I am using a Cisco meraki ms 220 8p.
I agree, it seems to be a bit of a vogue area currently with several products coming to market in quick succession that look remarkably similar.
From what I can see these products are all basic consumer minimum capability devices with upgraded serial line clocks as used in their physical media interfaces and attached linear power-supplies as opposed to cheap consumer SMPS that can cause noise on the mains.
Although the uprated clock may help reduce coupled side band noise in the serial links, which can be beneficial to connected audio devices, especially if these audio devices aren’t fully decoupled, I am concerned that these devices don’t appear to offer other important elements required for best streamer performance, such as network optimisation namely the filtering of non required group data (IGMP snooping) if present on your home network.
So be wary… one suggestion to cover the deficiencies of these new ‘audiophile’ devices is to shield them using a quality commercial grade switch which supports IGMP snooping by default …
such as Cisco 2960 switch -> ‘audiophile switch’ -> streamer
That way there is a chance you get some benefit from the tweaked serial clock from the audiophile device, and Ethernet group protection from the Cisco device.
Many just use a Cisco catalyst device which uses a commercial grade clock giving an improvement over some consumer grade switch devices anyway
But personally I wouldn’t bother to go great lengths here, unless you are an avid tweaker.
One thing to consider is that any shift in sonic performance you hear on a Naim streamer may change with a future firmware update.
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Unless I’m going mad, an earlier post asked for a pic of the PSU I’m using on my switches (2xEtherRegen). Here it is. It’s a souped-up Sean Jacobs (Custom HiFi Cables) DC3 with three rails and a switch to earth the -ive on one of them. To the right is the DC3 with high output that I use for the Roon Nucleus+.
As usual, though, different people may find different things in different systems. With the EtherRegen/s, my system sounds better to my ears with the Catalyst removed, though it should be said I gave a very simple network.
Sure, excellent… as you say it may vary from person to person, network to network, and obviously which Catalyst switch you are using… there are many many different types, but I think they all support IGMP snooping.
BTW I have just checked the learned Multicast groups on my Cisco Catalyst switch feeding my NDX2 digital transport, and it has 6 groups, of which 2 non audio related groups are being filtered from the NDX2 having to process whilst streaming…
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In the old forum you stated that all catalyst Cisco sound quite the same.
I had the white 2960 8tc and blue 8tt with external ps. Both sounded inferior to the ER alone.
And that VO1,.VO2 and VO3 sound the same.
But maybe that statement still applies,.I haven’t read anything else.
/Peder🙂
They do sound fairly similar to me, though as I have said the PD version sounds marginally the best with my old streamer… but they are all slightly different… and of course it depends to a little extent on the config… as is being discussed on another thread.
But yes absolutely use what ever you feel comfortable with and gives you your favourite sonic performance which is I think the ER so all good surely?
I have been fiddling around with forwarding and filtering BPDU events from the Cisco today… now I do have a decoupled streamer DAC so network differences are now largely I thing of the past, but even so to my way of thinking best not give the streamer unnecessary things to process for best SQ.
Hi Michael,
THANK YOU for that encouragement. I plugged it in at about 0730 and then went to do some chores. I sat down at 1330 to have a listen for 30 mintes …and I just keep adding tracks to the playlist!
This is EXACTLY what I was hoping for, rather good return on £40!
YES, I did ask about your PSU as I ‘assumed’ you were using a 2960 
, well you know what happens when you assume. Sean has an excellent reputation and is a good chap to chat to.
@Simon-in-Suffolk do you know what the 2960 needs in terms of volts to power it via PoE? The specs say 11 watts but I can’t see any more detail. Thanks.
M
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IME the Cisco poE switch should be run from another switch that supplies power vs adding a 48v wall wart to your system. Seems a bit self defeating to me. I’m very happy with my newer Cisco 2960 16 port to 2960PD poE to a pair of Sonore opticalModule fiber bridges. A DAC V1 really shouldn’t sound that good.
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Members here have Nd555, and still find a better switch to give significant uplift.
So network as thing of the past, mmh 
Even some having 100 k streamer / Dac as Msb or top DCS have found uplift using better switches and linear ps.
Hi, PoE is 48 Volts D.C. I hope that helps.
Thx Simon,
Nope - toying with an LPSU. I was hoping that over PoE it might take something lower - not surprising that it doesn’t.
M
Key thing I said was was decoupled streamer DAC 
. The ND555 using it’s analogue out is not fully decoupled, though it’s significantly improved over the NDS.
If you use a streamer to provide a digital feed to a separate DAC in a different box, different PSU and separate ground plane, and you use a galvanically isolated connection, then other than a residual amount of clock phase distortion from the transport you have decoupled your DAC and streamer… and then you find networks variances become mostly a thing of the past. That is why I do it… and yes if and when we ever see the Statement streamer we might see a similar approach… I did muse briefly a couple of years back with Naim of such a benefit, and fibre Ethernet streamer connections… the conclusion was something along the lines “now that would be nice”… so we will wait and see.
Anyway I had to be working today to think about such things professionally, want a break from it now.
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What were you thinking of doing?
The PD devices can be fed externally by a 48Vdc supply … which can be a linear PSU if you ensure it’s properly decoupled/filtered.
do you really think DCS , Msb, Emmlabs…100 k digital sources are inferior to your Ndx2/ Hugo ?
If these top digital sources are still dependent of a better switch, your entry level source is still more dependent. ( entry level vs state of the art sources)
I dont say they are inferior … I listen critically and choose the components that perform optimally and most enjoyably… the Hugo Mark 1 was hardly entry level, but yes is a few years old now, , being a DAC I have not heard bettered overall from an enjoyment perspective anywhere when using an off board two stage power-supply… not to say I won’t discover one… but if you read my postings over recent years you see I have come back to it a couple of times, and also in this area price is not always an indication of enjoyment, we are not talking about scientific grade equipment. The architecture of the Hugo was ground breaking, and I really enjoy talking to Rob Watts on how he believes he led the way here from some of the other more established high end players, and with my ears I agree with him… but as he and I mused we all hear things in different ways.
But the key thing i believe in this discussion is the decoupling, and the Naim ND series use the state of the art NP800 module that they developed in conjunction with StreamUnlimited of Germany… slight credibility issue there stating one of the leading state of the art streaming front end designs currently available is entry level.
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Sorry to say, but Ndx2 / chord Hugo is high end in the audio market.
However vs 100 k digital sources like 4 boxes Dcs, or Msb, or Wadax, …your source vs that level is entry level.
The same for a Porsche Boxter vs Bugatti Shiron.
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I think you meant to say not… it’s the enjoyment that counts not the price… in fact if you go back a few years you see there was a similar discussion from various members, sadly of which many are no longer here, that turned heated and poor Richard had to intervene… some seem to struggle when top enjoyment performance can come to some sometimes from products that don’t cost a significant capital outlay. It’s our ears that count, not the price tag. It is funny how history repeats itself… but for me these are not status trophies… so whether it’s high end, low end or side end it matters not… it’s whether I enjoy it sufficiently to purchase it…
But more relevant if they were truly state of the art then the network should be transparent to them…and my ‘modest’ Naim 552 based system is getting close or at least close enough for me … hmmmm 
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A couple of us on the ‘switches mania’ thread have installed 2 Cisco 2960s in PoE format.
It was a step in SQ for both of us.
Because the 2nd switch gets its power supplied via the ethernet cable, so it has no internal psu, and feeds indirectly from the external psu of the 1st switch.
If you search that thread for the term ‘PoE’ you’ll find all the spec and prices paid and where we bought them etc.
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