Update on good Ethernet switch

@jerrybj Thanks!  You addressed and resolved both of my concerns with actual experience!

The LHY-8 switch has a bunch more inside then the eastern electric switch 

we compared them and loooked inside for your monies nothing better under $1k 

You all know that banks and the military all depend on the exact same network protocols that we use to stream music, right?  And the switching and routing technology is all based on the same protocols. 

If the data was altered in any way in transit, the numbers would be off.  There are billions of financial transactions that occur (probably daily) involving billions of dollars and if the numbers didn't match our banking system would collapse (because you wouldn't trust it).  

Professional switches and routers are built to handle more simultaneous data, or have more ports, or have better management capabilities, plus you pay for the vendor's support which is crucial when something goes wrong.  But a nice Cisco switch is going to follow the same protocols that the cheap Linksys switch follows because, ultimately, you need to be able to connect one to the other and have them work.  And they do!  Because the ISPs, the backbone carriers, and whoever is hosting Qobuz or Tidal is using those very expensive Cisco switches (or some other enterprise-level brand) and many of their subscribers are using Linksys (or TP Link or whatever). 

There are a LOT of switches/routers between Qobuz or Tidal and your streamer.  Qobuz is NOT using some esoteric audiophile router/switch because their IT needs to be able to get 24/7 support from vendor experts if anything goes down.  

The data in a TCP stream arrives exactly as it was sent.  However, if you lose packets, you can have problems and that is a real issue, but packet loss is most likely going to occur on the Internet between the Qobuz servers and your ISP router and not on your internal network.  But it could.  And wireless adds a whole other avenue for things to go wrong where the data has challenges getting from the transmitter to the receiver.  But if the data gets from the sender to the receiver, it should be exactly the same ones and zeros.

So what I'm saying is that, as long as your network is working like it is supposed to (and better hardware can help ensure that), it should transparently transport the sound.  Better hardware could help make sure that the data gets transmitted properly.  I suppose. 

I am not arguing that you don't hear a difference.  But why are you hearing that difference?  Anyone have any insight to that?  What does that audiophile quality switch do that makes it better?  Do they guarantee no packet loss? 

I guess in the end if it sounds better to you, than that is all that matters.  And that is fine.  It's like buying a more expensive rack to support your gear just because it looks nicer than another one.  Perfectly valid.  But at least you know why the nicer rack is nicer.  I think the challenge here is that no one can quantify why those switches sound better.  

I am not arguing that you don’t hear a difference. But why are you hearing that difference? Anyone have any insight to that? What does that audiophile quality switch do that makes it better?

@charliech What you’re completely missing here is noise, among other things, which is critical in an audio application and not as much in industrial applications. Add a better linear power supply to a switch, router, or streamer and you’ll almost certainly get notably better sound quality than using an onboard SMPS. Also, audiophile switches, streamers, etc. employ other components to keep noise, jitter, etc. to an absolute minimum because in streaming minimizing noise and using better clocks is huge. Full stop. I know on its face it seems a bit odd that these things should make such a significant difference in getting better sound, but they just do and there’s really no getting around it. Embrace it or deny it, that’s entirely up to you.

It all matters in audio. Besides, if part of a $1 million wire transfer arrives a little late but still arrives, its still money. If parts of your music arrive a little late....who knows right? I can state emphatically though that large amounts of money with embedded jitter causes some trepidation when trying to spend it.