Get your 250DR and B&W speakers set up, and try again.
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I have read through most of the thread just out of curiosity and sadly some of it could be in Latin as my knowledge of a lot of this equipment is sketchy to say the least.
I recently plugged my nd5xs2 directly into my sky router removing my netgear gs105 out of the system just to try it and then forgot about it for a few weeks.
Yesterday during a listening session it felt like something was off, especially with certain tracks, then suddenly remembered I had switched the cable directly to the router, put the switch back into the system and things returned to normal, very surprised at this, the reason I read through the thread, maybe a bit of experimenting might be worth some effort.
Maybe a GS105e with the ifi ps and perhaps some new cables, on a tight budget so nothing silly, have I got the right idea hear?
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I would recommend it, yes you have the right idea.
I don’t even have my HiFi setup properly yet but switching between setups I noticed a very small improvement, small improvement but it’s an improvement nonetheless. Price-wise looking at some of the setups on this forum it’s a relatively small drop in the ocean for the Netgear switch & ifi PSU. I didn’t do any thorough analysis, @Xanthe already did that and I just took a shortcut to the ifi power X and Negear GS108E (same as GS105E as far as I can tell but with extra ports).
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Cheers Chaff many thanks for the confirmation.
Just about to purchase the Netgear GS105e but there seem to be a number of options available, managed and unmanaged and a couple more can someone point me in the correct direction as this is all a bit foreign territory to me, thanks.
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You want the GS105E - the version with the ‘E’ is “smart managed” - i.e. it has limited L2 management capability.
The GS105 WITHOUT the ‘E’ is an unmanaged switch and is noisier.
You also need to power it with a low noise power supply such as the iFi iPower X.
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Xanthe answered it perfectly well in his post, above. I’ll add that he and I confirmed that the GS105/GS108 and GS105E/GS108E switches are completely different hardware inside their cases in addition to the different software feature set.
I saw nearly identical results (as far as we can determine over the internet) with my GS108E as Xanthe explains with the GS105E. 
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Cheers gentlemen appreciate the speedy reply, will add the new psu as well
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After a little more guidance regarding using the Netgear gs105e.
My system runs from a sky Q router which has two yellow output ports is it worth leaving the original switch in place which is connected to my sky Q box and laptop then running the new gs105e from the second port so keeping the streamer side on a separate setup if that makes sense or should I just swap out the 105 for the -05e and run everything from the one switch, thanks in advance gentlemen.
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Typically the more you isolate audio setup from everything else the better
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From the network perspective it doesn’t matter.
Personally we’d take the approach of leaving the existing switch as it is, and connecting the new GS105E to that and then to the streamer; keeps it nice and simple with no change to existing systems.
Neither switch consumes that much electricity (just a few watts).
If you’re that keen to save 3 or 4 watts of power consumption (!), then replace the existing switch and PSU with the new switch and PSU.
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No worried about any slight power consumption issues just wondering if running the two switches separately would make any further gains to the system , just checking as this is a new area to me, learning all the time.
Thanks again for your input.
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Yes you only need one switch, or even the switch ports on your broadband router.
A quality switch should have a low noise power supply, which means low levels of common mode noise applied to all connected devices.
I suggest look for devices compliant with IEC 60601-1-11 closest to your Ethernet audio equipment for low noise which I think most quality commercial devices do.
For reference this is the formal low noise standard for connecting medical equipment including in the home.
The switch will ensure data separation, other than some broadcast data which will apply across your home network.
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So why would people who buy the Phoenix Net?
Morning Xanthe just wanted to thank you for your guidance, all in place but don’t laugh, it took me 3 hours to get into the switch and lots of head scratching to get the 105e setup, set it to low power mode but didn’t alter anything else.
Seems louder with a bit more clarity and space, noticed vocals seem cleaner and more life like, early days but a positive outcome so far, thanks.
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