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Ethernet switches connection to router etc

TheDecameron

TheDecameron

Unicorns fart glitter.
Our Virgin router only has four sockets, one of which is used to connect it to a power line adapter for Wi-Fi in another room.
I need some extra sockets for TV, devialet, Melco, blu ray player etc. Do I buy a switch plug it in and use any combination of its and the Virgin router’s sockets? Is there any difference between cheap and dearer items?
 
Basically yes plug a cable into a router socket and into a switch socket, an 8 port switch with give you a combined total of 10 ports. I wouldn’t buy a crazy cheap switch, get something like a Netgear GS308 for twenty quid off Amazon.

Older routers often have 100Meg ports while the switch you buy will have 1000Meg aka Gig ports so a lot faster transferring data, in real world about 3 times as fast, in a normal house scenario this won’t matter much unless you copy loads of files/music/vids from one device to another. Normally I'd use the switch ports in preference to the router ones.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07PWHGQSS/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21


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I have a Netgear GS105 switch with 5 ports. I ran a 10 meter ethernet cable to it from one of the sockets on our Virgin hub in another room.
This leaves me with four sockets on the switch to use; two I use for Macs and a third for an RPi (leaving one spare...)
All of these function fine at the same time, as do all the bits and bobs filling up the remaining sockets on the Virgin hub. (TV, another Mac and daughter's PC upstairs)

The Netgear was so cheap it wasn't worth skimping on.
 
TheDecameron said:
Our Virgin router only has four sockets, one of which is used to connect it to a power line adapter for Wi-Fi in another room.
I need some extra sockets for TV, devialet, Melco, blu ray player etc. Do I buy a switch plug it in and use any combination of its and the Virgin router’s sockets? Is there any difference between cheap and dearer items?
Click to expand...
Tin hat time, I fully understand and take the risk! I have an all Naim/Linn TP powered system. As recommended here by others, I bought a decent quality NG switch and thought no more about it. At the suggestion of a dealer, when the NG fritzed after 18months or so, I borrowed an English Electric 8 switch from him. I fully expected to take it back after the weeks trial to tell him he was bonkers to expect me to shell out £450 on hifi voodoo. I even bought a replacement NG from Amazon for just that time. Cut a long story short, the EE8 has stayed and the new NG went back to Amazon. The difference was amazing. It was as big a difference as fitting the karousel to the LP12. I don’t profess to know why it does and no doubt there will be the usual naysayers along to tell you that it can’t make a difference. All I can say is that with my system, in my room, with my ears, it did.
 
What puzzles me is unplugging the network cable from a streamer doesn’t kill the music playback, there is data in a memory buffer, so how can the switch improve that method of playback. If you unplug speaker cable or interconnect, the music stops immediately.

I’ve had numerous types and brands of switches feeding my hifi systems and not noticed any improvement or negative impact with any of them. When the opportunity arrises I will borrow one of the audiophile switches and see for myself.
 
Amber Audio said:
What puzzles me is unplugging the network cable from a streamer doesn’t kill the music playback, there is data in a memory buffer, so how can the switch improve that method of playback. If you unplug speaker cable or interconnect, the music stops immediately.

I’ve had numerous types and brands of switches feeding my hifi systems and not noticed any improvement or negative impact with any of them. When the opportunity arrises I will borrow one of the audiophile switches and see for myself.
Click to expand...
As I say, I don’t know why! I really wanted to take it back as well as I’m tighter than a clam with lockjaw. Could it be equipment specific? I’ve noticed over the years that Naim gear is very susceptible to noise and grounding issues.
 
Seen mention of mains noise from the cheap psu some small switches use affecting other components, presumably these expensive switches will have better quality/quieter supplies/filters. If you get an improvement commensurate with the cost and feel it’s a worthwhile upgrade for you then it’s all good. I work in IT so have trouble understanding how network kit can influence things like soundstage/bass etc. Just because I’ve not found an improvement swapping switches/cables around doesn’t mean there can’t be in other situations though.
 
