Network Switch?

Kevin, adding a switch between your broadband router switchport and the NDX may improve SQ.. but it depends on the router, and what switch you use. There is a good chance otherwise it might make no difference or even make SQ worse.

Any noisy electrical device on nearby mains to sensitive equipment such as audio equipment is going to almost certainly be detrimental. Unfortunately within the EU there is quite a large tolerance permitted on electrical noise emissions from equipment. So a rule of thumb is switched mode powersupplies in cheaper consumer equipment (from TVs to wall warts) etc are best to be kept away from your audio equipment. However quality switch mode supplies in higher quality components such as higher quality TVs, and other equipment may well be fine. A well designed switch mode powersupply can be effectively as good as a linear powersupply with respect to noise, it's just they do cost more to produce.. and remember a poor linear powersupply can produce electrical noise as well, especially if there is DC offset in the mains.

Devices to avoid are cheap SMPS, cheap LED lighting and other cheap electronic lighting, cheap solar panel inverters and (I say all irrespective of 'quality') network powerline adapters. BTW quality LED lighting like the Philips Hue system seems absolutely fine in my experience... and I now use it....

Kevin,  I've been through this & everything Simon says ticks my experience box's.

My concern with broadband hubs is their blurb is all about how wonderful the wireless performs,  there is no information about switch performance.  They are multifunctional & handle internet, modem, wireless as well as the switch functions,  so I question how well they manage the switch function.   Do they really mange the data stream as a switch or do they send all the data to all the devices connected & operate sub-par speed & bandwidth.   A pukka switch (inside the broadband hub or a specific device)  will send & receive simultaneously & communicate only with the devices the data is intended for.

My experience started off with a BT HH3 that I used as a switch,  the very first weekend with my new NDX it overheated (distorted the plastic) after about 2 hours running with 16/44  albums.  A switch solved that & it did improve SQ quite noticeably.  I've since changed to BT HH5 & had that hooked up as a switch during a period of room renovation & it was quite happy handling audio including HR albums,  but it did run warmer than normal.

What broadband hub make/model do you have.  A reasonably new model will probably be OK & adding a switch might not give much of an audible gain.    

Indeed Mike and ironically in many modern hubs (post HH3) I have seen  the switching capability is absolutely fine - but the wifi is often woeful... relying on referring to bling references of theoretical speed as opposed to real world throughput and conditions, and very little optimisation or control possible. And having wifi based in a broadband router is almost certainly going to result in a far from optimal positioning for a wifi access point. I am sure this has a lot to do with some people thinking wifi is unsuitable for streaming etc. and having control issues with applications etc

Mike-B posted:

Kevin,  I've been through this & everything Simon says ticks my experience box's.

My concern with broadband hubs is their blurb is all about how wonderful the wireless performs,  there is no information about switch performance.  They are multifunctional & handle internet, modem, wireless as well as the switch functions,  so I question how well they manage the switch function.   Do they really mange the data stream as a switch or do they send all the data to all the devices connected & operate sub-par speed & bandwidth.   A pukka switch (inside the broadband hub or a specific device)  will send & receive simultaneously & communicate only with the devices the data is intended for.

My experience started off with a BT HH3 that I used as a switch,  the very first weekend with my new NDX it overheated (distorted the plastic) after about 2 hours running with 16/44  albums.  A switch solved that & it did improve SQ quite noticeably.  I've since changed to BT HH5 & had that hooked up as a switch during a period of room renovation & it was quite happy handling audio including HR albums,  but it did run warmer than normal.

What broadband hub make/model do you have.  A reasonably new model will probably be OK & adding a switch might not give much of an audible gain.    

I have an Apple AirPort Extreme that is only a year old.

The AE is a top end performer & I doubt a dedicated switch will change much with your system SQ - assuming the AE is ethernet wired & not used for wireless.        

Another consideration;  in my case the switch not only gives what I know to be correct data stream mngt (my trust of ISP hubs is not great) ,  but for me a big plus is it tidies up the wiring.   I have only two ethernets from my broadband hub,   one to the hifi switch,  the other to another switch that connects with the TV plus three office/study items.

Probably worth thinking about your network architecture; does your hub provide for high speed e.g. Gbit/s. Also does the rest of the network, i.e. cabling - If you have a gb capable server (e.g. NAS) but only a 100mb router/switch then changing to a gb capable switch might improve things provided its set up in the right way. If your server is on a laptop that you connect via wifi, it's probably not going to make much difference. Power supplies, especially noisy switch mode ones might also be an area to consider. I'm probably oversimplifying but it's worth trying the simple / logical stuff first - a separate 5 or 8port switch might only cost you a tenner but could yield great results, but then again it might not - I should say that since moving my nas and internal network to switches, it has become much more stable (transfer speeds between laptop and nas are noticeably faster)but I couldn't absolutely say that sound quality has improved - I think the file format has much more effect.

Another consideration if you want to improve home networks using wifi is to use ESSID enabled access points (*NOT* extenders or cheap broadband router wifi)... and you can often power popular models of advanced access points via PoE (power over ethernet). So if you use a PoE switch - and most switches that support PoE  appear well designed with a descent power supply for obvious reasons...  you can connect wifi access points to the PoE switch using ethernet wiring and cut down on noisy cheap switch mode power supplies you otherwise would be using for the access points - AND you almost certainly can build a wifi coverage that happily supports hidef audio (and hidef video ) streaming and other traffic to key parts of your house as well as reducing clutter and cables - Also because you are using more lower power access points I find wifi interference to Zigbee channels occurs less - and with the new Naim Uniti products this another consideration. The trick is to ensure multiple access point coverage and hand offs between access points as well as access point load balancing... which descent products will allow you to do by simply clicking on a tick box.