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Ok now I am frustrated with streaming

Help me out here please. I was really enjoying getting into streaming. Just purchased a Node 2i 2 weeks ago and have been enjoying it. Testing Tidal and Qobuz, leaning toward Qobuz. I was testing both wifi and ethernet connection. I seemed to pick up some noise and distortion on what I thought was the ethernet so I have been listening on wifi. I really enjoy finding new music on the streaming service. Tonight I was enjoying Sierra Hull because I listen to a lot of Alison Krauss. I was listening to Sierra Hull's new 25 Trips album and got to track 7 Escape and I heard a bunch of static/distortion, almost like a blown tube, except I have solid state equipment. I switched to Tidal to see if it was a problem with the Qobuz stream and same thing. Hooked up my MacBook pro to rule out a problem with the Node 2i, same thing. Now I am listening to Clapton's Unplugged and I hear the same thing. Is it my internet? I have a brand new modem, a Motorola MB7621, and a brand new Asus AC3100 router. I did a speed test and we are getting 237 mbps. My daughter was watching Netflix on a TV upstairs at the time, when she was finished I did a reboot of the cable modem and reboot of the Node 2i and then it was fine after that. I listened for about an hour after that. Is it my internet speed? Do I need to call Comcast/xfinity and up my speed package? Is it something else? Its getting frustrating and its not supposed to be like that, I am at the point where I may just send the Node back on the return policy and stick with CD's. 
jmphotography

Showing 1 response by aschuh

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aschuh
42 posts
 
@ OP: As others have stated, digital data packages are not precisely controlled in the time domain. I had a similar problem with an Apple airport extreme WiFi router (airport express 'satellites' have no internal clock). The best explanation in my case was a clock locking issue at the DAC level. The DAC uses a digital buffer/minimal delay to sort out the time domain precisely. This buffer can be overwhelmed.
I transitioned to a mesh WiFi router (Lynksis) and never looked back. Works well with airplay, Chromecast, and perfectly with ROON even when multiple clients are active on the WiFi network. Specifically, transmitting using ROON via WiFi from a MacBook pro to an OPPO UDP 205 is slightly superior to Toslink or USB. USB introduces minimal noise.

Don't give up on streaming yet! Good luck!
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