Hi Nigel… I believe the HH5 has IGMP snooping enabled as designed, and can’t disable it… so this is good. I suspect this is for optimum working with BT Vision.
So your setup sounds fine, your 2960 have IGMP snooping enabled by default, so as you describe your home network looks like it all be working optimally.
From what I can see the Ethergen switch is rather basic, and doesn’t support group management… so if you want group management, stick it between your streamer and the 2960… and let your 2960 act as a guard. Your HH5 also looks like it will act as a guard, so you could connect streamer directly to that via your ethergen switch, but perhaps don’t plug anything else in your ethergen switch.
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Cheers Simon.
Did you notice, Mr B, that we both seem to have got things right? That’s got to be a first. Perhaps more by luck than judgement but that’s not going to take the gloss of this stunning achievement.
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Skill HH, sheer skill. 
Still need the likes of Simon on here though.
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That’s the same with my Plusnet Hub One, which is essentially a BT HH5. It must have that Snoop Doggy Dog thing already built in. ‘Appy days. 
Interesting statements, but both wrong.
Such a smugness stings the eyes…
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Beware premature optimization?
Really?
How come so many users who have separate transport and dac, here and on other forums, do experience quite dramatic improvements when they improve their audio signal chains, e.g. by:
- adding a switch or a better switch?
- using better cables?
- adding a fibre link?
- using better psus on digital signal chain components?
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Tee hee!
Recycled at the charity shop, surely?!
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How about taking an ethernet cable out of your router and connecting a 2960 to it.
Then take all your AV and IT stuff from there, rather than straight from the router?
Then there’s less chance of cross pollution between audio vs. AV/IT.
I still cannot see why noises from an ethernet switch and cable can impact the SQ if the streamer itself buffers the incoming audio stream data to a fair sizable chunk, and re-clock, and up sample the data before beginning the D-to-A process.
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I suppose if it’s all hogwash then it’s just a switch and can’t make anything worse. After a while I will put in the TP-Link again and if there is no difference I can sell the EE later
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You have a trial period of 14 days, right?
Exactly - This is true in terms of data integrity. No issues there. It’s noise coupling into other parts of the conversion stage from digital to analogue which is the problem.
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Yes, but 14 days will not be enough to come to a conclusion. The EE will arrive Tuesday or so and there might be time to check for a difference with the Nova, but this will not be 100% conclusive. And come next weekend there will be 4 new boxes that I am not used to and that are running in (and despite my skepticism in this area as well, the 300 did change a lot during the first weeks). So I think the best approach is to install everything, get used to it, optimize speaker placement if necessary, and then when I’m happy put the TP-Link back in and look for a difference. Sure, I will lose a few hundred on the EE if I sell it, but in the grand scheme of my hifi expenses this year it is irrelevant. And if I can sell it with peace of mind, that’s worth something too
I agree 100%. One have just to read elsewhere forums where DCS , MSB, Totaldac…owners use expensive Ethernet switches, cables. They run their dac with a separated streamer / server.
I wouldn’t worry about it. Just set it all up and enjoy it. I’m really pleased I got my EE. It’s a sweet little thing with tiny twinkly lights. With the BJC Cat 6A it all works wonderfully well and sounds delightfully natural.
Good one. Yes, I actually threw it away, into our box for the Salvation Army.
Nicely corrected.
Man … you guys are just too sharp. I can’t get away with anything here.
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Luckily I bought BJCs already a while ago, I think most likely based on posts of yours in the cable thread.
My thoughts too, simply enjoy my new system. Just a few days to go, this was the longest October ever. But in a few months I guess I will still try to put the TP-Link back in, it’s a tiny bit of work and interesting in any case.