I replaced my TP-link 8 port with a Cisco WS-C2960-24TT-L ethernet switch, and it really helped. The SQ seemed to improve a bit, but jeez mon, my entire home network improved a ton. I have 4 computers and they’re all faster. A lot faster. It was hard to believe.
I picked up on Kijiji for $70 cad. It was new, never powered up, bulk packed. Craigslist or Ebay would also have some.
Most users of the ER prefer it without the Cisco in the chain. But you can try.
I will fail on the switch obsessive geekometer here, but I confess that all I did was a straight removal of the Cisco and substitution with the EE. The improvement was enough for me to decide that was good enough. I could have tried daisy chaining but to me, that way madness lies. One of the benefits of the EE is that it’s tiny and has a tiny power supply so doesn’t need to live on the floor. That means I can dust under the sideboard without tonnes of wires and gubbins getting in the way.
Thanks. It would only have been for the snooping, and if the network isn’t hammered by multicasts it probably does not matter.
Correct, if you have multicast group data on your home network, then you benefit from an IGMP snooping switch such as the Cisco 2960. The audiophile switches mentioned on this forum are primitive devices from a network perspective, and would otherwise bombard your streamer with group data it doesn’t want.
So if you like the serial line noise reduction from the audiophile switch, use a guard switch to IGMP snoope, and filter unnecessary, SQ sapping redundant group data.
Clearly if you don’t have such group data, as you might have a very small and basic home network / appliances on it, then there would be no technical or SQ benefit in using a guard switch.
Gladly I am the only human on my network, luckily not using IPTV nor VoIP, and only one device at a time, so I guess I can do without
Yes, broadcast IPTV is one use, home automation is another common use, even Roon has its own groups, but if you don’t use this, or always use Roon when streaming, or plug your IPTV box into your ISP (providing IPTV) router switch which typically be snooping and acting as a guard switch then it is unlikely group data will be noticeable.
If you have a capable switch like the 2960 you can ask it to show you the groups it can see.
No Roon or home automation either. I only have an unmanaged TP-Link right now but was pondering getting a guard switch after reading your many posts on the topic although I knew my network probably doesn’t need it, on the basis of why not. But I kinda reconsidered as it would really not be doing much and add another PS as a downside.
It does sound like from a technical perspective you won’t get any/much benefit… but of course there is the always the chaining effect of the serial line noise shaping… but this is more analogue rather than digital networks… but I struggle here… to me a home network is there to serve a purpose in allowing devices to communicate with each other, not act as an analogue noise shaper, but each to their own.
My answer was decouple DAC from transport, and I was able to leave this all behind. The network has no bearing on SQ now with the equipment I use.
Anyway, as the OP of this thread I’d like to thank you all for your feedback and opinions, I certainly opened a can of worms!
I have ordered a Netgear Prosafe 8 port switch, brand new for the princely sum of £6.99, I hope I’m going to be delighted with the results as I have invested heavily into the purchase.
Seriously, thanks for the feedback (no pun intended).
It would be more of an OCD thing in my situation 
The switch question is literally the very last thing in my all-new system, so I’ve obsessed a bit during the last few days as I am going to install everything next weekend. I’ll just try with the EE and listen, and if it makes no positive difference I’ll sell it. The spending for it doesn’t really matter anymore
As for the multicast traffic, there is probably none that matters. The three mobiles and the laptop are all on Wifi which is IGMP snooped on the router (Fritzbox) - I checked and there is a setting. It looks like it doesn’t on the wired part, but the only active wired device when I play music is the Qnap and its UPnP. The switch is shared by a fireTV, a Sky receiver with Netflix (though TV is over cable), and a Playstation - but all of those are off/standby when I care about music.
Sounds like you are good… yes OCD can get in the way, and influence subconscious bias… best forget about this and enjoy your audio.
@Simon-in-Suffolk, don’t want to go too much into IT-technicalities as we’re discussing audio over-here, but just out of curiosity: how do you show all groups connected to such a Cisco-switch?
Connect and log into your Cisco catalyst switch… then type
show ip igmp snooping groups
and you may see something like this. These are my groups and their IP addresses and the ports they are enabled for on the 2960 switch (through IGMP snooping)
Fa 0/6 in my NDX2 port.
Hi Simon,
Out of curiosity, why do you use class D addresses for your home network? Is this related to your multicast usage?
Thomas - i don’t assign the class D addresses - all multicast groups use class D addresses on all networks - whether it be home or elsewhere. The application driving the multicast group assigns which class D address it wants to use for its group.
For example I can guarantee that if you are using upnp on your home network you will have the 239.255.255.250 IP address group active within your home network - that is the group used for UPnP discovery.
Just get a recent year Cisco 2960 pd and be done with it. Mint models are inexpensive on the e website.
Good move. I doubt very much you’ll regret it. I have mine connected direct to my router and have never looked back. All my fiddling around with Ethernet cables and switches are long gone. The EE 8Switch brings with it satisfaction, no need to mess around with anything, just plug in and play.
I had a lot of fun reading your journey on the 8switch thread 
