Network 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. ;)

In the past it was the electrical engineer with years of studies behind him and plaques of degrees on his study wall whose domain it was to protect us from ourselves in audiophoolery. 

Thanks to computer audio, now a highly certified CCNA can now jump on that high horse too.

@david_ten 

Did the posts / responses answer your questions?

Yes, I believe so for now. Thanks again to all for the help. 

Based on the responses here and my sleuthing around on the internet, it seems a good start would be to purchase a switch and try it in different positions either near my router or near my Antipodes DX server.  I also plan to power my router, and possibly the switch too (if it needs power), using my HD Plex linear power supply that is currently not being used. 

As far as which switch, it seems a  Cisco WS-C2960G-8TC-L Catalyst 2960 8-Port 10/100/1000 Ethernet Switch is pretty well-regarded and would be a good start.  It can be purchased for less than $100 used or less than $200 "refurbished."  Should I assume I need 10/100/1000 ports?  The port configuration (speed?) seems to make a difference in the price, and they are not all the same.

Another "audiophile" switch I came across in my searching that is not mentioned in the OP is the Silent Angel Bonn N8 Switch for about $400 new, from Crux.