Silent Angel Bonn NX Pro Ethernet Switch and Genesis GX Word Clock
- REVIEW
- by Jacob Heilbrunn
- Jul 19, 2024

A good deal of gloating has accompanied the rise and fall of the compact disc, whose sales have been surpassed by LPs. But even as vinyl lovers keep it old school, digital streaming has come on strong, as well. These days I find myself listening to a wide variety of new recordings through my Roon Nucleus, ranging from classical to pop. The convenience factor is just too great to deny. Plus, it sounds great. No matter how much the tribunes of vinyl may protest, the blunt fact remains that the noise floor of digital is lower—and not by a small margin—than anything you’re going to attain on an LP. These days, I find myself listening to as much digital as vinyl.
So, when Anthony Chiarella, a longtime importer of audio wares, including the mighty Gryphon Commander preamp that I recently reviewed, suggested that I try the $3999 Silent Angel Bonn Pro network-switch with eight Ethernet ports that can be connected to a ground box, his pitch fell upon more than receptive ears. Chiarella also included a $3799 Genesis GX word clock that can be mated with the Bonn NX Pro switch. The GX offers both a 25MHz and 10MHz word clock output with gold-plated output connectors. As goofy as the products appeared—an Ethernet switch, for crying out loud—I’ve been surprised, if not humbled, in the past by the capabilities of audio gear that I did not think could have much of an impact on musical reproduction. In this instance, I was not surprised; I was shocked.
The combination of the Roon Nucleus and dCS Apex Vivaldi SACD/CD stack that I’ve been using for digital playback is nothing to sneeze at. But inserting the Silent Angel into the mix had a significant and beneficial effect upon musical playback that both confounded and delighted me. How does it work? I’m no technical expert and I suspect that a device like this is never going to satisfy the “objective” measurement crowd (indeed, Silent Angel products have already come in for a spanking on at least one website that professes to provide reliable measurements of audio equipment). Silent Angel itself reports, “Our objective in designing the Bonn NX is to ensure the device operates at a stable system voltage, sends precisely timed data packets, and reduces extraneous output noise. We have found that even the smallest enhancement can improve sound quality and the implementation of many small enhancements elevates the potential of high-resolution streaming networks.”
What did I actually hear after plugging in the Silent Angel? A lot of nothing. The fabled black background—or to put it more precisely, subliminal hash—was markedly blacker. I should stipulate that I was not convinced that the Genesis GX word clock provided any additional benefit. I plugged it in and out and could hear no difference. With the Bonn Ethernet switch, however, I could and did.
On a recent visit, the inimitable Peter McGrath of Wilson Audio alerted me to a wonderful new release of Wynton Marsalis playing the legendary Hot 5 and Hot 7 recordings that were Louis Armstrong’s breakout recordings in the late 1920s. Ever since I listened to them as a child, they’ve numbered among my favorites. When McGrath was here, I enjoyed the renditions of “St. James Infirmary” and “Skit-Dat-De-Dat,” but must confess that there was a slightly glazed quality to the music, which I’ve also heard on other Jazz at Lincoln Center recordings. The Silent Angel banished much, if not all, of it. Suddenly the drums in the rear were better located spatially and had more whack. The chimes now shimmered in the air. The trumpet lost a good deal of its glare. And the overall dynamics were much improved. In a word, the swing music swung.
That same sense of an increased fidelity was apparent as well on another album that I’ve been streaming quite a bit, a release of Schubert’s chamber works on the Ordire label featuring Christian Tetzlaff, Tanja Tetzlaff, and the late Lars Vogt. The Notturno for Piano Trio is one of my favorites on this album, and the Silent Angel endowed it with another layer of sepulchral spookiness. The pizzicato plucks, for example, that the violin and cello exchange in one passage possessed a dynamic energy that topped anything I had previously heard. They could hardly have sounded more precise, lithe, and potent. On Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Sonata played by Andras Schiff, I noticed that the fortissimo passages in the bass region sounded more grounded and centered than they had previously.
The most engrossing thing about the Silent Angel was also the most basic: It made me want to explore and listen to more music. In looking at my listening history in the Tidal streaming site, it becomes apparent that I was zooming all over the place, from Mozart’s violin sonatas to 2Pac’s album All Eyez On Me. The longer I listened, the more impressed I became by the Silent Angel. It truly is angelic.
Specs & Pricing
Bonn NX
Type: 8-port Ethernet switch
Word clock input: BNC jack
Word clock frequency: 10MHz
Dimensions: 17.37″ x 2.05″ x 6.89″
Weight: 5.75 lbs.
Price: $3999
Genesis GX Word Clock
Type: Word clock generator
Outputs: Four independent word clocks
Clock frequencies: 10MHz (x2), 25MHz (x2)
Dimensions: 17.29″ x 2.49″ x 9.95″
Weight: 16.3 lbs.
Price: $3799
SPECIALTY SOUND AND VISION (U.S. Distributor)
9 Lynn Court
Woodcliff Lake, NJ 07677
(201) 690-9006 (office)
ssvreps.com

By Jacob Heilbrunn
The trumpet has influenced my approach to high-end audio. Like not a few audiophiles, I want it all—coherence, definition, transparency, dynamics, and fine detail.
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