Ethernet switches the good and bad


Hello myself and northeast Audio club have done a lot of testing  ,

a simple switch is very noisy , I own both uptone audio ,Ether regen ,around $5-650 as well as Sonore deluxe. Both of these needs high quality Linear Power Supply to truly be optimum ,by far the best best built and sonically is the Linear Tube Audio is a great buy and over 6 pounds  with a very good Dc cable modt chsrge $150 extra  the only upgrade That works is fuse to synergistic purple and put a decent power cord a solid 10% improvement still the Linear Tube Audio LPS is $750

one company in Hong Kong  by friend tried Ediscreation - extreme is pretty decent but at $1800 Waay over priced s Hong Kong dollar very over priced, and if any issue send back to Hong Kong ,very $$

by far the best I have heard is the Synergistic Ethernet switch which comes with the $200 purple fuse,a $500 power cord it Retails $2200 but can be bought around $1700 and built in high end power supply ,this is actually a excellent product your streaming is much much more analog and detailed ,my brother owns one and that may be my next purchase. in my system it made a nice improvement and I already have a Denafrips Hermes DDC that cleans up digital noise very well . Each product mentioned above works to cleanup noise coming after the router, which BTW 

I bought a LPS 12v up to 8amp from little green computer for $299 and put a Pangea sig power cord with a synergistic Orange fuse. Got rid of the noisy junk wall wart plug , a noticeable improvement and made even wifi signal to TV better, yes these are tweaks but, being a Audiophile nothing is off the table to try .I just wanted to mention this ,and see what others maybe using , Enjoy you 🎶 music 🎼 

128x128audioman58

I had my ISP route the cable signal to the coax in my listening room.  Bought my own Modem and separate router.  I run optical from the router to a LHY SW-8 network switch (fiber media converters with 5 Volt LPS’s) and out of the SW-8 to my music server.  The fiber optic link was the biggest bang for the buck for me.  The SW-8 and Pangea Ethernet cables in between improved the sound even further.  

Added benefit:  I ran an Ethernet cable from the SW-8 to my TV.  Large improvement in picture quality when streaming.

I didn’t see anyone addressing yet another source of noise in the internet collection of devices. The internet source itself. Especially if you are getting TV over your cable also, like with Xfinity. I put an inexpensive PS Audio, ’HUMZERO’ on the input line to my modem and that eliminates all but the internet itself by way of creating an airgapped situation for your modem and router. it. Simple problem, simple solution. Now that Xfinity has installed Fiberoptic into my neighborhood even that has been reduced to only a slight concern now.

OMG did I just say something nice about XFINITY? I'm' sorry.

I own an Aurender N200 and they claim they have Double Isolated LAN ports that provide two layers of transformer-based isolation to filter noise out of Ethernet connection. How exactly would a Audiophile switch improve on this and would the improvement even be noticeable or worth the money, To me it's similar to these power conditioning devices. Some people notice HUGE improvements, and some notice no improvements. The degree of dirty power everyone has is different and the degree of how well it will improve their audio equipment will depend on the quality of the built in power supplies and the quality of their existing equipment. In my opinion this is a YMMV to the extreme. My Opinion is completely based on what others have said and tried and I have no practical experience with this myself. With this being said I've never tried Audiophile grade switches or any devices claiming to reduce noise on my ethernet, so I continue to read posts like this and POSSIBLY try something someday.

Hello @audioman58 ,  I have done many things to maximize the sound of my streaming.  I have no fibre.

All network cables upgraded to Supra Cat8.  not expensive.  There are other options discussed by @lalitk for upgrading ethernet cables at reasonable cost.

Network Acoustics Muon Pro System.  noticeable improvement.

JCAT M12 Gold Switch with JCAT Optimo 3 power supply.  Big improvement,  I needed a switch anyway, and this one sounds fantastic.  I tried Bonn 8 but it was not impressive.  I first had only the M12, and I easily heard the upgrade.  Then I added the power supply and it was even a bigger difference.  Both are up for sale on US Audiomart from someone.

I formerly had EtherRegen, but the switch and the Muon easily made this obsolete.

Also the addition of the M12, with it's included cables replaced the short Supra cables.  I

Anyone who has said the switch makes no difference has likely not heard the impact of the M12 with good Power Supply in a resolving system.