We Need To Talk About Ones And Zeroes

To comment on a "Clean Network"...

@sns - As you said, the WiFi signal is very noisy.  What everyone forgets is that WiFi is a radio signal.  So is the celluar signal your cell phone uses.  And if your equipment, and not just your streamer, is not shielded properly, it will affect the circuitry.  Will that affect sound quality, yep.  At my previous residence I had to change out my interconnects between the turntable and phono pre to shielded cables because I was able to pick up the local 1st responder radio dispatches in the background.  

Just think... hearing Led Zeppelin go "Hey-hey momma, said the way you move...STATION 9 RESCUE 1 POTENTIAL HEART ATTACK AT xxx street..." 

But there is more to the "clean network" in any building.  I have "helped" many friends work on their home networks.  And most of the time it is just correcting mistakes, not spending money on upgrades.  There are so many simple things to improve network performance that people can do without spending much money. 

Off the top of my head:

• Put your modem, network switches and routers on a UPS (APC, TrippLite, etc.) They typically have decent surge protection and better than average filtering, and will help fill in the momentary flickers in AC. 
• Most wallwart power supplies on modems, routers and combos are very under powered.  Upgrade it to something that has the available reserves to handle heavier current draw. While something like a sBooster linear supply will work, even a larger (i.e. higher current, regulated switching supply will be an improvement.
• Don't run ethernet cable along or parallel to electical cable.  If you have to cross an electrical cable, try to cross at a 90 degree angle.  This will reduce inductive noise from the electrical circuit.
• Don't run ethernet cable longer than 100 meters between two devices. That includes all the ups, downs, left/rights, etc.  This is the TIA/EIA standard.  Cat 5e, unshielded twisted pair, solid wire should be the minimum wire type.  Cat 6 is better.  Above that, starting Cat 7, will support 10 Gbs rates, is usually overkill, especially considering that everything else on a home network is usually topping out at 1Gbs.  
• If you have to go above 100 meters, then you need to switch to fiber optic cable.  Setting that up is a subject in it's own.
• When running ethernet cable, don't kink or bend the cable.  I've seen so many cables bent 90 degrees at the RJ-45 jack, which turned out to be the data problem.  My rule of thumb was to try and not have a bend radius of less than 4 or 5 inches.
• Don't use those little female to female jumper plugs to extend an ethernet cable.  They are junk and usually will eventually cause problems.
• Keep the contacts clean.  Most cables and switches use brass as the contacts in the jacks.  They will corrode over time.  A pencil eraser or 1500 grit sandpaper works well to clean them.  Some of the "audiophile" cables use gold plated contacts which is a plus.
• If you need an additional switch(s), get decent quality.  At a minimum, get a known brand, middle of their product lines, look for a full metal housing, and a decent sized power supply.  (Netgear, DLink, Linksys are some examples)  If it has POE ports, that can be a good indicator that the power supply is not a bare minimum size.  Avoid the cheap plastic no names like you find on Amazon or EBay.
• A lot of routers have a built in switch on them.  Even if you already have a switch in your network, try and run the ethernet cable from the streamer directly to the router.  The fewer hops to the modem, the better.

One thing I have always wondered that when someone goes and buys a $1000 audiophile switch and replaces all their ethernet cabling with CAT 7 or CAT 8 cable and hears "ground breaking" improvements, is a large portion of the improvement coming not from the new equipment, but rather they fixed the bad implementation of the original setup.  Hard to say....

...my 10 cents (since the tariff on the EU went back to 50%)... lol

-Jeff

There are further steps possible via the Dejitter It Switch X if you believe eliminating  needless network traffic improves streaming sound quality.

@sns 

I do not believe it does, unless overall network capacity is being strained as @jeffbij indicated.

I've been reading a bit on Switch X, and that's definitely a good one. More on it later 😃

There's this new video from Paul McGowen of PS Audio that addresses the closing of the gap between streaming and CD playback. He says it all boils down to galvanic isolation. More food for thought. I have no dog in this fight. 

All the best,
Nonoise

Galvanic isolation is the bare minimum, vast majority of higher end dacs and streamers have taken care of it, grounds contamination is a well known issue.

 While attending to many of these network and other streaming issues often result in incremental improvements, some may only be audible in extremely high resolution/transparent systems and streaming chains. Whatever the case, a good reference for determining the quality of one's streaming chain is to compare it to your physical media, no reason it can't compete on a level playing field with cd's or ripped cd's on local storage. Get you clocking/timing optimized and it can compete with very nice vinyl setups.

As for the Dejitter switch, I suspect this won't be the last switch attending to this issue. We can debate the theoreticals, but in the end I also rely on empirical evidence in coming to conclusions, I fully expect I will try this or another similar switch at some point.

@sns 

Well said! I agree that galvanic isolation is essential and should be intrinsically baked into any serious DAC or streamer these days. Ground contamination and timing errors have a way of creeping in subtly, and you’re spot on; the higher the system’s resolution, the more these small tweaks and upstream changes can reveal themselves.

I also like your point about comparing streaming to physical media — it’s a great benchmark. If the chain is dialed in, high-quality streaming can absolutely go toe-to-toe with local files or even well-done vinyl. I’ve experienced and achieved that in my setup. 

As for Dejitter switch and any other audiophile dubbed switches, I share your curiosity. My personal experience says otherwise. After experimenting with a very high end switch (Telegartner M12 Gold switch) and few sub $1K switches, I am now of opinion, less is more.

I found audiophile switches redundant or have very minimal impact as long as we have addressed galvanic isolation between network devices, effectively breaking ground loops and blocking electrical noise from traveling through Ethernet cables.