a have a small Netgear hub and Netgear switch in thereā¦ you never now when they come in handy, even for helping neighbours outā¦
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Which oneā¦ I use a BT switch port on the my router currentlyā¦ as I am doing building/alteration workā¦ and it works very wellā¦
But the key thing is to keep an open mindā¦ which is why I used the ether regen, it certainly doesnāt make anything worse on my setupā¦ it also provides some spare ports whilst I have the building work doneā¦ and yes I will no doubt put the Catalysts PoE switches back in when all completed here so I can run and manage my home VLANsā¦
Must admit system sounds absolutely stonking this eveningā¦ really good rhythm and paceā¦ listening to some early 70s recordingsā¦ they did make some good records back thenā¦
For a lot of us, we really enjoyed the Cisco catalyst switches, specially for the price in second hand market.
But today a lot of the same persons consider the Cisco outclassed, on the sound quality question, by the arrival of the audiophile switches, be it EE8, ER, and now very probably Innuos.
Time to move from the Cisco.
Well I have, the EtherRegen, but there is no difference from a SQ perspective on my setupā¦ did you not read my post?
But I configure the Catalysts to optimise my home audio network as I written many times before ā¦ you canāt do on that on the so called audiophile switchesā¦ so I use the ER as a segment repeater where it is supposed to use a tighter serial clock down at the physical layerā¦ and I let my Catalysts do the Ethernet and higher protocol optimisation.
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Right Simon, I got the Cisco on your recommendation quite a while ago. I had two Netgear spare switches, one now. I gave one to a neighbor to help them out with an issue.
so itās not just me thenā¦ those little Netgears can be quite useful for getting people out of a pickleā¦
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The reason of my original postā¦you continue to believe in the superiority of the Cisco.
Over what? Clearly they are more functional that basic consumer switchesā¦and that is why I use them ā¦ the Catalysts have also āsoundedā good, and the same as the Ether Regen on my setup when IGMP snooping protected.
But Cisco, Juniper, HP and many more have configurable devicesā¦ however on the basic consumer switch level, I certainly would recommend an Ether Regen over a basic Netgear for example if connecting to sensitive audio equipment ā¦ but clearly you canāt use an Ether Regen to configure your LAN if you require thatā¦ but sure many/most people donāt at home.
So you clearly canāt be referring to me if you think Cisco devices are universally superiorā¦ (little do you knowā¦)
I think the contrary, donāt think the Cisco are superior, even far from it.
As for that IMGP slooping protection, personally I donāt see any interest in my case.
I use a Cisco upstream from the ER switch - so I get best of bothā¦even if apparently Iām only imagining it! 
But the context of the system these things are set to work with is very important.
There are āthreshold effectsā in terms of noise-floor and distortion thresholds which if somewhere in the system are above what the ER to me clearly lowers - well the ER effect will not then be audible and I would not hear it either and not choose it in some systems.
When I changed from 552 Pre to S1 Pre the noise floor clearly and obviously dropped - even though I did not consider the 552 noisy at all (it is not) but compared to the S1 Pre then it is.
The ER dropped the noise floor by at least as much again and increased resolution of the the low-level information in my system, so it was a good thing - in context of my system.
But other systems will have their own overall balance of things they get right for music to work - and any upgrade will need to begin from their weak-spots first and it is possibly not what the ER will show-up - although in some system configurations it may.
In my system it is very easy to just swap the feed from ER to Cisco 2960 in seconds and to AB listening - the cisco is obviously less clear with a dirty-murky and slower sound compared to the ER.
People can argue it is impossible ā¦etcā¦ but when you try it this is what happens and telling myself my ears are deceiving me does not fly here - although it may do well elsewhere.
If I did not have the direct comparison between the ER and Cisco - I then like the Cisco switch - it sounds full and good musically. Only the comparison shows it is not good enough in context of my system - and the LPS upgrade made that even more obvious - silly-better.
But in another system I may have not have heard it as better.
You cannot āalways betterā some items and it is system chain that matters.
DB.
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I do believe that switches and cables can make a difference, but that it really depends on your setup to which degree and whether itās a first step to consider.
