I am very sad to report that the Melco with Nuprime power supply improves my streaming setup. I was desperately hoping it wouldn’t, but it does.
It’s not like upgrading a transport or dac, but it’s there: everything sounds less like a recording and more like the concerts I attend.
Better than the sotm and the silent angel, in my system.
This is another sad day for my bank account 
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But a good day for your ears, if that is what you did it for, hopefully also for your peace of mind.
It will improve a bit more within a week or so. I took the plunge and never looked back 
Melco cables are a good match, and they’re within reach.
Thank you @Serhan.
Cables, I already have: 3 Wirerworld Platinum Ethernet.
Excellent cable though $$$ more than Melco
Yes, very expensive, but I wanted to avoid the even more expensive endless upgrades.
They are a bargain, however, compared to @aangen ’s Stealth cables for example.
It’s all relative, …
Lucky for you.
This is not at all what I experience.
In my setup I can clearly hear the differences.
Hi @Serhan, which power supply are you using for your Melco ?
Have you tried the competing switches from Innuos (Phoenix) or Synergistic Research ? Hopefully my dealer will have one or both to try, wait and see.
I am still on the fence because the improvement with the Melco is real but not huge in my setup, and the price is steep 
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Hi @Phil
I use HDPlex 300W that feeds my router, Nucleus+, Matrix X-SPDIF2, and Melco S100. DC cables are Canare with Neutrik XLR (LPS end) the other end is Oyaide.
I have not compared Melco to Innuos or SR, however, Anzus A2 tried to dethrone Melco. For more $$ it gives a built in power supply!
For me, though using $60 Melco cables with the S100 made an obvious difference to detail, delineation, and soundstage. Even Bridge II came back into the system after 6 months in a little carton. Now, I am on the fence between Grim MU1 and Melco N10 (the one with outboard power supply)
I am NOT immune to possessiveness syndrome …. yet.
I checked, and thank God, my dealer doesn’t carry Ansuz, so no risk of expensive temptation for me. Phew 
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Talking about expensive, the Grim and Melco servers you mentioned are slightly more expensive than the Nucleus 
We are talking Pink Faun level prices, right ?
Nucleus + is circa € 3k without storage
Grimm MU1 is €11k without storage.
Melco N10 is a bit over €8k with 3TB
All prices include VAT
Pink Faun 2.16 starts at €7k, 2.16x at €12k then 2.16 Ultra starts at €20k. So, I’ll keep that for another life, or check with Santa next winter, LOL
I use two Uptone Audio EtherREGENs, each with LPS to great effect feeding my Nucleus+
Last week I also bought one Refurbished Cisco switch its working good. I also so many doubts to buy second hand IT products. But now it’s working well only. some websites offer Refurbished IT spare parts online with a warranty option. Websites likes amazon, xfurbish, eby
Nordost QNet Ethernet Switch (thecableco.com)
Just showed up in my inbox, of course they recommend the power supply and cable for best sound!
I guess analog is not the only rabbit hole available to dive down…
Best,
-JP
You must be stuck very deep in that rabbit hole to spend US$ 3200 on a hockey puck Ethernet switch.
Streaming in my systems does indeed not sound as good as CD. In order to reach both of my streamers the signal travels 5 switches. Even if I replaced them all by such audiophile switches there would be jitter problems due to the fact that the clocks of all those switches are not, and can never be perfectly synchronized, simply due to distance.
For me the benefit of streaming is ease of use, sound quality is perfect for browsing libraries and exploring new music, background music and winding down after work. For best quality listening I have CD players and a turntable. For 5 x US$ 3200 I would be able to upgrade all my sources to a level, streaming including these hokey pucks could never reach.
Off course, if you can afford to spend US$ 40.000 on interconnects, and there are enough who can, these hokey pucks are a bargain and a must have. It’s all relative.
It all boils down to one’s preference, identifying their system’s weaknesses and dealing with those weaknesses the way they see appropriate. A Melco S-100 was the cure to my streaming which to me is better than any CD playback I’ve ever had in my life! Are there better systems or options? For sure, but I have either not been exposed to them, not able to get them, or not willing to get them!
One man’s grease is another man’s gravy.
Well said.
i would go with the switch built in with 802.1 AVB protocol which is designed for audio/video streaming
The 802.1 AVB is not new in audio industry, just because they are expensive and mainly used in the studio which required a master clock which is very precise at nano second level to synchronize all mixing, analog to digital sampling equipments, now it come to consumer market at easier price for more customers
Most of consumer layer 2 switching devices are for computer network and data packets are non classification for QoS by default, so they are treated as normal packets and latency are not garrantee.
Audio streaming packets are kind of time-sensitive data, so go with the 802.1 AVB audio switch then you can be fine
I have the motu AVB switch and just simple click to setup the AVB ports then go
Guess what ? the sound appears to be more accuracy in timing and frequencies , It is ease to listen to for long but not fartugue, AND it seems less depend on “high end audio network cable”, the AQ Vodka vs the $45-60 are the same, and you barely hear the differences, just the Cat5E /Cat6 then you are fine.
This is the one i did try
before the motu came, I used the Ubiquiti 48 ports for the home network system which one VLAN has been separated and isolated from whole network for streaming services where the Synology DS 718+ NAS and DAC, this Audio VLAN has been configured and tagged packet as Class A QoS, other VLANs are used for manage and shaping the data QoS of the private Cloud system operation.
Unlike the "Highend "audio switch costs $$$$ bucks that modded the clock and isolated transformer, the 802.1 AVB protocol is the core feature beside the OSI Layer2 protocols, the 802.1 AVB frame enscapsulated with timestamp where the devices in LAN can sync and self adjust their own clock periodically within 1/100 second which is making the DSP work more precise, and all high end DAC also have 802.1 avb deamon/service running at kernel level and did their job. (I used to be developer working in Layer 2 implementation for Nortel Network before it went to protected bankcruptcy in 2009)
Forget the ER, EE , they are no better than my ubiquit/ Cisco switch which is well configured for VLAN,QoS and build in PtP protocol. I did have the etherRegen before but to me it is just dumb switch like any other $30-50 bucks netgear, TP-Link, Linksys …etc ( I do apologize those who burnt $$$$ or even $$$$$ buck on “high-end” audio switch and cables, but this is the truth and hard to accept)
Have more money? go with Cisco 3650/3850 or 9000 series and upgrade the OS that support 802.1 AVB ( will cost more for the license - but it worths), they do have SFP module for optical direct to your DAC that you can tag the audio packet with 802.1 avb encapsulation.
Beside the new Maggies .7 i’m going to have in next 3 months ( ordered and now wait) i will upgrade my current Ubiquiti 48 port non POE to the Cisco 3650 52 ports series ( with 4 40Gb/s SFP+ Uplink) and get rid of the motu by having one dedicated VLAN for audio with 802.1 AVB on new Cisco
Interesting read (wiki on AVB etc.), thanks 
- and I can see advantages in a studio / broadcast environment, but in a home environment that only has one AVB switch, is there any advantage?
Are there DACs available that have direct ethernet in (which would kinda mean they are a streamer as well or at least some portion of the streamer stack) and which “speak” AVB?