A single purpose for switch in Music NAS?

The idea is that you have your streamer and nas on a separate switch, in order to isolate it from other network traffic. If you plug other things into the switch you start to lose the benefits. 

This is so that the switch does only work to manage traffic between the NAS and the streamer and nothing else.

If they are "too busy managing other network traffic", the increase workload will generate more noise which will in turn be pass on to the streamer.

blownaway posted:

Is it OK to plug other devices besides your NAS drive and your Naim Streamer to your Network Switch?  

Is it best to isolate the switch to perform the single purpose of music streaming?  Or can I fill up the ports with other devices?

Absolutely fine to  fill up the switch ports, after all that is a switch is for as opposed to using the albeit rather rare now. Network hub.

In theory if you had  an electrically very noisy device plugged into one of the switch ports, that noise could couple through to the audio equipment.. but in the vast majority of cases I suspect if the device was that noisy it would be causing more nuisance via the mains not via Ethernet.

A consideration to remove unnecessary streamer network load and therefore streamer noise to improve SQ is to reduce unnecessary broadcast traffic by creating a seperate audio routable subnet from the rest of your LAN as well as enable IGMP snooping on the switch (if you use severeal multicast groups) but that is beyond most on this forum I think and requires more expensive network equipment and really comes into its own if you have a larger home network... unlikely ro be an issue if you only have  half a dozen devices connected to your broadband router..

Simon

I haven't found that it makes any difference. I did run a dedicated switch because they don't cost much. I still have it but it is not completely dedicated any more. It's easy to check if a dedicated switch in your network will make a difference.  And dead easy to address should this be the case.

I'm with Simon. I have all sorts of things plugged into switches all over the house with the Naim kit plugged into whichever switch is closest to it.  The main advantage I found was that by taking all the network switching away from the router, discovery is much more stable (including for example my PC always finding my network printer, which used to be an issue when the printer was plugged into the router. Mind you my network is not busy (children all grown up and long since left home and grandchildren not old enough to make demands on it yet, except for an occasional Peppa Pig episode on YouTube!)

best

David

Am not sure where all this discussion on switches and routers etc is supposed to be going. Here, at home, I have a switch, a router and an extender. I have a Muso in one room, a B&W A7 in the Conservatory and all my AV stuff, plus router, plus switch, plus Apple TV in this lounge. I tested, using Sweetspot and Speedsmart, my internet speed and my WiFi speed. In both lounges I achieve, apparently, between 50 and 60 Mbps on WiFi and the Sky Internet connection is about 36 Mbps.

Other than very small Internet glitches when using Spotify and Tidal, I have no issues in the delivery of consistent music at, obviously, up to CD quality at any time. I also have a NAS, which is also transported via WiFi with no problem at all. I can see no reason why, if it became available to myself, even higher density (quality) music could not be easily communicated throughout my house.

i am prepared to accept that some mixtures of communication hardware can be problematic but, to put this in some form of context, I have been using WiFi in various forms for at least 13 years. This is neither an immature or inherently unstable technology. 

I wouldn't sweat too much over it. Just connect everything to one switch. You can easily check there are no problem devices by unplugging them and listening for any differences. 

Maybe worth using unshielded Ethernet cables would reduce the chances of anything nasty reaching your streamer.

+1.. 

ChrisSU posted:

I wouldn't sweat too much over it. Just connect everything to one switch. You can easily check there are no problem devices by unplugging them and listening for any differences. 

Maybe worth using unshielded Ethernet cables would reduce the chances of anything nasty reaching your streamer.

 

Yes, I intend to go that route re: unshielded cables between my router/switch and switch to nas.

Sounds like the concensus is there is not concensus on this subject.  That's OK, thanks for everyones thoughts on this.

I've found significant benefits from keeping the wifi router a good distance from a switch (ie 2 metres audibly better than 1).  Even with a second downstream closer to the system...   

I think think you have to try for yourself, but as you drop the noise floor in a revealing system, everything seems to make a small difference, and it all adds up.....

blownaway posted

Sounds like the concensus is there is not concensus on this subject.  That's OK, thanks for everyones thoughts on this.

As you lower the noise floor you start to notice that many changes or tweaks have indirect consequences.. This can even extend to unplugging certain noisy electrical devices from elsewhere in your house..

A good quality network switch will have no issue at all, a lesser quality cheap consumer spec switch may through possible  poor regulation and filtering be different... my view would be get a device that does the job properly such as a 2960.. But clearly if you don't you may want to save some money and tweak instead.

because of the variability of quality of network components and network setup people use, consensus will be difficult, and you will need to find what works best for you.

its also worth remembering of the forum recommendation of typically having a cheap small netgear switch connecting everything as opposed to using your router switch ports is based primarily on interoperability  ... from a SQ point of view that may not however be optimal...but SQ changes are subtle here and may be not noticeable on certain systems.. However for those with OCD there is a huge amount to play with 

Simon

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

blownaway posted

Sounds like the concensus is there is not concensus on this subject.  That's OK, thanks for everyones thoughts on this.

As you lower the noise floor you start to notice that many changes or tweaks have indirect consequences.. This can even extend to unplugging certain noisy electrical devices from elsewhere in your house..

A good quality network switch will have no issue at all, a lesser quality cheap consumer spec switch may through possible  poor regulation and filtering be different... my view would be get a device that does the job properly such as a 2960.. But clearly if you don't you may want to save some money and tweak instead.

because of the variability of quality of network components and network setup people use, consensus will be difficult, and you will need to find what works best for you.

its also worth remembering of the forum recommendation of typically having a cheap small netgear switch connecting everything as opposed to using your router switch ports is based primarily on interoperability  ... from a SQ point of view that may not however be optimal...but SQ changes are subtle here and may be not noticeable on certain systems.. However for those with OCD there is a huge amount to play with 

Simon

 

I'm with you, OCD and all.

40 below posted:

I've found significant benefits from keeping the wifi router a good distance from a switch (ie 2 metres audibly better than 1).  Even with a second downstream closer to the system...   

I think think you have to try for yourself, but as you drop the noise floor in a revealing system, everything seems to make a small difference, and it all adds up.....

I'll be sure to do that. I'll have my switch more like 3 meters away from my nas. Thanks for the sound advice (get it).