I have ran out of Ethernet ports on my Virgin hub and need to get some sort of expansion box however I have no idea of what to buy. Would it have any affect on sound quality, I have a Nova with Tidal and Zen Mini as a source, there are netgear ones on eBay for £10?
A switch does not effect sound quality, it might actually improve it.
My advise is avoid e-bay, Netgear is an OK switch, but please get a new one from a real store.
The Netgear ProSafe metal cased ones are excellent, but if you want something less industrial looking as its visible in the room , the plastic boxes are the way to go.
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All you need is a gigabit switch which you can obtain easily in Currys/PC World (if you are based in the UK) or other locations.
Simply attach the switch to a spare port on your router via an ethernet cable & you will have plenty of additional ports available to you.
Some pay a lot of money on so called ‘audiophile’ switches. I wouldn’t bother with this. A cheap consumer switch from Netgear or TP-Link should suffice for the time being.
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Minimal effect on sound quality, and the switch should simply work when you plug it in and attach it. No configuration or tinkering of any sort required.
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Pretty much any switch should do the job fine. It doesn’t even need to be a Gigabit one for the modest demands of audio streaming, and Naim streamers all use 100MB ports.
Personally I would have no hesitation buying a used switch that would otherwise be cluttering up someone’s loft. They are pretty reliable things with no moving parts, and there’s very little that can go wrong.
The Netgear Prosafe switches were a suggestion from Naim. That dated back to the time before aliens invaded the Streaming Aurio forum and turned it into a never-ending Ethernet cable and switch discussion. If you want to dip your toe in the water, get a Cisco Catalyst switch from ebay and see what you think.
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@Dalatian,
Agreed, but you can buy a 5 port TP-Link Gigabit switch for all of £14.99 in Currys/PC World.
You won’t save money by going for a non gigabit switch, and who knows - the OP may use it for 4k Netflix streaming and other similar uses at some point in the future.
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While true, 4K Netflix is more than happy with 100 Mbit. Netflix recommends at least 25 Mbit for the internet link for 4K
Agreed, I used a 5 port TP-Link Gigabit switch for all of £14.99 for a couple of years, I have tried and still own ‘The Cisco’ and am currently using a new old stock HP Procurve off ebay for £12, because I now need more than 5 ports. They all sound the same to me!
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There is no problem buying from eBay. Lots of proper businesses use eBay to turn stock over. But you do need to be sensible about who you buy from.
Best
David
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Just a heads-up - someone will come here sooner or later to suggest ER, EE, and Melco, etc. plus some expensive lps. 
So the OP’s initial budget of £10 will probably end up with £3,500 or more.
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That might well be so David, however I’ve been involved in events that caused cost & stress in part due the what I consider to be bad business & dishonesty of ebay & their seller, I just avoid them & advise others do the same.
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@anon56221831 might as well get fired in and say that I use an EE switch on my Nova and it brought a level of clarity to the sound produced that I personally felt I was missing before. When I added it to the Nova the sound woke up enough for me to not want to return it. Totally different product to the ER’s that I also own. I used one of the ER’s on the Nova but I think its a bit wasted as while good the Nova does not benefit like the ND555 with that one.
If the OP is after a ‘potential’ sonic upgrade along with adding more ports then the EE may work well. It is 45 times the £10 option already mentioned though!
I use cheap cables and expensive switches. Works for me but others may have different experiences.
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Glad to hear that someone really likes the EE.
Surprisingly, my dealer, a vinyl die-hard, has decided to sell the EE.
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@Dalmatian, the only switch that can match properly your Virgin Hub is the Telegartner. A bit expensive but still a bargain at 6k.
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@anon56221831 I like it for what it does to the sound of the Nova through ATC SCM7’s. They are not the easiest to drive and as an office system I listen at lower volumes. I needed something to help this part. It doesn’t actually do anything like what the ER does. Its more of a noise shaping device I guess. I would not use it on the ND555 after using ER’s.
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Seems to be drifting into a touch of a thread drift, OP has a Virgin hub, question is will a switch be OK into a Nova … Maybe an EE is too many steps too far too fast
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The first switch I got was a Netgear Prosafe GS105, which is still soldiering on in the study. They are jolly good. Getting one from eBay should be no problem at all. Make sure it comes with its power supply and looks well looked after.
If you connect the Nova and the Zen to the switch, and then the switch to the Hub, it certainly won’t sound worse, and may in fact sound a bit better.
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I second the Netgear Prosafe mentioned repeatedly. Unmanaged is fine for a home network. Though might not bother with eBay, new 8 port model is 20 Euro on Amazon, the 5 port a bit cheaper. On the other hand they are pretty much indestructible, so buying from eBay should also not be a problem if the PS works
The nice thing about buying from eBay, other than saving a few quid, is that you are saving stuff from the waste stream and reducing demand. Amazon are a very dodgy tax avoiding outfit, though ebay is probably little better. I sold a spare 105 on Pink Fish, cut out the middleman.
That’s true, though I doubt eBay is a model tax citizen. And of course buying new anywhere else but Amazon may be preferable, the price would be approx the same, it was just easiest to look up the new price on Amazon.