Ethernet Switch


Hey All: Just moved into new construction and got internet service hooked up today. I have the signal in the utility room connected to a wireless router temporarily. I have 8 Ethernet jacks positioned around the house with several in my new dedicated room so I can stream hardwired rather than over the WiFi. 
 
I am looking at a 16 port gigabit switch from NETGEAR to send the signal out to to various rooms but am wondering if there are better quality switches I should be considering and, if so, what I should be looking into. I don’t want a data bottleneck at the switch but also don’t want to spend more than necessary to get the job done.

Any thoughts are welcome.

128x128dodgealum

Congratulations on your new digs.

I tried an expensive Melco switch and compared to the bog standard Linksys I couldn’t tell a difference and fortunately was able to return it for a small fee.  There will be many posters here with different experiences 

With that many circuits, the Netgear switch is probably what you need.  Most audio switches have fewer ports, I think 8 is most I've seen, mine has 4.  

if you feel you want the isolation of an audio switch, you can put it at your music room.

Jerry

Try putting a good audiophile ethernet switch right in front of your streamer.  It can make a huge difference in a resolving system.  Examples are GTT Audio Dejitterit, JCAT M12 gold or Premium and Network Acoustics Tempus.  I have had all of these in my system and they all improved things.  I currently stack a JCAT M12 Gold switch going into the GTT Audio Dejitterit Switch.  Others may not believe, but I hear the improvements.  

I think how much / if you will hear a difference will be dependent on your streamer. The better the streamer the less likely you are to hear a difference among routers. 

A Netgear 8-Port Switch is just fine. All the switchgear upstream to the streaming source is of no better quality, it's just built to support hundreds, if not thousands of connections, and with extensive - and expensive - network management capabilities you will never need. I spent the better part of my professional career designing local and wide area networks for some of the largest companies and telecommunications providers in the world. Believe me when I tell you they laugh at the idea of 'audiophile' grade Ethernet. Ethernet itself and the associated software protocol suites are designed from the ground up to be resilient and highly resistant to environmental noise. Streaming audio and even streaming 4K video are considered very light loads on modern networks. Ethernet jitter - the variation in packet arrival times - are 100% mitigated by the packet buffers. If there's even a 1-bit error, the entire packet is retransmitted and reassembled in milliseconds, automatically and transparently to the users. 

Netgear will be just fine. But…can you use one of the router outputs to drive the signal to your audio room and just use switch for all other stuff? If so, it’ll be worth trying. 

Noise from a poor switch is not your friend. Get a good switch and a good filter like one from Network Acoustics.