Do I really need an " Audio Grade Network Switch "?

I like to say, yes and yes, from my experiences trying many many switches and finally ended up accepting the Sotm 10G + ZeroZone R-Core 100 watts LPS + Shunyata Venon V12 NR + Ghents Audio DC cable.

I went to hell and back spending hundreds of dollars lost quantifying this equation.

Hard road to travel and will not be doing it again. 

I don’t even have a streaming network, but feel compelled to respond. Count me in the "everything matters (sonically)" camp.

That doesn’t mean I have an electrical engineering degree and would enjoy debating this point with every wonk that pops up on these threads. Always a bad sign when the same people post 3-4X with increasing hysteria when no one seems to be paying attention to their assertions that NOTHING MATTERS WHATSOEVER in all things digital. Once is enough, guys.

I have a history of actually hearing small differences due to minor system changes. When I hear, I’m using the only test instruments I possess--ears. So I can dabble with this or that box to do this or that, so long as I can afford the cost. Why not?

I remember the fury unleashed on people like me who heard early ’80s CDs & digital players as sounding horrible compared to any decent vinyl rig. Saying that was like saying there’s no Christmas or Santa or anything but moon rock. People went batshit crazy. Decades later, we all know about jitter; we all know about the influence of power supplies, clocks, other components--things that weren’t known in the early ’80s.

So really, I trust my ears more than anyone shouting from the rooftops that nothing matters in digital sound.

PS: I heard and still hear improvements in digital audio sound by using SPDIF converters in-line before the DAC (to my ears coax sounds best of the various non-USB options). And I recently replaced my main SPDIF converter with a DDC (a SPDIF converter that also reclocks the signal) and immediately heard sonic improvements. I've also heard changes (most positive, but some not) when using audiophile USB cords in those times I listen to digital via USB straight into the DAC. 

(ie, everything matters sonically)

@desktopguy 

👍👍

I only wish that people who have nothing but theoretical postulates to reiterate would exercise some restraint.

Dear Mr. Grunge.... amen

I have absolutely no interest in hearing from the engineering crowd about why it can’t possibly work. I have absolutely no interest in looking at test results from Audio Science Review where he doesn’t even listen, he just measures.

I do see value in people stating what they have tried and what the results have been. I see absolutely no value in the naysayers who have various argument about why it shouldn’t make a difference. Bumblebees shouldn’t be able to fly.. but they do.

(and yes, I do know that the bumblebees can’t fly theory has been disproven)

I have been in IT services for 20 years; my understanding is that data arrives intact or doesn't. If you hear a difference, you have a bad power supply in your switch that adds noise, affecting the DAC's Analog out. Wall warts = noise, but a good power conditioner should make all that moot. Confirmation bias is real. 

I liked reading those EE's or just being well informed of us list out the inner spec on 802.x etc. Thank you.

We regularly swap out ethernet cables with systems that start to get buggy random packet loss or slowness in a database, and It's cheaper to do that than buy a Fluke networks qualification tester. (Though we have one) CAT5/6/7/8 takes a beating over time, and getting the higher-spec cable should help in inference-based packet issues.