@Analogmusic And while we’re at it, let’s also ask them if they’re using Chord Electronic DACs. Surely that would give you the definitive answer as to whether you should use one… 
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not quite the same thing Dave…
It isn’t free so I would have to be sure it adds value to my musical enjoyment commensurate with the asking price.
one of the ways of testing network switches was suggest by @Simon-in-Suffolk - pull the ethernet plug out while it plays music from the buffer.
and does it really make such a difference?
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Good question! I have no idea what brand of networking gear we use for development & listening.
As for recommendations, perhaps Tech Support have been given some guidance from R&D - I’d drop them a line maybe?
Regards
Neil.
The ER is available on sale or return, but is of course more expensive…
A couple of years back on a factory visit, a few of us asked this question, and I am sure we were answered with a ‘little Netgear switch’… anyway I seem to remember at the time it was a rather ordinary consumer switch.
and that’s my point @NeilS @Simon-in-Suffolk
I am quite ok with using the same basic switch that Steve Sells used when he developed the ND555.
Do you use the ND555 now?
I can understand your argument if you do (though your argument should include other network things that might introduce or filter electrical noise), on the basis that if all the design tweaks were based around whatever noise may be superimposed on the streaming data, then that will be the optimum solution for Naim ears. And that argument would hold true for any streamer developed using that same network - i.e. other Naim streamers, at least since they last changed their network.
It does of course assume that tweaking of design manages to remove all network-associated effects, because if it doesn’t then it is not to say that something different in the network wouldn’t sound better to those same Naim ears, unless they have compared a reasonable variety of network components.
However, because the effect of network introduced noise may differ according to the specific renderer and in particular the specific DAC in which the modulation effects on the analogue audio signal occur, the relevance if the network components used by Naim ceases to be relevant if a Naim streamer or Naim DAC is not used. If using a Chord DAC it would be more relevant to use whatever network components are used by Chord’s developers for precisely the above reason. Ditto other brands.
But even with the approach of using the same network components, unless the DAC is effectively immune to all network-related effects, things could be different with anything different connected to your network, and with the electrical environment in which yours sits.
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I doubt very much than Naim, or any streamer designer, will use a home consumer type switch either cheapo or boutique. I suspect they use whatever large multi port array that section of the building is served by.
that is what I want to know. What did they use when they developed their new streamers
the prices of these audiophile switches compared to a normal consumer one…
here’s an interesting article from Andrew Everard on this subject.
But why ? As others have mentioned effects can vary depending on other environmental and electrical effects. What may sound the ‘best’ in the lab in Salisbury may not be the same where you are. At the basic level, it’s an Ethernet connected device which has to meet certain standards so whether you plug it into a bog standard £10 switch or some super duper audiophile switch, it’ll still work and play music. It may sound ‘different’ depending on the network switch it’s connected to but that’s about it.
At the end of the day, all these network tweeks are really icing on the cake differences - night and day is really not the case unless you’ve got something seriously wrong.
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So what use is that info, if it was possible to find out, will you go & buy the same. What if the R&D lab is on one of a stack of HP-48 somethings & the test cells are on another subset & Netgear switchs
I suspect that you are probably right Mike, although I was quite surprised to see when working with a major games software developer some years ago that they tested their products using a range of consumer situations and kit, including the environment, power supply through to a range of TVs and monitors used to display the images in those days, including old CRT TVs. As they told us, ‘its no good our products working just fine in our test facilities if they can’t cope with real life!’
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Just as any website designer worth her or his salt should test on a good range of browsers/platforms to verify that it appears and works as intended, or at least adequately, in particular including legacy ones because many people may still be using browsers from 10 or even 20 years ago, not the latest that the developer may automatically be using. Sadly it seems all too few bother.
I suspect when the ND555 was being developed (say 2015) 90% of us were using a netgear switch.
I already had Sisco 2960 with my previous streamer NDS
I kind of think they will, as that is what they expect their customers to use.
An access switch can typically be a relatively small number of ports, and I suspect if set up to represent a home network will be isolated from a corporate access switch which might be including NAC and other control mechanisms that a domestic switch wouldn’t typically have.
Corporate switches and consumer domestic switches can end up looking very different in network use with different dynamics. Would you test and optimise on an infrastructure that would potentially sound somewhat different than your customer base.
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I seem to remember the Netgear GS105 became popular specifically because Naim recommended it from their own experience. That, of course, was before some bright spark said that Catalyst switches sounded better. 
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This is not a normal engineering practice IMHO. Basically, you want to be able to make and re-produce exactly (or more or less) the same products that you designed, tested and made in your lab. So it makes perfect sense to use and test some popular consumer switches.
We can speculate until the cows come home about what Naim might or might not use in the factory, but I can happily report that the EE is working really well here. It’s just better than the Cisco. More engaging. More groovy. Just better. Naim may wire their network with sausages but it’s really not important. What matters is what works at home.
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Hi Nigel, if you don’t mind, which Cisco were you using previously?