Interesting find there FR. It looks like our Asian friends were experimenting back in 2017. I wonder where Melco got the idea for a ‘high end’ switch…
Very interesting FR.
Unless Melco have ‘breathed on’ this identical-looking piece of hardware, making it more audio focussed, one could be forgiven for saying Melco are taking the pis*.
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No, charging a lot more to people who will pay it is simply good business sense, servicing a community that believes in names and cost as indicators of sound quality… If that is what Melco are doing, I doubt they are the first.
That is no reflection on individuals here, but a generalised observation.
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The most intriguing is that someone, on elsewhere forum, made a comparison between that Buffalo switch, with a linear ps, and the most expensive switch on the market ( Telegartner M12/ 6k). The M12 sounded a bit nicer, but the Buffalo more involving and spacious. However it costs bare 100 dollars.
In France, some preferred the Buffalo vs Cisco Meraki Catalyst.
What switch it is ?
Perhaps it looks similar but the components inside are of better quality?
@Simon-in-Suffolk can perhaps say, from looking, if there are differences.
Very interesting 
If you read the Ethernet low noise design papers from Texas Instruments, much performance in this area is in component layout, and PCB track layout… and your two pictures look pretty similar… well effectively identical
In those photos I can’t recognise any PHYTER transceiver components or equivalent… which are special devices designed to reduce Ethernet emissions.
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The Buffalo one you mentioned.
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They have the same PCB assy part number, that tells me they are the same
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Indeed… and both look rather standard as per my point about PHYTER transceivers.
Ah ok. Because I see like yellow ( An) batteries ( caps?) on your pic, but not in the pic I posted. However your pic has greater resolution…
But that picture doesn’t look as though it’s the same board as your previous pic with side by side identical boards.
How do you know those side by side are really the Melco and the Buffalo boards?
I think they’ve done a bit of retouching on the picture for the brochure shots. Same layout, just the PCB colour looks like it’s been desaturated somewhat to an un retouched shot
The Buffalo switch looks quite similar in spec to a Catalyst.
It was the same main board that you mentioned, FR. The top picture was the original Buffalo GS switch with its switch mode power supply. The bottom picture shows the same unit, to which someone has stripped out the switching supply and replaced it with a linear supply. They seem to have a liking for Audio Note capacitors…
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Looks like a jazzed up Cisco to me.
I’ll get me coat.
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Even if the circuit boards are the same, the components on one could be of tighter tolerance, hence more expensive and of better SQ.
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I can’t break the rules and tell you where I found that. But if you tap on google “ Buffalo BS GS2016 switch vs Melco “, you will find the right place.
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