There is a nice video from Steve Guttenberg on YT where he talks about an old customer of his (Steve used to be a high end audio salesman in NY) who bought a $100K audio stack, but refused to invest in cables. This guy only used the cheapest cables he could find, the type you get for free with cheap equipment:
Steve, who is a cable guy himself, tells that he was sceptical about the customerās stance, but when he visited the manās house and heard the system play was really impressed with how good it sounded. He explains (rough translation), āDo i think it could potentially sound even better with really good cables? I do. Do i think it sounded bad now? Not at all, it sounded really greatā.
So according to Steve, having a really good base system is in principle enough to achieve great sound. But if you already have a great system, then yes good peripherals can make it shine even more.
With something like an Atom or Nova, or perhaps even the mid-range or older Naim separates, well perhaps it shouldnāt be the first place to look for improvements, since you will likely gain a lot more by upgrading your main components first.
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DB eloquently sums up our experience of inserting the EtherRegen downstream of the Cisco 2960, which is why we have happily kept it and then added a half decent power supply for it as well.
We may be delusional and/or suffering from alleged expectation bias. If so, we are fine with it. 
Best regards, BF
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Did you try the ER upstream just before your Naim DAC?
Hi Michael,
Our Cisco switch accepts the main network feed from the router and so it also connects our various TV boxes to the network. I was keen to try and keep the music server & streamer isolated from all that TV data traffic and noise if possible. Hence, we have only used the ER downstream of the Cisco switch.
Iām afraid that we donāt own a Naim dac but use a Chord dac in the big system. We do however use a Naim DAC-V1 in the office system in between a mac mini and a NAP140.
Best regards, BF
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[quote=āBluesfan, post:55, topic:15874ā]
Iām afraid that we donāt own a Naim dacā¦[/quote]
Sorry: Iām clearly incapable of reading a profile! 
I also managed to get the wrong end of the stick on downstream (reading faster than my grey cells can cope). I donāt think thereās much point in trying an ER upstream of the Ciscoā¦ Ho hum!
Oops, never mind, time for another tune instead!
Best regards, BF
Bluesfan, like you I have my ER downstream of my Cisco (2960), the ER being connected to the Cisco, Server (UnitiServe) and ND555. Like you also I wanted to separate server/streamer traffic from other network traffic (computer and TV - Sky), so I went one step further than you and connected my MacBook Pro and Sky Box to my BT Home Hub 5 router, rather than connecting these to my Cisco switch.
I wondered if you had tried this additional separation, but suspect your layout of kit in your house might preclude this.
I would also accept a challenge that my theory of traffic separation has no basis and any observed change in SQ is in my mind.
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Hi Nigel,
I share your conviction 100%.
The Cisco is the main switch in our living room but is not the network node for the house as a whole.
The broadband router connects to a Ubiquiti UDM Pro in the study. The UDM Pro does very clever things that people like Simon understand but which are completely beyond me, hidden by an impenetrable wall of acronyms. There is then a CAT6a cable that runs from the UDM Pro in the study to the Cisco in the living room.
All wifi, computers, printers, NAS drives and other such paraphernalia are managed by the UDM Pro and it does a super job of whatever it is that it actually does.
There, perhaps I do understand it after all!
Best regards
Befuddled, or BF for short.
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FWIW everything in our house connects to the router via Wi-Fi. Ethernet is only for the Hi-Fi. I too originally used a Cisco for everything apart from the final downstream feed to the ND555 from EtherRegen. Out of curiosity I tried connecting everything to the BT Home Hub 2.00 (Modem+Router+Wi-Fi), removing the Cisco entirely (at that stage the model with external PSU) and to my surprise things sounded clearer, more detailed and dynamic. Only the Roon Nucleus and Home Hub are connected to the EtherRegen (work Mac direct to the HH) and thatās what sounds best here (vs either Mac to ER or Nucleus to HH)ā¦
Yes the BT SmartHub 2 is quite an advanced device, so if your home network requirements are basic, then using the ER as a segment repeater with its lower noise serial link clocking between your streamer/DAC and your BT SmartHub 2 should work well. The BT device takes care of the group filtering for you so āshieldsā your ER, assuming you have nothing else plugged into your ER.