I’ve been doing a lot of work on network optimization lately, not just from a perspective of sound improvement (which I’ll speak more about) but from a standpoint of plain ol’ traffic improvement.
The consideration of balance, performance and isolation of noise and the minimization of introduced noise and cross contamination of noise. It all matters to a degree but some things are simply not worth the effort due to the hockey stick cost effect of really getting stupid with extreme implementations.
Not necessarily in order of importance but yes a little bit in order of importance. Understand that my positions are always taking the expense into consideration.
- I’ve said this before and it bears repeating, throwing obscene levels of money at an audio server is not the best use of your audio funds. I’ve said this in other places as well and not been welcomed with much agreement. lol
Taking one of the noisiest components one could start from, (a PC) and throwing gobs and gobs of money to make that PC be good enough to output audiophile quality digital signal output is… CRAZY.
Not saying that it doesn’t work. Obviously the Taiko proves that point, but its akin to setting a goal of climbing Mt. Everest but starting the climb from the bottom of the Marianas trench. Counterproductive to say the least.
- Ethernet works and it is ABSOLUTELY not an issue for transmitting audio over a network. That’s not even an argument and I say this so the network folks STFU about how it can’t make a difference.
What can make a difference however is external and superfluous noise sources. EMI, RFI, generated internally or external to the network component, then having that noise travel the other components in the chain be it DC, AC or ground. You eliminate, or better stated, mitigate those types of introduced or shared noise sources out of the network, you get better sonic performance from your audio component.
- The single biggest improvement you can make in streaming is having the digital source you plug into your DAC have the best f’ing power supply ever and preferably use optical SFP to get Ethernet into it, especially if it’s cluttered up among noisy components, a computer or TV. Before this point, everything is about Network data and you can follow more general, less costly measures and not mortgage your house level of cabling. The data can take one or ten hops across a network and not have a single issue with audio quality. Once at your streamer though DO NOT SKIMP! Everything you can do to mitigate noise, undue processing and isolation will pay dividends in your audio output into the DAC.
I recently had an exchange with someone who is an industry stalwart who said and recommended quite the opposite of what I’m sharing here. He advocated for one server, streamer connected right to the DAC and advocated for the least amount of network hops before getting to the streamer.
He’s not wrong, but certainly his position would be far costlier and unnecessary and that’s what I’m advocating for. I’ve done a lot of testing and what I hear aligns with what I’m saying at least for me and I’m good with that.
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Roon sounds good, I know a lot of people have stated that there are improvements to be had, I’ve heard nothing but great things about other audio protocols, and people I trust have stated as much, but I’ve not been able to hear a difference. I’m writing this today because after five days of doing testing with tracks I’m infinitely familiar with, weather streaming from Qobuz directly to my Lumin U2, or using Roon, both with local files or Qobuz contents. I did not hear a difference, at least not one I could identify. I’m not saying there isn’t. I’m saying that I wasn’t able to pick anything meaningful out. So I’m sticking with the Roon convenience which is a hard value add to top since I also use ARC. Maybe the fact that I’ve done so much to have a clean network is a contributing factor but honestly after the days of testing I’ve spent doing since last week, I would have been bummed it there was a difference I could hear. Because I would not have been able to live with it otherwise. lol
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I’d spend money on fancy Ethernet cables only as bling or if I had a very noisy environment I was specifically afraid of introducing radiated or generated interference. In a good environment, a good Cat 6 cable should be more than good enough. Again, my experience only and I’ve no doubt that a high end cable and have a meaningful impact in the right situation. I’ve just gone very very very much out of my way to make sure my network if free of crud. God knows the amount of money I’ve spent on clean power supplies lol
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Grounding solutions help. I don’t know why or haven’t bothered to research etc, but chassis grounding components especially the noisy ones, has helped. Take this for what It’s worth, just another avenue of spending in the hobby. LOL If you’re going to implement a solution though, the cables MUST match, the whole point of grounding solutions is equalizing the ground path. So you don’t want to be using all types of disparate cables. Buying “audio grade” grounding cables will just eat your wallet up. I’ve had good success using good quality inexpensive speaker cables and making ground cables from them, far, far cheaper.
That’s as much of a stream of though I can spew about now and my wife is yelling at me that we have to run out for our next rounds of pre Christmas errands to run.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanuka, Quanza, Festivus, Winter Solstice or any other timely holiday you celebrate. Good will to all and peace in the middle east!