Ethernet Switch- what's the point?

$1,349.00 for a LHY SW-10 is a hell of lot to spend on something that might not make much or any improvement. We’d probably all go broke it we adopted the recommendation to try for ourselves.

the sw8 and the english electric unit are under $600 msrp, less on used sites when they appear, etherregens regularly trade for $500, and so on...

like anything else, if you care enough you will figure out how to try something to see if it makes a difference

and then, there are certainly money-smart and money-stupid ways to try things...

high end hifi is a pursuit that does require money, time, effort and know-how to achieve a high level of performance

https://twitteringmachines.com/a-list-of-audiophile-network-switches/

@p05129 

all packets are guaranteed to be error free or they will be retransmitted.

Pretty sure audio and video streams are not sent in error checked packets, like an email or file sent by email or FTP.

@pedroeb

We’d probably all go broke it we adopted the recommendation to try for ourselves.

Then you are in the wrong hobby. We do this all the time. It’s what makes the market, and makes the hobby interesting. But it ain't cheap.

@p05129 You have demonstrated the exact and most common misunderstanding about streaming. This error even exists among IT professionals.  Why?  Because what you stated is exactly correct for the applications that you referenced.  I used to make the same argument.  Dropped bits cannot be tolerated in banking, defence, big business, etc.  AND IT TOOK ME A LONG TIME TO GET A STRAIGHT ANSWER.  Why?  because most don't know the answer--including many so-called experts.  Here is the difference:

Business uses File Transfer Protocol with error checking that will not let file transfer complete until the transferred file is EXACTLY like the original. Bit perfect.  but that's why sometimes it takes forever to download a file.

Streaming doesn't have the luxury of taking whatever time it takes for error checking to make sure the file is perfect.  Instead, it has to use what is called "error correction".  I'm no expert but as I understand it, it does it's best to interpolate for missing bits and moves forward.  So bits that get dropped, and there are lots of them, are estimated.  Of course video can be even worse. 

If every file stremed was perfect, there woud be no need for any high end streaming equipment, any high end digital cables, etc.  And this explains why you can never stream quality music wireless.

Just to be clear, I'm not criticizing you.  I started with the same misunderstanding.  

Best of luck,

Jerry

Streaming fonts is not the same as streaming music.