Apologies if I misunderstand but how long is the cable from switch to Linn DS?
Look at @Simon-in-Suffolk’s explanation.
In essence one is not listening to the rip. One is listening to a file construct containing the rip. This will be different acording to what ripper is used. Deconstructing this file construct will result in different errors/noise during playback. It is not a perfect process. So even though the actual audio data may be identical, in the real world the resuts heard will not necessarily be.
About 2m if I recall but aill check later, Its standard spec cat 6 ftp cable I picked up years ago. Every time I try to swap it out I seem to hear more distortion so it persists! I have lots of flexibility on how to setup the last leg. The switch is powered via one of my three dedicated spurs. I have that positioned between he speakers whilst the hifi is to the side. I can always move this around as part of my wifi v ethernet v optical investigations - in particular never tested a very short last leg run with anything other than amazon basics cable.
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Foiled Twisted Pair is great anywhere else in your network but the foils can be grounded to both metal RJ45’s: a multimeter set to ohms will quickly tell you if you have circuit continuity from one RJ45 to the other. If you do, this can undo much of the good work a (any) switch does in mitigating RFI noise because the noise travels down the shield. Cat8 specs state the overall shield must be grounded at both plugs so this to be avoided in this specific use case too. If you do try a 0.5m cable here, perhaps make it Cat 6 UTP?
Good luck!
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Will do. Thanks! Happy to test out cables here so long as they stay in spec.
Edit I’ll also double check if the cable is FTP or UTP - i was going from memory from years ago but it will likely printed on the cable.
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I’m also up for some actual measurements of cables. I’m not an electrical engineer and have limited knowledge here but a friend who is (and used to be a philips engineer on cd drives) recommended a spectrum analyzer to really find out what is going on. Happy with a little guidance to explore that avenue for fun.
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I’ve slightly amended to clarify my last post here, I have responded fully in the other thread, which is where the OP and I have suggested it happen.
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If you have the facilities to measure conducted and/or radiated RFI noise then you have a pretty advanced setup! This is the only thing you could possibly measure on a network cable which would have relevance to audio. Audio signals are nowhere near testing the limits of data carrying capacity of an ethernet cable so the data will arrive in good order regardless of any measure you might make of bandwidth.
A spectrum analzer is red herring in the ethernet domain. Sure, tmight be fun but it won’t tell you anything remotely useful. Measurement of capacitance/inductance/resistance etc might be interesting post-streamer but the ethernet world is different. The data will reach the streamer in identical fashion whatever cable you use and how long it is; it’s the side salad of noise which accompanies it which is the only variable we can and should control in the pre-streamer world.
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Good news. I was mistaken. Never rely on memory. UTP. Kind of explains why it hasn’t been dislodged yet 
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When you see “Hypothesis” in a hifi forum.
Obviously more concerned with the process rather than the results.
Like more concerned with the hifi rather than the music.
The recommendation of asking a dealer to lend the items will save so much time and effort.
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Yes the plan is to ask a dealer to lend the parts. The hypothesis part is to decide what to test and where. The melco can go in several different places in my network. And I can do various a/b comparisons. Hope that helps.
That does seem quite a challenge.
I always try to remind myself to make things not as complicated as they could be. 
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Hi TheFlash, your comment just made me think for a second. I have my network configured in a chain of five switches not wired into a central switch - long story: I bought a 48 port switch intending to do just that and had an electrician lined up to come and run ethernet cable drops into several of my rooms up to the loft. Then covid hit and it never happened…
I have shielded cable at the moment connecting my dedicated hifi switch to the next switch in the chain. Is there any decoupling advantage to running unshielded cable versus shielded cable in the run between the switches? I guess it is a tradeoff between picking up more noise on the cable run versus reducing the decoupling effect of the switch. As it happens, the run also goes through two back to back wall switches so that adds a totally different element in play anyway.
Just a thought… Might all be academic anyway soon with the option of wifi.
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shielded is fine but just not connected at both ends, either fully floating or connected at one end (switch end).
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If you are talking about upstream from the hifi-dedicated switch, shielded is fine, though ideally as @Hifi-dog says, using a shielded cable like the Melco C100 with the shield grounded at only one end will help stop you shunting noise around your network via the dual-grounded shields.
The final cable from hifi-dedicated switch to streamer is the really important one here though; if that final switch in the playback chain stops let’s say most of the RFI noise accumulated to that point, it’s vital you don’t give that noise a path down the shield straight to your streamer. So on this very last switch-to-streamer leg, if you had a straight choice between say unshielded Cat 6 and shielded Cat 8, I’d go unshielded Cat 6 any day and just keep it as short as possible. Yes, a bit of radiated RFI could get into the cable but at least there is no end-to-end connected shield to undermine the job the switch has done in mitigating the RFI accumulated to that point.
Hope this helps; give it a try!
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Thanks! Ears always decide but it helps to understand potential whys to guide otherwise I will be spending all day randomly a/b ing things and I’d much rather spend it listening to music! Thanks both for your input.
HaHa - got a reason to buy a Melco product. That makes sense and there are a couple of places a cable like that would make sense at least to try out, not least from my ubiquiti 8 port switch to the flexmini - second to last leg cable.
The dealer I was talking to yesterday about Melco recommended the S100 switch over the media servers/streamers. He was obviously very positive about these too; but said the main benefit in my system (Nucleus>NDX2>252/SCDR>300DR) would come from the switch and that I could always swap out the Nucleus for a Melco version at a later date for further improvements.
As a number have said above, and from the research I did yesterday, if going down the server/streaming route the N50 does seem to be the sweet spot and can be had at reasonable 2nd hand prices. It just feels like a lot to spend if you are only using it as a server and not also as a streamer. I think that is why I would tend towards the switch if I did make any changes to my system. Hope that is a helpful input 
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That makes sense. In my case I already have 50tb of NAS capacity sitting there and its not going anywhere so whilst I would pay for a dedicated NAS for 3-4 TB of.music files if those components of the solution actually made a big difference sound wise, it makes little sense to do so just for a network switch improvement alone. That can be replicated or improved on. Hence the melco to replace my nas storage for music seems to really slide down my priority list to even test.
My philosophy on the network side is to simply (
) minimise the noise entering my streamer. I have some tactics that do that now and some more to try out thanks to some great suggestions here. I think once I have stabilised with NG KDSM and my network setup I will test out what benefit the melco network switch could bring if any at the last leg.
Edit: adding a melco switch is something I will do if the difference is huge but I manage and run two separate Ethernet deployments via unifi ubiquiti. I am used to switches and devices telling me in real time what they are doing and if they are in trouble and adding a non managed element back into the mix is something I will prefer to avoid 
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Don’t think of an unmanaged switch in this application as a switch which can’t be managed; think of it as a switch which doesn’t need to be managed, as plug-and-play. There is probably more you make go wrong by “managing” it than make go right!
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