Why do I need a switch?

@tonywinga 

I’ll try moving the fiber to the router end of things and see if I hear anything.

 I have a 100’ Cat 6 cable, but it has to go down and cross the hallway before I can connect it to the server. Not wife approved!😁

@mitch2 

I have DH Labs, Silversonic Mirage USB from the server and XLR’s to the integrated amp.  Please Tell me more about your experiences with the Hermes.

Thanks.

I keep reading about this fiber conversion step and it has me scratching my head vs the Network Acoustic passive ethernet options. Been there and done that with fiber and the NA passive filter and cables easily surpass the sound quality of the fiber gymnastics options IMHO.  I suggest trying the Network Acoustic options as they have a nice trial period.  You won’t be disappointed if your system is reasonably resolving. The Muon filter and network cable did wonders for my digital streaming.  I have moved up to the Muon Pro and think it is well worth the investment.  

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

I use a netgear pl1200 lan and a 5 port netgear switch and it sounds great. Go by what you hear, not what people say. If you have a large income and want an expensive network, then ok. It may or may not help the sound. I think your 8 port switch is ok if gigabit. The Electronics of the streamer does the work as long as the bandwidth is good, and you use a decent DAC. Wireless is not as good as wired.