You'll get conflicting answers but:

1 Yes (Make sure the cables you buy are well made and terminated)

2 No

3 Yes to switch, no to additional power supply.

4 No

5 No experience

Nothing I have read, seen or heard has yet convinced me that, so long as an Ethernet cable is in spec, a posh / expensive one will perform better than a cheap one. Look up how they work. Others on this forum take a different view and you will need to make up your own mind.

The linear power supplier should make no difference to sound quality if isolated from your playback system. If you plug everything into a single power block then they may be worth looking into.

You might want to look into ferrite chokes. A quick search will help, there are people on this forum with better knowledge than I on this subject.

I hope this helps.

Matt

For what it's worth, this is what I have done: Netgear GS105 switch, powered by ifi iPower low noise power supply. Audioquest Cinnamon cable from router to switch and from switch to NAS and router. Because the Cinnamon is shielded, add a Lindy right angler adapter between the cable and the NAS to lift the earth and ensure correct earthing of the network. The router, switch and NAS are all plugged into a basic UPS, made by APC. I don't have any alternative power supplies on the NAS, and the main system runs off a dedicated mains feed. It all seems to work well, and sounds good.

Hi Emre,  welcome to streaming & yes it is confusing.  I guess you've been searching & reading as you've posted some good questions,   ........   I am forecasting there will some variations & disagreements in other answers,  but here goes.

1:  There is a lot of s-snake oil around ethernet cables,  & most (all) of that tends to be with the expensive "boutique" end & as you mention AQ,  yes guilty as charged IMO.  Whereas I have a lot of respect for Blue Jeans in both product & the information they have published on ethernet, "Is your Cat a Dog" is a worthwhile read.  First the digital bits are bits camp will say its impossible for a cable to sound different & yes thats true,  but whilst the digital data stream cannot change it is carried by voltage in a square like wave form & that is analogue & it can be affected & add undesirable artifacts. The cable pairs have resistance & impedance variables & its twisted pair form & connections can be sub-optimal.   I have heard differences & most recently when I changed from an all Cat7 network to Cat6 & that change was an improvement but I must say that any SQ changes that I've heard with any ethernet cables are subtle & frankly nothing that would persuade me to spend "boutique" money on a cable.

2:  I've tried a linear (transformer/rectifier) PSU & did not hear any difference.  But the person who loaned it to me does have an audible difference on his system.   My NAS PSU (& other PSU's) is powered from a UPS & that has an isolation transformer & C&D mode filter chokes,  so that might make a difference   .......    I get the impression results vary & its not quite as simple as a simple PSU change.  

3:  Yes ...  a switch is a purpose designed unit to manage data stream send/receive & specific MAC addressing & they do it all simultaneously.   Routers may or may not be able to do all this,  many do but others don't or don't do it as well. All it takes is +/- £20 for a simple unmanaged switch & another length of basic ethernet (boutique is not required) & then you know its right.  I have a different wall wart type PSU (£40) on my switch & it did bring subtle improvements,  its still a wall wart SMPS but is very low noise & claimed to be lower noise than even a linear PSU.  

4:  I don't buy into fancy cables from router to Switch.  The important run is NAS-Switch & Switch-Streamer.   

5:  I tried the AR you have a link to & it did nothing much for my system.

Your summary is close to mine - XPS is nice on my NDX,  the rest is more like how obsessive you are on fettling & your desire to spend or save money.  

Good luck & keep us posted on what you end up doing

HH's advice on protecting the NAS with a UPS is worth following (I also use an APC UPS and a netgear switch).

Mattnbarns posted:

HH's advice on protecting the NAS with a UPS is worth following (I also use an APC UPS and a netgear switch).

It depends.

How often do you have power cuts or blips?

For me, System one gets no issues. System two gets the occasional blip but is only annoying.

UPS is HDD insurance.    If the drive is read/writing during a power failure it's most likely trashed.   If the drive is idling during a power failure it might be OK.   

Its up to you - I pay £300 a year for car insurance,  but haven't had/made a claim for 15 years.  My APS UPS cost £66 

i learnt my lesson after burning a hard disk with UPSs i already have one....

