Why do I need a switch?


I just watched a few videos about audiophile switches and I don’t understand the need. Cable comes into my home and goes to a modem and then a NetGear Nighthawk router. I can run a CAT6 to my system or use the wireless. If you don’t need more ports, why add something else in the signal path?  On one  of the videos the guy was even talking about stacking several switches with jumpers and it made the sound even better. He supposedly bought bunch’s of switches at all ranges and really liked a NETGEAR 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Plus Switch (GS108Ev3) That costs $37 on Amaz.

Thanks in advance.

128x128curiousjim

@erik_squires  nothing has changed, I said the same thing then as I say now, there is no need for these Ethernet filters, they do not do anything for audio at all. Never will. 
 

the standard you are referring to specifically states what it is for, to prevent current leakage that could take life preserving equipment offline. And your filters are for equipment that doesn’t have it built in. At no point will it improve the signal, and the standard certainly doesn’t state that. 

I added a high end Ethernet cable which feeds my Aurender. The claim was that this cable minimized noise, but I believe that the N20 input is galvanically isolated, so in theory, the expensive last few feet of Ethernet cable should have been a waste of money, but at the time I thought it improved the sound. I’ll need to replace it with a cheap cable and see if it makes the same difference after I have lost my return privileges.

BTW “snake oil” is the mother’s milk of politics and it has been used to control the masses for thousands of years.  So, a bit of audio snake oil is more amusing than a serious issue.

At no point will it improve the signal, and the standard certainly doesn’t state that.

Not an argument I ever made, except in the cases of shielded Ethernet, in which case I could see only grounding one end as being a good idea.