@akg_ca - I agree this can force one 'down the rabbit hole', but that is the reason for my original post, to get people to go down it, and explain their reasoning. Also, your idea that there's no 'noise' before the DAC, is wrong. We're not talking of musical noise here, but noise genereated by the device itself, the switch eg.
The link you've supplied from the network engineer, is, basically, irrelevant, as he's talking of data transmission and it's integrity along the way, which is not the issue here. He also doesn't seem to understand the issue we're talking about. He says that it's ridiculous to suggest that this can colour the audio signals - THAT statement proves he's not on the same page as most on here, as no-one is talking of audio signals being coloured in a switch or ethernaet cable. nIt's the JITTER that's produced which is the issue, I believe.
Do you realise that your post has several duplications within it?
I agree with what cindyment is saying, I'm afraid akg, although we're not talking of analogue electronics here. Everything in this post is iin the digital domaine