How important is the Switch?

[Nikhil]

In terms of network efficiency a switch is much better than using just a modem/router. Even though they are cheap they are useful little devices especially as you grow your network. This

but pardon the irritating voice.

 

In my home network there was a difference when I switched to hires audio files which were relatively large in comparison to 16/44.1 RBCD files. Initially I used to have dropouts during playback which disappeared with the addition of a network switch. An optical network is still ethernet (with the galvanic isolation) and will still need a switch to operate optimally.

 

Regards.