Anybody want a laugh?

@guyboisvert,
Who took the jelly out of your donut?

What I linked to was simply food for thought, nothing more. I don't have a dog in this fight as I don't use any kind of networking in my audio gear.

And that wasn't an article, if you cared to read it, but a review on a USB cable that's mid priced, at best. 

It's really amazing how the calls to authority come out of the woodwork when implying that music is not impervious to noise on the line.

All the best,
Nonoise

I second millercarbon's opinion on HFTs.  I have installed 32 of them, 3 types.   Five levels plus 5 per speaker (tweeter HFTs are a fail on my speakers).  The most important HFT is the side speaker ones with 1/8" change radically changes the frequency response up or down.  Instead of front and rear wall exterior treatments, HFTs are it!.  I have massive built in wall bass filtering/conditioning/traps and thick studio quality side wall and suspended ceiling acoustic panels.  I also think SRs fuses and power outlets are great buys.  However, I heard the ART system in a showroom and had them removed as well.  The difference was subtle better with them in but not worth my money.  The bass unit was a failure in my friend and my system, ruined the highs (none over 8Khz) and weirded up the sound (ah, but with a "darker" background).  SR is a great company for what they accomplished for my system.  

@nonoise  Yeah i know, you don't have "a dog" to respond to real arguments...  Your previous response "fueled" mine trying to sound superior and shut down real world digital principles...

"Knowing how it works doesn’t preclude that something poorly designed won’t have an effect".  This thread is about a network switch ripoff and abuse of consumer...  I'll repeat again and repeat with me: TCP/IP has been designed for best effort networks.  So what is you don't understand in that?

So after you add: "I have a funny feeling that there are some who actually believe that since it’s just ones and zeros, that they’re so small as to be unimportant. That’s fine for printing text but reproducing sound is another matter."
"So small to be unimportant":  You think that i, and engineers in general, don't know about the importance of errors in digital in general and how to handle it?

Not enough, you add: "That’s fine for printing text but reproducing sound is another matter"... You're trying to dismiss what i said and mixing things but at the end, it's the same.  Printing doesn't work if you send errors, be it on any interface / transport medium.  You really don't seem to understand digital in general: Storage, processing, transport, error correction, etc.

So the reason of my response.   I know what i'm talking about and Digital / network devices must be designed for the environment they are into.

Same apply for USB cables and the crap link you cited is just another of those stupid "trying to look technical" BS to push people wasting their money...
Computer interfaces, be it USB or any other, are designed to transfer data without errors...  Same apply for the USB interface of a DAC.  If you think it takes expensive cables, it's because you don't know about twisted pair, digital interfaces, checksums and async communications principles...  It's as simple as that.  Flip a bit and the checksum tells...so the idea of async communication + buffering.  If the DAC you buy can't handle that, it's simply because of a poor design.

So find back the "dog" you use at first toward me, barking doesn't impress me at all...  And study the subject before throwing your "funny feelings" around here...
All the best, my friend!

Here are some references for those who want to understand:
https://www.ti.com/sc/docs/apps/msp/intrface/usb/emitest.pdfhttps://www.usb.org/sites/default/files/crcdes.pdf
https://www.potaroo.net/ispcol/2001-09/2001-09-best.pdfhttps://networklessons.com/cisco/ccna-routing-switching-icnd2-200-105/introduction-qos-quality-servi...

For the best effort networks (that's what you have inside you own house!), you could use pro routers / switches that support QoS (Quality Of Service).  QoS will help for those who use streamers and have a busy network.  You know, games of your kids, Netflix, big downloads, etc!

Here is one of the best little router money can buy:https://www.amazon.com/MikroTik-RBD52G-5HacD2HnD-TC-Dual-Concurrent-802-11a-Ethernet/dp/B079SD8NVQ

Don't let the price fool you: It's really a pro product and we have many installed in SMB clients offices.  It easily beats models costing 5-10X more.  I use his bigger brother (RB4011) with more ports in my own house.

But there is indeed a learning curve, it's pro stuff.  One has to understand networking, be good at googling and not afraid of reading / testing.
Those "audio networking products" should just concentrate on real important topics and provide a friendly user interface.

 If you want to improve your streaming quality set priority to the streamer. One of these   managed netgear switches for $30 will do more than the linked unmanaged switch. 
https://www.netgear.com/business/products/switches/web-managed/GS305E.aspx