I've just added a second Netgear 1G switch to my network loaded with just server.SBT and Pi connected plus a link back to the first switch.. This has killed all stuttering on the Pi even with very High Res files. Music also feels "fuller."
 
I tried a fair few, there was clear differences between them all. Some had plastic ports, some hard metal ports, some self powered, some ac powered.

I've never tried an 'audiophile' swtich, I was merely trying a range of budget ones out. I settled for a fairly inexpensive one at around £30 fro Argos and added an IFI quiet power adaptor, which made a MASSIVE difference, but I would like to try one of these super expensive ones for sure.
 
I've just bought one of these from eBay, because I needed something: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cisco-WS...d=link&campid=5338728743&toolid=20001&mkevt=1

There's a very long and entertaining thread on Wigwam https://www.hifiwigwam.com/forum/topic/149463-ethernet-cables-and-switches/ extolling the virtues of this and other, much more expensive switches. I bought this because it had the right number of ports, needs no set up (necessarily, though as it can be managed, you can set it up if you know how), I like the idea of an onboard PSU rather than a wall wart and it seems a bit of a bargain. It arrived the day after ordering.

It works fine and does just what I needed it to do, replacing a little Netgear 8 port switch, which is now upstairs near the HiFi, distributing one cable's traffic to the Bluray player, the streaming board, the chromecast and two laptops. It doesn't sound any worse. Does it sounds any better ? Who knows.
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
eisenach said:
I've just bought one of these from eBay, because I needed something: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cisco-WS...d=link&campid=5338728743&toolid=20001&mkevt=1

There's a very long and entertaining thread on Wigwam https://www.hifiwigwam.com/forum/topic/149463-ethernet-cables-and-switches/ extolling the virtues of this and other, much more expensive switches. I bought this because it had the right number of ports, needs no set up (necessarily, though as it can be managed, you can set it up if you know how), I like the idea of an onboard PSU rather than a wall wart and it seems a bit of a bargain. It arrived the day after ordering.

It works fine and does just what I needed it to do, replacing a little Netgear 8 port switch, which is now upstairs near the HiFi, distributing one cable's traffic to the Bluray player, the streaming board, the chromecast and two laptops. It doesn't sound any worse. Does it sounds any better ? Who knows.
Click to expand...

There is something to be said for ignoring the sprinkled with fairy dust audiophile switch and just buying a known industry standard quality commercial product. I have more faith in the Cisco brand for switches than some audio guff. After all most of the Internet is built with Cisco switches.
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
slavedata said:
There is something to be said for ignoring the sprinkled with fairy dust audiophile switch and just buying a known industry standard quality commercial product. I have more faith in the Cisco brand for switches than some audio guff. After all most of the Internet is built with Cisco switches.
Click to expand...

To my ears switches do make a very significant difference (improvement).

On the other hand poweline - and for my Naim based system WiFi - degrade the sound

A (second hand) Cisco improved on a Netgaer (to my ears)
The Etherregen improves on the Cisco
The finest sounding result to date , is the Cisco feeding into the Etherregen (I will write up soon)

In this case the OP will be using a powerline along the route - so my *guess* is that the Cisco/Etheregen will need to be after the powerline section of the path
 
And the ASR review (video linked to above) proves fairly conclusively otherwise.

"Conclusions
Computer, networking and streaming architecture instructs us that an external switch cannot have any effects on an Audio DAC. But it is always good to put some hard data behind this. And that is what the measurements show. That no matter how deep we dig down in the waveforms coming out of the DAC, no difference exists between a cheap, generic switch and UpTone EtherRegen. Even when going down to incredible -160 dB which is equivalent to a 27 bit audio word (3 bit more than any 24 bit content), there is still no difference.

Measurements conclusively demonstrate that EtherRegen did not change jitter, noise or distortion of the DAC. It further had no impact on its clock speed, or output voltage."

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/.../uptone-audio-etherregen-switch-review.10232/

As always - YMMV
 
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