So, let’s drill down a bit here. I realize I need to go hard-wired to a good streamer, and it also makes sense I should upgrade my switch. Can’t do both right now, so I’m guessing I should go with hardwired streamer first and then upgrade switch? Or Optical Rendu? Thoughts?
That's what I do now. Ripped all my discs to NAS and use wired ethernet to opticalRendu. That beats the microRendu I had previously by eliminating a lot of noise as described in many posts below. Even the microRendu crushed my MacMini w/Audirvana+ or Amarra because a low power specialized device with a good LPS is SO much quieter than a PC/Mac running many processes unrelated to audio playback.
You don't have to go nuts ripping all disks at once...just start with your most frequently played and do a few each week while you're watching movies, etc.
The mastering of what you've got on disc vs. what services stream is a mystery and huge rabbit hole. Your findings are no shocker. With rips to a NAS or SSD, clean wired ethernet and a decent streamer you should well be on your way. FWIW, Andrew at SGC recommended a $20 TP-Link switch that sounds very good at nominal cost. Just don't skimp on the power supply for your streamer/renderer; they make a huge difference in SQ. Cheers,
Spencer