are NET Switches worth considering?

@fire_water investigate Melco S100 version 2. The  Melco switch is very well engineered from a long lineage of networking experience (Buffalo). Melco approach balances core networking principles with very low noise power supplies, great clocks, and low noise port capped at 100M for streamers. IIRC the Melco filters IP packets not intended for the NIC in the streamer further reducing processing and noise at the NIC level. Melco also has deep packet buffers which can smooth out network transmission. SFP cage for modern streamers with SFP ports as well. Definitely do some of your own research. I think you will find Melco is hard to beat at the price point. 

@fire_water @grannyring 

I caved in and ordered Matrix Audio SI-1 Network Isolator, expected to arrive on Thursday. I’m genuinely curious to hear if SI-1 equals or outperforms my reference Telegartner Optical Bridge 1000M. 

There is also a review by Hans Beekhuyzen, incase anyone interested. 

https://youtu.be/w8tV1a55BBw?si=MJATOnyahQI5ZVyi

@lalitk do let us know how it works out. I'm in the process of researching on how to build a curated playlist of local files without spending $25,000 on an Innuos Zenith NG. There's a few interesting options. And for me this is more important than a network switch right now. My internet was down the other night and because streaming is my only source of music I obviously had no music. My Innuos Pulsar is fantastic so why would I sell it in order to buy the Nexr Generation of Innuos products when I can store the digital files I purchase on line on an external SSD or on a WD Red SN700 2TB with a Sabrent EC-SNVE for under a $1000? This might be my next thread lol. And we also talked about the importance of my box clouds and a quadratic diffuser. 

@lalitk 

I just saw Hans' video of that Matrix optical isolator yesterday. If at ~$700 US the SI-1 comes close to the same performance of the 1000M at $3300 US it would be quite the bargain. 

Looking forward to hearing the comparison!

@fire_water 

I’m with you, when it comes to curating and playing local files, you don’t need an ultra high-end streamer. A well-implemented internal or external SSD does the job beautifully. I’m currently using the Samsung T7 Portable SSD 2TB connected directly via USB to my Merging Technologies Roon player, and it’s been seamless.

That said, one consistent limitation I’ve experienced with high-end streamers like Innuos and Aurender is their reliance on an active Ethernet network. In my experience, if your network goes down, control apps lose communication with the streamer, making operation essentially impossible during an outage.

Your best alternative would be buying a CD Transport with USB input. Check out Shanling, they make several CD transport that will allow you to play files without the need of Intranet. A small investment that will make a worthwhile backup to your streamer. 

@mclinnguy Right on with head to head comparison and decluttering my space.