"Audiophile Grade" Ethernet Switches - The new generation

[Flashman]

@Flashman

That is good news but may I ask a question. What resolution files are you streaming? I don't think Tidal has anything above 48 kHz, at least I haven't noticed anything including their NQA files which unpack to higher resolutions but stream at 48 kHz or less in my experience.I understand that DSD 64 is equivalent to around 88.2 or 96 kHz and DSD 128 would be twice that.

I'm streaming over a gigabit connection via a Cisco switch and don't get problems unless I do something like having Roon upsample everything to 24/192 which definitely triggers issues for me but DSD 64 and 24/176.4 and lower aren't issues for me. I'm not certain what the issue is but Roon say it's a buffer handling problem on Devialet's part. High res files can certainly trigger it but I don't think it's so much the resolution as the fact that more data is involved, the buffer size is measured in milliseconds so higher res files means more data gets held in the buffer and I wonder whether how much data is held in the buffer is part of the issue, but given that some people have problems streaming at CD resolution and I don't, I think there are other factors involved as well. It seems as if changing switches has been very beneficial for you but I've tried a number of nion-qaudiophile switches in my system over the last 10 months (switches from Netgear, D-Link, and Cisco, and also a Netgear Orbi hub's ethernet ports, and had similar good luck with all of them. My experience is that any standard switch works just as well for me as any other. I'm happily enjoying my success but I wish I knew what was going on and why what I'm doing works for me but doesn't for others. I'd also like to know why changing from one gigabit switch to a different gigabit switch worked for you and @Elztalbiker when changing to other switches hasn't worked for other people here.

Having the Roon Ready connection work is really great but it seems to be a hit or miss thing. I don't think either of us have solved the problem, we've each just found our own way to avoid it in our individual setups. What I really want is to see the problem solved for everyone with no need to resort to limiting connection speeds or the file resolutions we stream or having to change switches or the like. I just want to see Devialet fix the underlying problem.

David, I probably need to do some more experimenting.  Unfortunately, I have shut Roon down as I am leaving home and won't be back until late January.  At that point, I can do additional testing.  I am likewise puzzled as to why I can stream gigabit Ethernet in my setup, where previously it would not let me do so unimpaired.  I am pretty sure that that I upsample to 24/192 in Roon as a practice but I would need to check that when I return.  More later...

David, I am back from my long trip (our daughter just had our first grandchild, so I was out of pocket for one month) and have checked on some higher resolution files with my Devialet Expert 220 Pro connected by Ethernet to the Bonn N8 switch.  Everything plays nicely without a glitch.  I tried quickly going from one song to another and playing long stretches of music and had no issue.  The highest resolution files I have are 352.8kHz/24 bit.  Typically, for files beneath 192kHz/24 bit, I upsample to this resolution.   I have no idea why the Bonn N8 plays so nicely with the Devialet and Roon RAAT but it does.  A nice surprise!