...I found that most hi-end or high quality digital audio devices would reclock and dejitter signals on the arrival anyway, so what's the possible benefit of doing that in a network switch prior to arrival?
Networking has very high protocol and transport standards which are in place. So, yes, a digital audio device WILL error check, ensure everything is accurate, and deliver data carefully when it is received. Otherwise, it wouldn't work at all. This is BAKED IN to the physical device. That's important to understand. The need for data to arrive accurately, and in sequential order, is vital for streaming to work at all, and so it is part of the networking protocols.
Not AV protocols. NETWORKING!
A network switch, mid-span, may do this as well if the money is paid for the hardware to do so. While it can improve data reliability and prevent packet loss earlier in the chain, for the typical home it is completely and entirely pointless, because the data usage is minimal as are the distances. We are also well into gigabit networking and as a technology it has matured enough so that it is incredibly reliable in even the cheapest of network switches.
To deal with any potential jitter and packet loss issues, your streaming devices buffer audio and video. This is why it takes a few seconds for most things to start playback. The device gathers a second or two of data, then starts playback. As it gets more data, if it detects a bad packet, or that something is time delayed, it has a couple of seconds to correct it. It likely has the correction done in milliseconds. So, it has a lot of time to fix things.
This is not exactly specific, but gives a good explanation of why this is such a simple concept that's baked in, and talks about how to reduce it...
Jitter is when there is a time delay over your network connection. This is often caused by network congestion, and sometimes route changes.
www.ringcentral.com
In the end, I think many of us have seen the results of packet loss. When we see a digitally delivered image go all 'blocky' for a second or so. That's packet loss and jitter due to poor connectivity. With real time data and minimal buffering, it is more likely to happen. But, within the home environment, it is very rare unless you have crappy wi-fi in use. In which case, you still won't fix things with a switch that has error checking built in.
