Network Switches

Things that may or may not make a difference in what I will hear is that with my Roon endpoint, the Metrum Ambre;

"The board is completely and optically decoupled from the rest of the Ambre."

This is apparently done using;

"ultra-fast industrial optical decoupling"

and

"The network connection is also galvanically isolated."

My understanding is the main Pi board and the outputs board are optically decoupled.
They also apparently use two femto precision clocks by Tentlabs.

Looks like a gimmick.

Ethernet is always galvanically isolated. The connection is through a transformer.

@mitch2  Did the posts / responses answer your questions?

To elaborate onthe post by @atdavid (and which I have not heard in this discussion) is that RJ45 based ethernet is via fully balanced signals travelling on twisted pairs. Thus,  just as is the case in balanced (XLR based) analog, any common mode noise should cancel at the destination. There is also no ground . . . So, I am of the mindset that any noise in the DAC is due to defective design on the NIC in that device, nothing else.

Not sure where USB got in the dialog, since that isn't networking . . . . and wifi is out of the context of noise on cables . . . (the focus here seems to wander hopelessly at times . . .). And yes, crap offshore *wireless* devices can spew god only knows what, but that was not the discussion . . . that was *cables* and *switches*.