Good try Xanthe.
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272 replacement.
I notice you are not giving anything away as to whether this might be a sound quality choice, rather than one aimed at protecting your support team from a barrage of abuse from customers who can’t get their streamers to work reliably 
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Exactly. My point was if you don’t know what you’re trying to fix in the first place then how do you know you’ve ‘fixed’ it.
Anyway back to work 
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First and foremost it’s about quality. If you want to enjoy high-resolution streaming (24bit music; 4K TV), a strong, stable connection is essential.
That’s not a Naim thing, that’s a universal constant.
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Abolutely, but there’s always someone out there who would jump at the opportunity to interpret it as a possible upgrade path.
I am sure that absolutely everyone agrees that a stable and sufficiently fast network connection is required for enjoyment. But any reasonable 20 euro switch achieves this if the uplink is good.
Achieving this basic requirement is not, though, the claim made by EE et al.
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Yes, but Clare’s comment was about reliable internet connections, not LAN switches.
You’re guessing, right?
I would love an integrated amplifier at the 500 level 
I’m still in the context of this earlier comment about the EE:
Everything is correct about saying that you need a stable network first, but the thread is about the EE which claims to be more than that. So I continue to be interested in the Naim people’s experience
My usage is 99% streaming of music from a NAS device on the same local network via wired ethernet.
So I’m not disputing Clare’s suggestion about a stable internet connection - it’s a sensible suggestion but what I am hearing regarding the EE8 isn’t in relation to streaming from a streaming service.
My point is, if you don’t get the foundation right, everything else is pretty pointless, however revolutionary…
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We’re not here to give in-depth critiques of third-party products, to be fair. Just passing on what I know based on discussions after several people had tried one. There may equally be people who’ve bought one and loved one! And that goes back to my earlier point re nuances.
Sure, that’s fair, just asking
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That is fair enough. However, if there is an influential peripheral device that Naim do not supply (e.g. a switch), I don’t see the harm in Naim passing on a recommendation, if indeed Naim believe said peripheral makes a difference to SQ. Indeed it would be in Naim’s interest to advise on third party kit that is reliable and potentially improves SQ of Naim kit. For example, Naim have provided some useful guidance on NASs.
I guess the problem with switches is that their performance is dependent on the streamers and LAN topology they are used with, so results are variable.
Which is exactly my point re nuances, plus the priorities that should be applied to networking.
I know our sales and support teams routinely recommended third-party products where appropriate - and are always happy to discuss things at shows (remember them?!), demos etc.
I know many people that would say the same thing about any Naim or equivalently priced hifi gear.
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True, but in the case of Naim equipment we can at least see a clear difference in architecture, used components, construction quality etc when comparing a more affordable streamer to a more expensive one. In the case of network switches this is less clear.
The EE8 is not much more than a rebranded Bonn N8 switch, which is about 20% more affordable. But even at that price point, objective reviews cannot find any reliable evidence that it ‘does’ something differently than any standard switch. One review concludes:
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I would go so far as to say ‘the vast majority of people’. :0)