Welcome! Well, inevitably you will get a myriad of responses for and against; pros and cons; believers and non-believers. I, personally, am a proponent of good linear power supplies. For me it’s more about peace of mind for an OCD type when it comes to audio. I’m less so inclined this way than I used to be. Still, in my recent experience I have found they each have a ‘house’ sound; or rather, what they contribute gives whatever component a particular brand is powering a kind of sound signature. Hynes, Farad, sBooster, UpTone or Jacobs…they all have their followers. I’ve even read as I’m certain you will as well where a highly touted LPS sounds terrible on a given component but brilliant on another. Who knows?
For me, regardless of which I have used in my system, a well-designed LPS has brought about a very small, perceptible improvement in areas of dynamics, separation, holography and ease (following the music, so to speak). Again, these are highly subjective, but what isn’t subjective, at least in my mind, is the fact that on many hot recordings I’m familiar with, they have helped mitigate a great amount of high-frequency glare that was normally quite unbearable to endure (think in the vein of artificial electronica effects or a poorly mastered guitar crunch). Albums with certain tracks known to contain this kind of edginess from the likes of Sigur Ros, Modest Mouse or Sonic Youth, for instance, are actually listenable on such passages now. To me, that is not subjective or an artefact of my imagination.
Ultimately, LPSs and Network Switches will be a YMMV proposition. However, you mentioned your FLAC files already sound good, so you might be looking for a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. Streaming services from the likes of Tidal or Qobuz to a network player…that might be something different versus solely streaming local files.
Anyway, I can recommend LPSs. I have two Hynes SR4 models—one powering my Chord Qutest, the other an EE8 switch. I also have an UpTone JS-2 that powers both my turntable motor and DSP/bass management unit. The rest of my system is likely overkilled by a power regenerator, audiophile outlets on dedicated 20a circuits and an isolation transformer feeding my router. So, who knows what’s benefitting what? Due to this, I’d also take my experiences with a grain of salt. It certainly doesn’t hurt to purchase one and experiment. If you can’t identify any differences or positivity, they’re easy to unload, as these things are certainly the flavor of the month with digital/networking audio. Good luck!