Emre posted:

Hello Everyone,

The more i started to get into to detail on streaming more confuse i am.... 

the topics that i could not decide on are : 

1. Network Cables :  a sound difference between a decent cable vs very expensive one lets say blue jeans vs AQ Vodka. İs it snake oil or not.....?  ( + 100/300 £ )

2. Powering NAS.....Should i invest to a Linear PS. ? ( +250/350 £ )

3. Should i put an additional switch between router and streamer ?  With a additional PS? ( + 10£  / + 250/350£ )

4. Should i use a X cable between router and switch ( 13m in my case ) and Y cable between switch and streamer. Y being very important and x less important investment wise. ( +250/350£ ) 

5. Last but not least a lan isolator? Anyone experience with them. ( +120£ ) 

https://www.acoustic-revive.co...io/lan_isolator.html

 

Hi Emre, yes streaming can be complicated, and ironically it's more complicated now since the audiophile companies have cottoned on to providing niche products to what is essentially quite basic. So let me try and answer your questions from a perspective of a professional who designs networked audio and voice solutions.. However there will be many tweaks and options from an audiophile perspective.. But my advice would be adventure there once you have the basics sorted.

1) My advice is go for a formal  Cat 5e cable at least (it will be printed on the cable jacket) . There can be advantages of using shielded cables when close to the audio equipment, but there also some considerations there.  Either way a good quality Ethernet cable patch lead shouldn't cost you more than a few 10s of pounds at most..

2) The NAS can be powered by its own standard PSU which will have been (should have been)  certified to meet EMC specifications , . I am assuming you are also running your media server on this as well.

3) You can use a switch can depending on your router. If it's a cheap router, perhaps provided by an ISP, then a seperate basic switch can help with some protocols like multicast compatibility  or even throughput. If you are using a higher quality router such as a Cisco or Apple device it shouldn't be necessary, but may be preferable from a topology point of view.. As far as PSUs it's the same consideration as 2)

4) it's the cable between switch/router to streamer that will be most sensitive. However do bear in mind Ethernet cables can couple noise into mains. Therefore if you are running Ethernet cables close to mains elsewhere, you might hear a benefit in using shielded Ethernet, but as 1) it shouldn't be too expensive.

5) In my experience these have not been beneficial for home audio use. All electrical Ethernet is isolated anyway, but only upto a certain voltage. Most LAN isolators are derived from medical isolators where higher voltages and more sensitivity is required. Out of curiosity I did try a LAN isolator for my home audio and it actually seemed to have a dentrimental effect, and on one of the links it actually interfered with the link layer setup process.. So I can't really recommend them.

i hope that helps.. FWIW I use a shielded cat6a cable between my streamer and switch.. It cost me around £15 from memory. I use a couple of  Cisco 2960 switches and currently an Apple Airport TimeCapsule router with their own inbuilt switch mode powersupplies. My NAS are standard Netgear devices, and I run my UPnP media server on a Raspberry Pi powered by a switch mode USB powersupply. All other Ethernet cabling is 5e cabling, and printed and confirmed on jacket. I keep my NAS, and other network equipment in an other room from my listening room.

Good luck.

Simom

Mike-B posted:

UPS is HDD insurance.    If the drive is read/writing during a power failure it's most likely trashed.   If the drive is idling during a power failure it might be OK.   

Its up to you - I pay £300 a year for car insurance,  but haven't had/made a claim for 15 years.  My APS UPS cost £66 

I may have asked before...do you use a UPS that will send a shut down command to your nas?

Yes,  I have mine set to power down the NAS after 10 seconds of battery power, to my thinking that means its a real power out & not a momentary brownout & recovery. - without power the amp & NDX are out so there is no point in keeping the NAS running anyway.   The UPS however continues to provide power to phone & BB router for as long as it takes to reach the UPS battery low voltage limit,  this enables phone calls to be made & any work in progress on PC to be saved & shutdown safely.

Bart, I don't know if that's a specific question for Mike, but I do .. I send the shut down signal to another NAS via LAN from the master NAS which receives it via USB from the UPS. They are  all powered, including the network switch,  by the UPS. 

I just bought 17m Belden 10GXE01 Cat.6A F/FTP with Telegartner RJ45 connectors for 38£ which is not cheap but not expensive at all, i now the brands are decent good brands for cables, only reason that i did not buy them from blue jean cable that they are charging way too much to ship in Turkey, as much as the cable cost. 

Next step i will buy a netgear switch, than maybe another short patch of cable, maybe same Belden maybe MeiCord, AQ Cinnamon, a short patch....

then i will see about powering the NAS ( after i replace my burned hard disk with a new WD RED....

thank you all for your input