Best Ethernet Setup for Streaming Audio


I am streaming from an external drive on my Mac computer to an Auralic Aries, fed to an LKS DAC. I have a wired Ethernet connection from my wall outlet to an AT&T provided modem. The modem is connected to a Netgear router, which connects to a Netgear switch that is optimized for music streaming. Another Ethernet cable runs from my Mac directly to the Netgear switch. I am aiming for the best sound quality with this system. Here are my questions:

1. is it best to have my computer's Ethernet cable plugged into the switch, or should it be plugged into the router instead. It will function either way. But what would be the best option?

2. To provide optical isolation for the Ethernet cable, I installed two TP-Link FMC’s between the switch and the Aries streamer. Is that the best position for the isolation? I have it as close to the DAC as possible. Or should I place the FMC's somewhere else in the chain?

3. Would I obtain a boost in sound quality if I added a second pair of FMC's to the system? There are 4 other options: a. Between the wall outlet and the modem. b. Between the computer and the switch. c. Between the modem and the router. d. Between the router and the switch. In case it matters, the longest stretch of copper Ethernet cable is between the computer and the switch (50 feet).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
boakey39

Showing 4 responses by dfairc777a

Fiber optics likely has slow transition edges, making it prone to electrical noise interference (that affect threshold point in time - hence creating jitter). Adding power conditioner would help.

Kijinki, can you explain the above? How does fiber get interfered by electrical noise?
I’d keep it with the two FMCs between the switch and your streamer. I have mine between the router and the streamer and it works well. The exception would be if your swtch has a SPF port. If that’s the case, you could do without one of the FMCs and just run fiber from the switch to the FMC and then wire to the streamer.
Thanks Kijinki. Way over my head, but I appreciate the attempt.

Relatve to FMCs adding electric noise, I found a small USB powered FMC thinking this would be less likely to add noise as it it doesn't need a wall wort. Any thoughts on this?
Kijanki,
Where this USB power comes from? Computer sourced power is not better than wall wort

The output of the router is USB port on my router. I figured that side didn’t matter as it’s being cleaned by the optical transmission (probably not so true based on your above statements).

The streamer side is a 2nd USB port on my Lumin U1 mini. I’m planning to upgrade the power supply in that unit to a sbooster LPS next month.

I was also thinking about a Sbooster LPS for the router, so I may do that now too.