Ethernet Switch Recommendations Please

English Electric 8Switch.

I tried a number of switches including the 8Switch, Etherregen. Ended up purchasing Ansuz. Ansuz is a cut above the rest. You’ll be hard pressed to get something better. I’m thinking of upgrading to D3 next year. 

I have an LHY SW8 switch to provide multiple access points for my home theatre/ stereo set up (admittedly, more home theatre than stereo). I also bought their power upgrade and LPS power supply for my Bluesound Node, which made a major difference in sound quality. LHY makes nice stuff.

That said, I would NOT recommend the LHY ethernet switch, and I shared this reason with LHY directly. In the never ending effort to upgrade my system, I purchased better ethernet cables, which typically include solid and formidable connectors, e.g., Telegartner. The sonic improvement from a better connection is desirable, and if you have good quality cables with this sort of connector, be aware of how they would fit into the switch. LHY in particular has the inputs recessed slightly, which makes it an absolute bear if and when you need to move/ remove cables, particularly those with beefy connectors. That recess prevented me from accessing the tab on the connector to release a cable, and I resorted to using a screwdriver to press the tab. In hindsight I should have used a longer, thinner screwdriver, because I managed to break the tab off a pricey Shunyata cable.

I came across the Ediscreation Silent Switch, https://nandeaudio.com/geo/, which has gotten excellent reviews here and elsewhere online. I also auditioned the Synergistics Research UEF switch, which was underwhelming at its price. If my wife wasn’t looking , I would be very tempted to swap the LHY for the Ediscreation.

Hope this information is helpful.

Why is it necessary to have a switch AND a router?

@chowkwan - At the risk of over-simplifying, a router provides a transition between two separate networks, whereas a switch just allows multiple devices to communicate on a given network. Technically, if you only had one device - say, a streamer - you could just use a pure router to get your music from the internet. 

Most people are interested in audiophile switches because many on the market are reputed to reduce or eliminate network noise (which is a real thing - networks are noisy places). You might just want to put the switch between your streamer and your router to achieve this. But most people have more than one device, and therefore need a switch. As a side note, many Internet routers have built-in switches so that multiple network cables can be connected. These are of the noisy variety, however, and so an ‘audiophile’ switch may be needed for the best fidelity anyway.

Hope this helps…