Basic switch....should I upgrade?

@lalitk T H A N K S... reading away. I think at this point my whee noggin has crossed the rubicon. Madness takes it toll. Have exact change.

@jerrybj How did you come up with those mods and build please? Did you put it together yourself? What’s the overall cost? I’m not asking for my self but we know there’s more than just a little bit of interest in ethernet improvement from the old blue cable.

@curiousjim We had 2 Megs DSL back a few years. No streaming then. Now high end streaming is a lot of fun. I’m nostalgic about 33&1/3 but that’s not a deep pang. 

@curiousjim

In a closet away from stereo I have a StartLink modem feeding a ubiquity router that feeds via in wall cat 5 to several switches elsewhere in house. D Link switch for stereo will be gone.
l have tried direct into steamer and into steamer using the EtherRegen. The EtherRegen definitely better.   

@boxer12 I’m using this one .6 meter very short out of ERegen and a 40’ in that was needed to get to where stereo stuff is into the ERegen . Can’t get to gear any other way except a wireless solution.

@melm  Yes a better PSU regardless if the switch is changed. Thx.

@audphile1 I have tired direct into EtherREGEN (can’t tell much of a difference, hymn) but need a switch in my set up for a roon nucleus, ect. Thx

Yes D Link switch.

iFi 5v power supply for the D-Link is inexpensive for a PSU...Will check out

@audphile1 9V for the D-Link 105?

Clear as mud as my Dad used to say. No I got this.

Thanks all.

So far my take away is defiantly cleanup power into the switch and a better switch could/should (????) help. A better switch would require finding out the voltage needed to power the unit.

@lalitk I just picked a random TT. Beauty is the the eye of the beholder.

@fredrik222 I’m trying to find a five port (need three) enterprise switch... none so far. The Silent Angel Bonn N8 - TCXO Audiophile Ethernet Network Switch @fastfreight uses to my reading of the specs look very good and it uses a 5V source too. Thoughts?

About a TT when we moved...you can guess the rest.

Clean it all up. Yes!

@fredrik222 Did you glance at specs for the Angel Boom? That’s not in my wheelhouse.

@sns (Nice System!!!) The EtherREGEN has a fiber optic out and I want to use that as I’m certain using the EtherREGEN is a definite improvement. But like my hard to suss question will a switch in front of that also matter? Most likely yes.

@audphile1 KISS got ‘cha. Thx for the six part test.
@twoleftears The rundown is as follows.
Wall Ethernet into D link switch.
Out of Dlink switch short audio grade ethernet into EtherREGEN & short run to Roon nucleus.

Also into EtherRegen aduio grade Ethernet  cable from clock.

Out of etherRegen fiber optic to streamer.

@fredrik222

I’m in the sticks using StarLink to get robust internet. I’m all over a real switch but do you think a firewall too would, in my application, be needed?

I sure appreciate your (and all you other folks too) help and insights.

@fredrik222 

B I N G O

“What is clear is that you can’t plug use a bad switch, and then add another device to clean up the bad switch output. That’s not how things work in networking”

Might I ask what your day job is? I’m guessing something in the sphere of  ones and zeros. Also do you stream and if so what’s your setup to the streamer?

Just tried something. Instead of what amounts to using two switches I went to one.

Took the Dlink away and plugged in Ethernet cable from wall into EtherRegen. This only required no longer using the fiber optic cable and running a Ethernet cable into steamer. Do I hear a difference. Think maybe a tad.

@classdstreamer Last stop is steamer. The nice man @ EtherREGEN who’s name I currently can’t conjure was very helpful/patient when I got my unit. One cardinal rule of use he told me that if using fiber only to come in one side with Ethernet cable and out the other with the fiber optic. Nothing else in or out. Did that. But that made it a one port unit.
Now with Ethernet cable all round I can also run to the Roon server and a hard drive.
http://open.qobuz.com/playlist/3511772 Qobuz system test playlist is what I use

I think it sounds just as good or a tad better than the fiber optic. The Cable from EtherREGEN is tiptop. With the Ethernet cable I think the sound has more air and with the fiber optic less. If that groks?

@audphile1" I don’t think stacking switches is a great idea." Agree but no can do if using the optical cable. Here’s the current setup and below the EtherREGEN words to the wise (who can read). So if optical, then two switches....jesh I’m flummoxed. @fredrik222 Thoughts?

@anzaanimalclinic Can you please post a snap(s) of your three switch setup?

On Page 6 of the EtherRegen Manual "

"Since it is preferred that your audio endpoint (DAC-attached streamer/renderer) be alone on one side of the moat, users who connect an optical endpoint should avoidconnecting any other devices to the other ’A’-side ports (the four RJ45 copper ports)"

@fredrik222 Think you mean Ethernet is more than SFP? 

I seem to be flip flopping over SFP verses Ethernet cable. Ever time I switch I’m happy (no telling my wife….I’ve been laying ground work for other goodies)

Less of a chain (wires, power et all) to me makes sense. YMMV. 

