Network Switches

English Electric 8 (EE8) network switch 

A very pretty switch with really cool lights.  Highly recommend.

Comes with a nice Ethernet cable, which is on the short side disappointingly

The English Electric 8 seems (to me at least) to an overpriced, and mediocre, piece of equipment. The primary selling point appears to be the crystal quartz oscillator that keeps time. This is a two dollar component that appears in a far range of electronics. For a 8 port, gigabit switch, 700 dollars is extraordinarily expensive. If you want to spend good money on a good switch, a rack mounted layer 3 would be a good bet.

I agree with the above comment, the EE8 is an overpriced piece of shite, and would struggle to be vfm at 20% of rrp. I had one here and ran it for 14 days and couldn’t wait to return it for a refund. It’s effect on my streaming rig at best could be described as a very mild polishing of the sound.

I achieved far better results for <£40 with the purchase of 2 used metal bodied commercial office switches (Zyxel 8 port & Cisco 5 port) which I mildly modded by disabling the LEDs, using gardeners copper slug tape over 100% of the internal of the casework, + some 3M RF/EMI patches and leaving only 2 ports open [1 in & 1 out].

Last week I added a Stack Audio Smooth-LAN passive filter directly behind my ZeniTH mk3  and this gave a pretty significant uplift to the sound. This little unit so impressed me that I’ve gone ahead and ordered their Smooth-LAN Regenerator  to see if this will up the ante.

Current Network = Full Fibre to property > 1.5m as supplied lan cable >

Router > 2m cat 5e > Zyxel 8 port > 0.75m cat 5e > Cisco 5 port > 0.75m cat5e > Smooth-LAN > 0.25m cat 8 > ZENith mk3.

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.

“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.”

@rbstehno , @deep_333 and anybody else who knows,  I’ve been thinking about trying this, as an empirical experiment. In my case, I’ve got a cable modem capable of 2.5Gb speed, but my ISP tops out at 1.3Gb, going into an eero 7 which then connects to a standard unmanaged ZYXEL switch, which itself is connected only to a Roon Nucleus One and my streamer/dac (all integrated into my NAD M33), which has an iFi silencer in its port.

So, as i don't have or need 10Gb capability, do i need anything beyond 2 media converters and a length of 1000 BASE-LX or SX fiber cable?  And is LX (single mode) necessary —or better - when the run will be less than 1 meter?   Assuming SX is fine, do these converters fit the bill?

https://www.cablesandkits.com/cabling/fiber/media-converters/mcmmsc-1gb/pro-4528/

Anybody have recommendations for fiber?

will this do the trick?

https://www.cablesandkits.com/mc/om3-lc-lc/fam-531/fp-3818/

thanks!