Network Switches

@audionoobie and jnorris2005 and @ cakyol

Save your breath guys, you are hitting your head against a brick wall. There are those who even believe that a different Ethernet cable or USB cable can 'improve the audio". I am afraid that no matter how much you try your best to explain to them the difference between analogue and digital, it is just fingers in ears and "la,la,la,la,la,la,la", " your equipment is not as expensive as mine", "your ears are not as good as mine" and then pages of things that can affect an audio signal

Even though Amazon, Spotify and Netflix all use generic, mostly in-house manufactured Ethernet cables ($5 tops), and even though the music has passed through miles of cable and dozens of switches and has travelled the final 2 miles from my local exchange muxed with my email and with my telephone system on audio twisted pair past at least three generators, and is then demuxed, sent wirelessly to my music server, apparently I then need a special switch and special cable for the last few feet !!!!

From AQ's data-sheet for their most expensive d-Link switch in the world............. "The sound becomes generally clearer, more live and gets more space. Improved transient reproduction, more vivid resolution of fine detail. Due to the increased transparency, e.g. the breath in voices or the fingerplay on the strings are more perceptible. The bass is more contoured and more colorful. In addition, the three-dimensional image of the sound reproduction is improved. The stage appears to be wider and deeper."   So how does their switch decode the digitised audio, apply all of these 'enhancements' and re-encode them to digital?

@emailists     You said "To the people that believe an isolated switch cannot reap sonic benefits, I wonder why they are on an audiophile hobby site In the first place? " Well, I am here to find information on devices that can make a difference. Amplifiers, speakers, DACs etc.   Not the nonsense stuff

mike2019,

Once you figure out the Amplifiers, speakers, DAC’s etc, come back for further education on streaming, network switches and Ethernet cables. You have a long way to go but you’re on a right path.

@audionoobie, @jnorris2005 and @ cakyol

Do you guys stream music, if so would you please share your streaming setup? And does any one of you use Vinyl as prime source of listening? 

While there are some who mistakenly believe, and others who mistakenly promote that bit timing matters in Ethernet/USB transmission, as has been noted above, frequently, any of the technical discussion in this thread has centered around analog noise injection and potential downstream effects. While I expect this to be limited in Ethernet due to inherent isolation, there is still the potential, and for USB, the potential for noise injection is very high and very real.


Now, do I personally believe that expensive audio ethernet cables makes any difference? No and in fact they could be worse. For USB, there is enough noise injection, that a cable could make a minor difference good or bad. On the other hand, with USB certainly, reducing power supply and AC ground noise could certainly have an impact as would isolation, and with Ethernet, if there is noise injection into the audio, then isolation will help.As Almarg has pointed out, the "claims" of some of these "audio switches" is questionable at best and probably misguided, however, that does not mean that other aspects of last few feet transmission could not have some impact on the usually flawed designed product being connected.


I also don’t go for these childish "your system/ears/etc. is not good enough to tell the difference crap", but I also don’t go for these calls to authority about my "awesome experience", when it is not awesome for the topic, and if you are going to do that within the framework of this discussion, I would not be using "software engineer", or "network technician" because that communicates no knowledge w.r.t. noise free analog signal reconstruction. Perhaps you could enlighten us on what the packet arrival rate would be for an digital audio signal over ethernet?

cakyol150 posts10-30-2019 11:57pmThere is no such thing as an audio network switch. They ALL work on digital mostly ethernet packets. It is LUDICROUS to think otherwise.

PS: I worked for Cisco for 17 years as a software technical lead and I am now at Broadcom as a principal software engineer, who makes the chips for these switches.

mike20195 posts10-31-2019 7:21am@audionoobie and jnorris2005 and @ cakyol

Save your breath guys, you are hitting your head against a brick wall. There are those who even believe that a different Ethernet cable or USB cable can ’improve the audio". I am afraid that no matter how much you try your best to explain to them the difference between analogue and digital, it is just fingers in ears and "la,la,la,la,la,la,la", " your equipment is not as expensive as mine", "your ears are not as good as mine" and then pages of things that can affect an audio signal

I am not sure how this is at all relevant to the discussion?

lalitk1,415 posts10-31-2019 8:19amAnd does any one of you use Vinyl as prime source of listening?

I would like to know why I would need a switch as discussed here, where I would use it, and what it would do for me.  My knowledge of switches is basically non-existent, hence the dumb question.  If this is not the thread for this then just say so.

Currently, my system is played through a digital-only source using either streamed Tidal or my ripped library, both played through a Roon interface.  My system now sounds better than through any of the high end CD players I have owned so I don't really have a problem but I am curious whether I am missing out somehow by not having certain peripherals. 

The source set-up includes running Ethernet cable from my Orbi router (high speed Comcast) directly to an Antipodes DX Gen3 server, then Ethernet cable again from the DX to a Metrum Ambre (Roon endpoint), then I2S from the Ambre into a Metrum Adagio DAC. 

I would like to know what I am missing, or how my sound could be improved by having a switch somewhere in that chain?  I simply do not understand the purpose of the switch.  Thanks for any helpful information.

One off-topic thing I find interesting here is the possibility of optical cabling as an interface.  The Ambre (Roon endpoint) will accept an optical input and connects to my DAC using I2S so I am curious if inserting an optical interface would offer any improvements.