@lalitk Network Acoustics now has the muon Streaming System But to use roon and the hard drive I would need a switch. English Electric 8Switch seems to be an excellent choice. Trying to decide if the included power best option. They say not to use linear power with the unit.

A lot more here on the Muon

@audphile1 Thank you. On it like hot sauce on rice.(I think I know a place where I can sell the gear I’ll be replacing.)

@antigrunge2 My steamer has a "Femto Clock System with precision FPGA distribution" (no idea what ’dat means) and your steamer also has an internal clock too.

Before typing this I nosed around the forum and some think a "master clock" is the way to go and some think two clocks aren’t necessary as the streamer re-clocks. Going the Network Acoustics way re-clocking ins’t possible whereas going the etherREGEN way it is. Chicken or egg...filter and/or clock? Clear as mud.

This segway from the switch question seems like a natural progression as it really all about the signal path into the streamer. Gone are the days of AM radio and flesh colored earphones.

@cakyol Dude.....This is team USA; everyones knows what they are talking about. (Young man you are no better than your father and he was no better than his father. Bet the internet doesn't know that one.) Seriously I have benefited a lot thanks too many.  Hans Beelhuysen says one thing someone else says another. Ok. Yup. It's everywhere. Here the pervasive generosity is tops. 

I just dig learning about this stuff and like many like my gear (a lot of watch and car folks here too I'd wager) and refining and/or just switching it up. Your honors, my room is the weakest link but that a non starter w/ you know who.

@sns Bingo! That mangled blue junk from the modem to the router could use an up grade. While I'm at it will also get power lines away. 

@antigrunge2  @melm & @audphile1 I did ground the etherREGEN and the PSU to my streamer (both having ground screws) with some scrap 12G wire and I'm surprised how more holographic sound is. It's like my speakers took growth hormones. My holographic cherry has been popped. Thanks gents.

I chucked my poor switch and use only the etherREGEN. As tempting as a Network Acoustics Eno or Moun would be that would require a switch.

If it ain't broke don't fix it.... unless you're an audiophile. Right? 

@fredrik222 

Wow that overview drives home the complexity behind a simple bit of setup. The gold verses silver analogy is easy enough to get. 

The French word for digital is numérique and that makes it (digital) sound sexy.  

I want my numérique musique to sound its best. 

Ok: My Update after a lot of kind help here, dowsing, pontificating, Dunning-Kruger deprogramming, reading, writing and arithmetic (or something like that).

1.) Alex (co-birth father of the EtherRegen) is beyond nice and helpful. I had emailed him about power supplies for the EtherRegen. He asked me what I was using and I told him an AfterDark: Linear Power Supply x 2. FULL STOP. I had written to him as the AfterDark: Linear Power Supply was hot to the touch and I thought something wasn’t quite right (it powered both the AfterDark clock and EtherRegen). He told me not to use the AfterDark: Linear Power Supply x 2 to power the EtherRegen as it canceled out functionality. How right he was! Using both power taps was the problem. Into the EtherRegen went an iFi iPower Elite - Low Noise Power Supply Adapter (12V). My wife came into the listing area and (unasked) told me the sound was better and what had I done? (This from the woman who’s eyes roll back into her noggin when I even get close to the outer phalanxes of all things stereo.) Better as in Wowzeer. Additionally the AfterDark power supply is cool to the touch.

2.) The other thing Alex told me was to run fiber/SPF (and to use Single mode fiber optic cable.) from a switch with SPF into the EtherRegen as that’s the best way for the cleanest signal. I got an Enterprise one from Ubiquiti. Bam.

Qobuz test tracks

Perhaps at this point this update will be a needed soporific.

I used the enterprise switch with a fiber optic out into to an EtherRegen and then out of Regen into ye old steamer with a dang fine ethernet cable. Sound was very very clean...a bit too clean. So.....

Removed switch (again this time a "good" one) and tried EtherRegen first with ethernet cable in and fiber optic out and then with ethernet in and ethernet out. With my gear the all ethernet sounds best. YMMV

Clean any and every thing a reap the rewards. Maybe even get a gold star?

@lalitk  Got the Ubiquity Switch Enterprise 8 PoE (Layer 3, PoE switch with (8) 2.5GbE, PoE+ RJ45 ports and (2) 10G SFP+ ports.) Now used else where in house. 

@lalitk Yah...who would have thought fiber wouldn't be the end all? Checked out you system. Wow! Good on you.  (My Dad had Tannys and my mom in a deserved  fit of anger gave them away along with the rest of the excellent stereo.) I'm guessing you might have been to a certain La Verne, California destination?. 

@fastfreight Welcome to the M12 KoolAid club. I also had a lot of back and forth emails. Marcin’s English is excellent. What did you do for power? You saved a few hundred USD as the Euro is sluggish  

My unit should be here in two-three weeks.

The old D-Link seems like decades ago.

The EtherRegen will get placed into a whole house “B-” system.