Ethernet Switch- what's the point?


I run an Ethernet cable between my router (standard issue from Verizon) and my streaming transport. I note that some use an ethernet switch between between the router and streamer. Assuming I got that right, what is the point- what does a good switch do? I've been into audio since the 70's but when its comes to streaming, I'm definitely a newbie- 

Thanks all!

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Showing 1 response by panzrwagn

TCP/IP guarantees delivery 100% error free 100% of the time. No switch or cable can give you better zeroes or ones. Noise, if it exists, is introduced after the fact. Some streaming uses another protocol called UTP which does not guarantee packet delivery, but it is not used in any audio streaming I am aware of, and rarely used any more with video. Differences, if they are perceived, are either confirmation bias or analog perturbations further downstream due to DAC filter design, poor power supply isolation, or induced noise. 

As for the claim that 'streaming fonts is not the same as streaming music'. You are misinformed. At the network layer, wired, wireless, fiber optic, it is exactly the same in all respects. That's the beauty of TCP/IP, it simply does not care about the nature of the payload or the media over which the payload is carried. It delivers packets, error checked, retransmitted if necessary, packets irrespective of the payload. And audio, even 32bit X 384kBits/sec are not even remotely strenuous loads for modern networks.