Network Switches

Why anybody would convert Ethernet to usb into a dac/streamer is nuts, going backwards in sound quality. Ethernet into the dac will always sound better than usb, anything sounds better than usb!

I wouldn’t use any switch with a wall wart power source going to my dac or streamer. I go out of my mesh router into a switch that has the power source built in, use an Soundstring power cable into the switch, and then into the streamer using a cat 7 Audioquest Vodka cable, then using a Revelation Audio $700 i2s cable from the streamer into the dac. 

Check out some reviews on going thru 2 switches that clean up the sound that sounds better than going thru 1 audiophile  switch, and they liked the sound better  going thru 2 cheap switches. I’m doing this but using a better switch that doesn’t use a wall wart power supply.

At an audio show, a dealer was doing a a/b comparison between an expensive $2000 audiophile switch and a typical switch and I thought the system sounded better with the cheap switch.

I just saw a video of someone going over an audiophile switch which was a rebranded d-link (the case had d-link pressed on it) switch with a couple caps installed for $700 more. If you want to eliminate any noise into your streamer or dac, convert the Ethernet to fiber then back to Ethernet at the streamer/dac.

Mswale-I agree with you. I was doing enterprise networks in 1990, doing token ring, Ethernet, and AppleTalk. I learned and mastered the Network General’s Sniffer where I could look at what was going on in each network. I could see the whole IP packet with all the associated metadata. 

When somebody tells you they modified the structure of an IP packet, that’s BS. If you do this nothing will work. When dealing with data, the standard mtu is 1500 bytes. When I was streaming large database data, I was using jumbo frames which increased efficiency in a WAN environment. If I was doing 4K streaming I would try using jumbo packets, but for music, the standard mtu is fine.

1 more thing, there is nothing to a switch, it forwards packets to a destination which can be another switch, router, or a device. Do a trace route to see how many hops you go thru getting to tidal/qobuz/google.

All the work happens on both ends of the route, not the switch itself. My switch is more of an enterprise switch where it doesn’t use a wall wart, and I’m using a few hundred $$ power cable into the switch

I also agree with the poster that i2s is the best interface. My streamers job is to change the signal path from Ethernet coming in to i2s going out.