Same here. And that’s the perfect place to be!
I misunderstood about your experiences with various LPS - thought you meant on the router but I now see you meant the switch. My mistake. That now makes perfect sense to me. The instructions that come with the EE8 say that a SMPS is used as no LPS could be found that was fast enough. You appear to have verified this rather nicely!
I am very sorry to learn that. It must have been awful. Has your hearing recovered? I presume a senseless attack - have the police caught the culprit(s)?
That is what I said - the hi-fi world if full of snake oil, myths, beliefs, bias, etc.
If people hear the difference between two routers, that means that it can be measured.
I emphasise - routers, nevermind speakers/dac/amps/etc
At the moment of writing no one has shown any consistent measurement, that the switch/router/ethernet cable impacts somehow on the sound quality.
For what I saw, all impact is far beyond the limits of human hearing. The only exclusion - when the ethernet cable serves as a grounding.
As that is the DC side, I assume you mean centre positive and outer negative. If they were the wrong way round for the device being powered, it would not work at all!
Peder, you need to be careful, DC connector plugs can have both centre pin positive or centre pin negative. Reversed DC polarity is potentially damaging.
I think for the sake of this thread not descending into a subjective vs. objective trench war, could we please just stick to discussing and answering the questions posed in the OP’s opening post. Otherwise it just turns into noise and the inevitable moderation consequences. Thanks.
No, not at all. It was a very noticeable improvement, similar to adding a PS to the NDX2 - really surprising. I don’t know how dependant it is on the house mains set-up.
If the router benefits from a LPS, what about the box on the incoming fibre connection that converts the data stream to Ethernet before going to the router?
Probably selectively quoting, but what an apt description of these types of threads and NOTE to SELF - avoid the lunatic fringe of networking threads to reduce blood pressure, cholesterol and anxiety and increase QOL years.
.sjb
Based on what I have read, nothing can light up a forum like a controversial discussion on routers & switches.
There is a guy in Thailand producing an audiophile network switch, a modified Cisco unit, and goes through the reasoning behind it on his site. All his work is around streaming audio.
I won’t post a link because of the commercial link rules, but if you search for 'Fidelizer ’ and ‘EtherStream’ you’ll find it easy enough.
I don’t have one as my streaming side isn’t at that level yet, just posting for the relevance to the OP’s original questions.
I have used a number of routers (Netgear, Plusnet and BT provided ones). Whilst the wireless functionality of these varied, the routing performance didn’t. I always hardwire devices like my streamer and don’t use wireless other than for phones or tablets. I am sorry you don’t like my responses but essentially I am saying that as long as you have good connectivity to your isp, the router has no bearing on SQ. It’s clear you believe otherwise and that’s fine.
I missed this. How horrible. I hope you have recovered okay. We the offenders caught and prosecuted?
Hi 
…
I don’t know if I have written it earlier in the thread,.but I have installed an LPS both to the incoming fiber-box you mention, and to the router.
This was about 10 days ago.
I started by connecting the incoming fiber-box to an LPS,.and the router still had its supplied SMPS.
Already there, a slight difference for the better in the soundquality was heard.
A difference that DEFINITELY got better when this LPS had been connected to the incoming fiber-box for a few days.
Then I also connected the router to the same LPS,.which further increased the soundquality a little.
In other words,.I am currently using ONE LPS for both incoming fiber-box and router.
But in about two weeks I will have another LPS,.then it will be…
• An LPS to incoming fiber-box.
• An LPS for the router.
It will be interesting to see if that also makes a difference in the sound quality.
This has given a different and more powerful dynamic, and a clearer “depth” in the music.
The lower registers dig deeper and the feeling and naturalness of,.among other things, the vocals are experienced more authentically.
THEREFORE,.my thinking about the router’s possible contribution to better soundquality, which this thread is about.
AND,.here we are talking exclusively about listening with our senses and ears when evaluating this.
The guys who always thinks,.it is better to use measurement results instead of listening to music via their music-system when evaluating can start their own thread about this.
I am 60+ and have evaluated with my senses and ears throughout my very long hifi life,.both for myself and for others.
THAT,.has always worked extremely well and resulted in better sound quality.
We are end consumers, not hifi constructors 
.
Thanks for the clarification you made @Richard.Dane .
This is the Optical Network Termination (ONT) box. My feeling is that yes this would also benefit from a LPS. Just haven’t got around to it yet.
Less important for me perhaps because we only stream video, ie. Netflix and the like from the internet. We don’t stream any music from remote servers. If we were streaming high quality audio from Qobuz or whatever then I think it would be much more of a priority.
Once upon a time, many years ago, dedicated equipment supports, spikes, special cables for speakers or mains supply and the like were all regarded as being at the lunatic fringe of hi-fi. These are all now widely accepted as being of importance.
Networking matters are really very much in their infancy in comparison. We have much to learn about what matters and how/why it matters in relation to hi-fi. Dismiss it as being ‘lunatic’ if you like but my guess is that these things will become accepted in exactly the same way many years from now and nobody will bat an eyelid at the concept of one router sounding different to another. Do you remember the time when all amplifiers and turntables sounded the same? I do. Experience has taught me to remain open-minded - there are more things in heaven and earth…
Nope they are now widely peddled because the sellers realised there are a subset in the lunatic fringe who believe a wood stand sounds ‘warm’ and a glass stand sounds ‘edgy’.
I think that to be meaningful to others anyone posting about improvements due to router, switches, associated power supplies and cables should also clarify which streamer or which separate renderer (aka transport) and DAC they use, as the susceptibility to effect of network components may vary considerably. (E.g some DACs are designed to maximise immunity to rf borne on incoming digital stream or through modulation of ground plane whereas others are known to be affected significantly.)
There may well be some truth in that - I’m inclined to think that there is. Commercial interests will always exploit the market trends, it’s the nature of the game.
However it’s also absolutey true that these things which were once regarded as being lunatic are now widely recognised by the hi-fi community as being of significance.
There are of course those who still think that putting your LP12 on a sideboard, connecting your speakers with bell-wire and plugging it all into a £5 mains block from the local hardware store is all that’s needed for optimum performance. The difference now is that it’s these people who are regarded as the lunatic fringe. There are still people who maintain that the earth is flat!
Hello 
…
This is not about you I have “quote”, but in general.
To install and optimize your analog setup (read record player).
Yes,.it requires a great deal of knowledge in many areas if you are to get everything right for the best soundquality.
• the record player itself
• the tone-arm
• cartridges
• the riaa
• tone-arm cable
• wall shelf, rack
• torque values
AND,.much much more around this.
The same applies to the digital playback equipment.
Everything Matters,.every little detail…!!
THEN,.it’s up to everyone how far “you want to take it”.
I have respect for those who “don’t care”,.or don’t want to go “All in”.
BUT,.we who want to go “All in” have the right to demand the same respect from those who “don’t care”.
NOW,.I hope we can limit ourselves to the topic of the thread, because there is a lot to Investigate and Optimize around this with streaming etc…
A friend of mine in Malmö (Sweden) has researched and tested for just over three years about fiber vs sound quality…
Among other things,.he has developed a military-spec 4-stage grinding of a fiber cable for the best soundquality.
It is much of his output and equipment that I have had the opportunity to test over a number of months as I mentioned earlier.
SO,.back to topic …