Users of SMS-100 in NAA mode, have any of you tried wireless LAN or optical fibre LAN ?

[EuroDriver]

Much to my surprise, it appears that a busy PC, MAC in particular can adversely effect the SQ of the SOTM SMS-100 running HQ Player's NAA. I had much better sonic results playing from my Surface Pro 3 connected to the network via WiFi than from a busy MAC Pro that was playing via a CAT 5 connection to the SMS 100. I also recall one of the Auralic guys saying that the Aries connected over WiFi sounded even better than LAN

 

I also have eteched in my mind Superdad's head to head comparison of a tricked out Mac Mini running NAA and a Cubox running NAA, huge SQ difference in favor of the Mac mini !

 

First assumption

- the difference is SQ must be coming from electrical noise from the PC being carried by the copper CAT 5 connection which in turn is making its way to the USB out of the NAA. After all bits are bits ;-) so it must be electrical noise !

Even more amazing was that as we shut down Safari browser session on the MAC Pro, the sound improved right away !

 

Second assumption

- an optical ethernet connection using a Fiber Media Converter will have a lower noise signature than a PC or MAC doing heavy processing such as HQ Player

 

An example of a Fibre Media Converter

Amazon.com: StarTech.com 10/100 Fiber to Ethernet Media Converter Multi Mode ST 2 km (MCM110ST2): Electronics

 

Comments please on my 2 assumptions, and any suggestions on setting up otical isolation of the network connection to the SMS-100 would be welcomed.

 

 

Another alternative is to hook up a dedicated WiFi access point to the SMS-100 and then have the noisy heavy lifting computer connect to the access point via WiFi

 

Another possible solution would be an optical USB extender, but then there is a chance that the unit would have a high noise signature, and they are a lot more expensive than ethernet extenders