Options to improve digital sound

@mswale thank you for the fact-checking and sanity check 🙏

So, Roon not cpu intensive. Many monitor their cpu utilization in real time and report relatively high utilization with Roon vs other music players. Also I directly monitor cpu usage via Euphony OS, I can do this by direct connection to streamer or via tablet. I'm monitoring both temps and utilization in real time.

As for digital packets not impacting analog signal, laughable. Streamers don't affect latency, nonsense. 

This all a bunch of nonsense.

@mswale Appreciate the detailed information. 
 

The discussion of data network noise and implementation is not a very exciting topic and clearly full of debate. I think, It should be important to those looking to improve their digital music experience, in addition to (upgrading streaming devices).

(Data packet transmission and timing is a totally different topic. I’m only addressing electric noise transmitted from device to device along the network chain.)

Whether CPU processing noise is relevant, I don’t know. I feel electric noise emitted by a single poorly designed network device or a summation of network devices is the main issue. I don’t think, in general, having fewer network devices is better or best. Logically to me, simply decoupling and/ or reducing electrical network noise is paramount. So whatever it takes to achieve lower noise needs to be done. Of course starting with a device that is designed to limit unwanted noise is key. I respectfully disagree with @mswale that the use of fiber optic is not good, generally speaking. Used wisely, fiber optic connections can be an effective tool at separating/ isolating noisy devices from the DAC. (this topic has been discussed over and over on AG). Sorry to bringing it up again. 

I have two SoTm network switches with built-in SFP (fiber optics). The two switches are connected by signal mode fiber. My Dac is connected to switch #2, my Roon Nucleus is connected to switch #1, resulting in isolation between streamer and DAC. Each switch has a dedicated external power supply.  Noticeable improvement to SQ. 
 

Point being, it was important for me to dial in my network before upgrading my streamer. Hopefully my thoughts and experiences are contributing to this thread. 
 

Cheers 
 

Here is my SGC ST CPU with ROON Core streaming to 4 endpoints at once.

SGC ST i5 CPU

For networks, you want AS FEW HOPS as you can get. You also want AS FEW conversions along the way. Adding several switches, and swapping from coax, e-net, fiber, and so on is not a good thing.

@mswale can you give us some more detail on the “hop” and conversion points? As long as the information packets are getting through undamaged, do the  number of hops matter? Or is it the case that there’s a risk of packet loss at each hop? Or is something else going on?
 

thanks.