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Audiophile Router?

I'm no EE, but I'd be more worried about noise from those cheap media converters than I would from a run of ethernet (which can be shielded if necessary).
 
PabloX said:
Yes, they do, or at least most of the models do. They have a number of them that vary by wireless speed and other features.

Orbis, and a number of other mesh systems, also can do ethernet for the backhaul. With these mesh systems, strictly speaking, the "mesh" part is defined by how the various units talk to each other, present as one access point and let you manage them all together. The backhaul is how they communicate with each other vs. communicating with clients.

The better systems actually have a separate radio for this so backhaul isn't sharing bandwidth with clients. Or, the better ones can also do that backhaul communication via ethernet if you can physically run the cable. Basically, it's always better to be hardwired for network purposes, but obviously that's not always feasible or can be a big PITA. Another consideration is that consumer level WAPs can get overloaded with too many wifi clients. Hard wiring can help here.

Getting back to the Orbi, I had an RBK50 set for a bit. While it worked, it worked very well. It replaced two Apple Airport Extremes which were having coverage problems. Unfortunately, it didn't work for very long. The satellite started getting flakey after a week or two and it did it in such a way that make it a big PITA to diagnose. All the lights were saying it was connected but it wasn't accepting traffic. I'd reset it and it would work for a day or two and then back to the same thing. Resetting was also painful because I had to set it up again for ethernet backhaul which wasn't well implemented (at the time). Looking through various forums, there were many other reports of similar instability.

Netgear offered to replace the satellite but I had to send back the old one on my dime (f**k that). I returned it to Amazon and bought another Airport Extreme on shopgoodwill for $25. I've since added more wifi clients and the Airports (generally a good, solid piece of hardware) are acting like they're overloaded.

In the future, I might try the Orbi again but my most likely replacement candidate would be Ubiquiti's Amplifi HD system.

Anyway, to reiterate the previous point, with network devices, it's really about bandwidth and latency. Any consumer level network device should be fine for streaming audio even if it's FLAC or whatever. Worry about getting something that won't be a PITA.
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I have been using Orbi for over 2 years now and never had any issues with the modem/router that I have now or the prior version that connected to a separate cable modem. The main units and the satellites have all been rock solid. Personally, I own a lot of Netgear stuff...some I have purchased and some I have gotten from Amazon to review. I have never had an issue with any of them.

Therefore, I can't say that the issue above is going to be the norm. One of my buddies has Orbis, too. He hasn't had any issues either. They probably sell a lot of these and some will have issues, like all tech equipment. I was using Google's WiFi hub before and it broke after they forced an update and then I moved on to Orbi.

That being said, with all tech YMMV. I have no idea whether these are "audiophile", but for me, they make my WiFi much more reliable no matter where I am in the house or in the yard. That alone made it worth the update...especially when sending a signal to my older Airplay (1) devices over WiFi.
 
I’m installing a fiber optic network bridge on my ADSL 25M home network. I have about a 50ft run from ISP Modem to a dedicated HTPC.
My question is; Is there an online test/app that can measure line noise? I see test that measure jitter, latency, and packet loss, but no line noise test.

Is there a free app/test to measure line noise or SNR?
index.php
 
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The highest Mps rate you can get.. and an assigned channel should solve most issues.

Otherwise, ethernet (hard wire) within your network where possible, I would avoid WIFI connection for streaming high content audio/video. Although, I have been pleasantly surprised when it works well!
 
dysmike said:
Line noise over fibre optic?
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Line noise from other sources between main ISP office to PC. What I’m trying to measure is SNR the fiber network bridge has affected. I’ve installed galvanic noise isolation with the fiber bridge and hear a significant difference in audio streaming of 24bit/192kHz music.
 
Lossless said:
Line noise from other sources between main ISP office to PC. What I’m trying to measure is SNR the fiber network bridge has affected. I’ve installed galvanic noise isolation with the fiber bridge and hear a significant difference in audio streaming of 24bit/192kHz music.
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Yea, Your fibre optic bridge has pretty much electrically isolated everything past it. Of course it dropped. I'm not sure you could find an app to measure what you're trying to measure. Which is cumulative improvement?
 
FWIW, my home networking is all Ubiquiti Mesh, with pretty much anything that's streaming being hardwired ethernet (cat7 cable), both audio and video. Some of that is that I have a central 18" thick adobe wall that prevents wifi from working well throughout the house. But with a primary router, a secondary backhauled through that wall, and then several access points throughput is good (consistently between 80Mbps and 110Mbps, as tested using speediest servers).

While the wifi works ok, the ethernet is far more stable for streaming. It'd be interesting to a/b optical backhauling, but I'm not sure I want to go through that again.
 
OnTheBlitz said:
What difference in SQ have you noticed?
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Most obvious is sense of openness, instrument separation, depth, and ZERO noise. I’m making two 24bit WAV Hi-Res stereo YouTube HD videos in hopes of being able to post my findings and demonstrate the sonic changes.
 
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I made two 1080p 60fps HD stereo 24bit WAV audio YouTube videos. One with regular Ethernet network and the other with a fiber optic network bridge between ISP modem and dedicated HTPC. There were absolutely NO other variables. The source was TIDAL streaming 24bit/384kHz Hi-Res. Song Britten: Simple Symphony, Op 4 from 2L Audiophile Reference Recording.

Can you hear a difference?

Fiber optic network bridge

Regular shielded Cat 7 Ethernet
 
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Lossless said:
I made two 1080p 60fps HD stereo 24bit WAV audio YouTube videos. One with regular Ethernet network and the other with a fiber optic network bridge between ISP modem and dedicated HTPC. There were no other variables. The source was TIDAL streaming 24bit/384kHz Hi-Res. Song Britten: Sumple Symphony, Op 4 from 2L Audiophile Reference Recording.

Can you hear a difference?

Fiber optic network bridge

Regular shielded Cat 7 Ethernet
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Interesting, I'm only listening to it on my phone right now, but the fiber seems to sound a bit better to me.

I assume (looks like) your microphone was in the exact same location + gain settings were identical too?
 
OnTheBlitz said:
Interesting, I'm only listening to it on my phone right now, but the fiber seems to sound a bit better to me.

I assume (looks like) your microphone was in the exact same location + gain settings were identical too?
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Yes, the microphone location and gain were not changed. The ONLY variable was 30ft shielded CAT 7 Ethernet vs 50ft Fiber Optic network bridge.
 
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OnTheBlitz said:
For lack of better words, the fiber sound clearer, like less blurring amongst the instruments.
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Exactly! There is definitely less blur with better resolution.:thumbsup: The other thing I noticed is instrument ADSR (attack, sustain, decay, and release) seemed to be significantly enhanced. The violin came on with greater authority. Music seemed to have a pleasant “reverb” with a gradual dropout. There was no post ringing at the end of the musical notes.

This is Probably one of the best $50 I ever spent on improving my network streaming audio. There was NO diminishing return in this small audio investment! :music:
 
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Lossless said:
Exactly. There is definitely less blur with better resolution.:thumbsup: Probably one of the best $50 I ever spent on improving network streaming audio.
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Glad it worked out for you. I think I mentioned this guy before. He has a good channel you might enjoy. I forget which video, but he talked about how switches and overall network improvements made for better SQ for him too. These are nice videos. Let me know what you think of his channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR4tuhqPppVp-PD0q17sPEA
 
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