Network Switches

@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*.

“Looks like a gimmick.”

Judging a book by its cover....thanks for gracing us with your brief presence 😉

LOL. There is one born every minute. ;)

 Here's the deal. Any good service should download their stuff to a good sized fifo. Then you are playing it off your SSD and all this network nonsense goes away.
 In Linux that's quite simple, I can make a fifo, any size I want, dump the network stream into it, and play it, but I don't stream. ;)