Solved my streaming grunge (inner detail) problem

Glad you figured it out as that must’ve been very frustrating.  Very interesting info, and thanks a lot for sharing!

Great thing to know… a noisy thing near your system can cause problems. Something that was not common in the analog days. Sure there were hair driers… but the literal noise made it obvious. 

Although I haven’t experienced “grunge” with my Lumin U2 Mini I can support the proximity issue. I use the Amplifi Alien router and mesh and the phone app helps to locate the mesh position to where the signal is the strongest.

Mine (unfortunately) sits on the floor with devices hard wired from there but after going through the process I’ve rarely experienced drop outs or stuttering during playback while streaming.

The one issue I don’t like about mesh units is that they seem to occasionally lose sync with the router. Although I still have service unplugging/restarting is a quick resolve and never takes more than a minute. The display on the front of the unit notifies you when this needs to happen.

When I first set up my mesh network I set up the node in my stereo cabinet. BIG mistake! While my Node2i was seemingly unaffected, my phono front end was unusable. 

The solution was simple. I moved the mesh node across the room and ran a 25’ stretch of Cat8. Voila! Blissful silence. If you think about it, any wifi appliance IS going to be an RF generator, right? ;-)

Happy listening. 

That’s the complete opposite of my experience. I had my mesh unit sitting no more than 6” from my REF 6 preamp and nothing- same as it always was. I’ve since moved it about 4’ away but it didn’t make any difference. Maybe better shielding?

My Tp-link wifi extender is 5 ft away from streamer with hardwire connection. Zero issues.

Interesting. I’ve wondered about this in the past, but haven’t experimented. So, while I believe my system is sounding very good and not experiencing issues - when I get back home, I’ll move things around to see if it changes things. It’s the only way to know.

Thanks for the heads up. 

I’m surprised we haven’t heard more about Mesh. I was warned years ago to hard wire and not use Mesh!  The same dealer started using a Powerline setup and I tried it.  It gave me more freedom on where I could place my equipment.

I tried a Powerline and found digital riding on my Herron phono pre out (O-scope) in mm mode.  I didn’t try mc mode.  My Luxman phono pre made chugging noises through the speakers mc mode.  I went mesh.  None of that, no drop outs and very good speed.  Not a blanket statement about either mesh or powerline, just my experience.

Thank you for sharing! My Orbi is relatively close to my audio equipment.

Have my U2 a good 20 ft from my closest Orbi node.  Hard wired with shielded Cat 8.  Sounds great!  

Interesting about mesh. Glad you found a solution. 
Thanks for sharing