Why do I need a switch?

for me a nicer switch made a difference, but as part of a more extensive setup with various items helping with noise suppression, improved clocking, and superior power management -- the switch was but one element

that said, i would say that for most, the improvement the switch brings is fairly subtle, and thus one needs a pretty sensitive ear and/or highly resolving system for the difference to be quite apparent

if one cares to dive into the details of what matters and why it matters ... watch this... dry delivery, hang in there, it is an excellent explanation and quite complete in covering the relevant bases

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-StTplQZys

oh man here we go again... 🙄

taking a step back, i think part of the fun in this pursuit is trying stuff and finding out for yourself

used (or discounted demo) gear is a good answer... op can buy a used ’audiophile switch’ at a fair price... say 50-60-70% of full retail... try it, decide with his own ears -- if it doesn’t make a positive difference, turn around resell it for little or no haircut

as i ventured through my streaming journey since covid shut us all in a few years... i have basically tried everything worth trying (for me...) in this manner ... streamers, dacs, filters, switches, cables, all of it... and in my own mind, this journey has allow me to figure out what matters to me, in my system, what is of marginal, or just total nonsense, and so on...

yes, there is planning and effort involved, and care needed, also need patience, and some spending power to do this -- but for me it has been (and continues to be) a road well worth travelling

otoh, some of us aren’t really into the journey, don’t want to expend the effort, come here ask a question, just want the simple answer, then they get much input that is contradictory, vocal naysayers abound, and then frustration ensues ...

my belief gained through my travels on this subject is that good clocking and elimination of electrical noise pollution are both important... the importance of the latter highly is dependent on the nature of upstream signal feeds/routers and of course, one’s digital music source (multi use computer, streamer, renderer, what have you...)

it is not just about the integrity of the transmitted data packet info (the networking guys only focus on this, this is a necessary but insufficient condition for success in hifi reproduction), it is about how the data gets decoded accurately back into analog without distortions caused in the process (which requires proper timing and electrical properties of the waveform being read during the conversion...)

Seeing as this is only a test, I just ordered a couple of the Ethernet to fiber boxes from Amazon and we’ll see what happens. If I hear anything I’ll get better power supplies and if I hear nothing, they’ll go back and I’ve shelved adding a switch for now. I do have a cheap five channel switch somewhere, but it can stay in the cabinet for now.

to do this assessment correctly you should have a well filtered or linear power supply on the ’clean’ side (receiving end) fiber media converter... otherwise, the noisy power supply there puts the electrical hash right back in ... before the dac gets the bitstream, thus defeating the purpose...

@mitch2

yes indeed, a simple lps for the ’clean side’ fiber receiver is not much money, and can also be bought on a refundable basis, if one does this smartly

just want to make sure when an experiment is run to learn whether a desired effect can be achieved, that it is not self defeating at the outset...

i have tried lan cleansing using network acoustics passive eno, etherregen, and etherregen via optical (via its sfp port into a optical rendu)

in my system, all three sound excellent, give the music a purity and relaxedness otherwise not obtained... but try as i might in comparing, i can not honestly say one of the three sound better than the others, but all were noticeably better than no cleansing at all - maybe it is my home (a recently built one), my service area, my internet vendor's equipment that makes my situation less demanding of these cleansers, i don't know...

i would say (and have said elsewhere) that when using optical modules and fmc’s to cleanse a network feed for audio, the quality of the modules, the fmc’s and power supply are all very important in achieving the desired, positive effect