Options to improve digital sound

@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. 

What commercial switch do you recommend @mswale 

Also, processors might not produce physical noise but they emit EMI. The heat from a processor inside the enclosure as well as the emitted EMI impacts other components an in turn adds noise to the output digital signal. Yes for data transfer it doesn’t matter. But it does impact streaming music. 
I just can’t figure out how it could if there is no physical connection between my roon core and my dac. It’s all done using mesh network. 

The CPU utilization of Roon is quite variable, and relative.  The biggest challenges for Roon CPU are use of DSP and format conversion such as DSD to PCM or vice versa. 

It's also relative to the CPU that you have.  Very low power CPUs as used in micro PC's may be more stressed more easily.  Also, because DSP happens on the server, if you have multiple music streams going on at once this can also increase CPU usage. 

Having said all of that, the CPU usage I observe is generally very low.   Not sure what this has to do with anything though, so long as the stream doesn't break up this should not affect playback quality as the Roon endpoints keep a significant buffer.