regarding sound quality. This is intentional. I find our impressions subjective and of limited utility.