Dealing with EMI/RFI on home network (streamer on wired LAN)

[Miska]

22 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

This is may or may not be overkill, depending on the rest of your system, how your DAC handles EM noise, and types of music you listen to, etc. etc.  Shielded networking may make a difference.

 

I would stay away with shielded Ethernet, you tend to screw up the galvanic isolation it would otherwise provide that way. Ethernet uses differential signaling, so common mode noise is rejected largely at the isolation magnetics already and rest at the receiver.

 

I use unshielded CAT 6 and it works great. I have couple of short feeds in the machine room using shielded, but that's all.

 

[Miska]

8 hours ago, HookEm said:

- Shielded cables & connectors all around (including all other Ethernet Switch connections).

Question: Is this overkill, or have some of you tried this and observed significant improvement?

 

You may get significant degradation by creating new ground current paths. Defeating one of the good reasons to use Ethernet in first place.

 

With the microRendu I have, I use this kind of thin CAT6 UTP cable, doesn't pull the device around annyingly either and works for short distances. Switch measures cable lengths/losses and adjusts transmit powers automatically so it doesn't blast unnecessarily loud.

 

[Miska]

8 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

A DAC with opto-isolators in it solves a LOT of problems.

 

Unfortunately, I do not know of any reasonably priced ones, just the Lumin.

 

exaSound and Holo Audio come to mind with isolated USB...

 

But certainly optical Ethernet clears all those problems. (unless again some audiophile cable company gets a great idea and puts metal shields of fibers too)

 

[Miska]

55 minutes ago, agillis said:

The specs on your GS105 look good with fast switch and good sized packet buffer. What I don't like is it says it has QoS. QoS is usually good but you have not idea what it's doing so it could be bad. 

 

It's better to keep everything non audio related off your switch and not use QoS.

 

It usually means support for Ethernet spec 802.1p.

 

In my network I have everything going through layers of switches. My machine room has two switches connected to each other and to the central patchbay. And then each room have their own switches between wall socket and equipment. Internet, audio and everything goes through this and works perfectly fine. QoS makes sure audio has proper priority over other traffic. I also prioritize different types of traffic on the internet firewalls.

 

For HQPlayer - NAA use case, 802.3x and 802.1p are important. And I also consider 802.3az important (lowers network noise).

 

At the moment, I'm using Zyxel GS1100 series switch in the listening room, because it had all the features I wanted. So far, nothing to complain. My office and machine room switches are managed ones from HPE.

 

1 hour ago, agillis said:

I 100% agree! see my post able about removing the grounding from one end of the network cable. This way you get both shielding AND galvanic isolation.

 

It's just that if you modify any network cable, you should measure/re-certify it's compliance because changes may change the signal properties too...

 

[Miska]

1 hour ago, Ralf11 said:

the Holo Audio Spring?  it's "only $2,600" so that's a start...

 

Yes, and I think Cyan has the same USB interface card too.