The truth about network audio inline filters

[One and a half]

Ethernet speeds are quite high speed, read frequency. Each path is critical and distances mean a great deal. Ethernet suffers from common mode noise, and the transformers you see are common mode chokes, series types perhaps also with built in ferrite cores. Attenuation then depends on the magnetic properties of the chokes and the ferrites, without strangling the actual signal, so it's not a trivial task.

 

Like yourself, I'm intrigued by Ethernet and its routing of audio data, but the more I read about the noise propagation with Ethernet, the more I decided to stick with USB and AES3. Far slower speed, not that much less noise, but controllable, purely based on runs on the board with different products that actually do make audible differences. Some for worse, others better, same ball game (shrug).