Basic switch....should I upgrade?

@vinylvalet

Latency in audio applications is not a significant problem, easily addressed by buffering. Clocking accuracy, though is a whole other matter. Your friend clearly works in the digital domain. Analogue/digital conversion takes completely different priorities than digital transfer

@antigrunge2 I'm not sure about your point. Regardless of whether ethernet latency issues are a significant problem or not, why degrade latency deliberately (multiple switches) only to have to add more circuitry down the line, easily addressing (debatable) the issue you've introduced or not.

We are talking about the ethernet signal, clearly in the digital domain, not a non-ethernet digital stream decoded by a DAC.

Again, decisive is what gets to the converter. Latency is not the problem, RFI/EMI, ground level noise and timing errors are. Adding switches helps with those.