Routers and Ethernet switch

[Blackmorec]

13 hours ago, Confused said:

I have sometimes wondered about "Audiophile" routers.  Of course, many will argue that such a thing is pointless.  But assuming there was a good reason to have one, I am a bit stuck.  I my router is provided to me by my broadband provider (Virgin Media UK), and it has a connection for the cable input, so I am basically stuck with it.  OK - I could have one router for the cable input, and another one to feed the hifi and AV kit, but that does seem like a step too far?

Virgin wont allow you to run anything but a Superhub, as apparently they afraid that alternatives will inject noise into their network., But the Superhub is rubbish as a router....with a poorly executed, buggy chipset (Intel Puma) that randomly introduces large amounts of latency.  The best solution is to switch Superhub to modem mode then add a decent router based on the Broadcom chipset connected through the WAN port.  This advice goes for anyone whose router uses the Intel chipset. 

[Blackmorec]

3 hours ago, Confused said:

I am actually running an older Super Hub 2ac, which I believe is actually better than the newer versions in terms of the latency issue.

 

I will be honest here, I had no idea it was possible to switch a Super Hub into modem mode.  In terms of adding a more "audiophile" router I was concerned about this and the Super Hub being in conflict.  Modem mode solves this nicely, you live and learn  So many thanks for the tip, going modem mode for the Super Hub then selecting something else entirely for the router seems like an excellent idea.  (A quick search on line indicates that the 2ac can indeed be switched into modem mode)

 

Which takes us directly back on topic, if I were to do this, what would be best router for the job?

Indeed you’re correct, the 2ac doesn’t have the same issues as Superhub 3.

 

I tried a number of different strategies including ethernet hardwiring using installer and audiophile grade cable,  wi-fi 2 hi-fi, several wi-fi extenders and a couple of varieties of mesh networking. 

 

Ultimately I found that the combination of TPLink RE650 and TPLInk Archer AC5400 Tr-band router worked the best in terms of both SQ and wi-fi in general. With a 2.4GHz and 2 x 5GHz bands I could dedicate one 5GHz band solely to the hi-fi so maximum speed, no bandwidth conflicts and no extraneous  network traffic. Using TPLinks Tether SW I can set up both router and RE650 Extender, shutting off the extender’s 2.4GHz band and 5GHz polling entirely as well as switching off all LEDs.  The RE650 picks up the router’s 2nd 5GHz signal and outputs it via its dedicated ethernet port to my server.  Due to the dedicated band and the high speed transmission there is actually very little wi-fi traffic, typically a few millisecond bursts as tracks or albums are downloaded to the server’s RAM for replay. The server’s GUI runs on the 1st 5GHz band so again no spurious internet traffic related to metadata  

Adding LPS power, improved DC cables and vibration control to Modem, Router and Extender brought further improvements.  

 

For my installation, this was the best configuration, but I’m pretty sure that in other networking environments, different approaches, for example fibre optic may be better. 

 

[Blackmorec]

14 minutes ago, Sheldon Simon said:

A close audiophile friend with a 

15,000 dac auditioned a 5,000

ethernet switch. ZERO difference 

what do you suppose you will hear with,say. 2,000 dac? Hmmmm?

 

Actually the switch isn’t the most important component....the DC power that its modulating is way more important, as it defines how cleanly the switch’s oscillator works (how much jitter it produces) and how much noise is sent to the DAC. Using your budgets above I would apportion $1000 on the switch and $4000 on its power supply. With that as a front end you’ll likely get better results with a $2000 DAC than you will spending $20,000 on DAC and Switch and neglecting the DC power upon which its ALL based.  

[Blackmorec]

1 hour ago, mav52 said:

So how is these Ethernet switches correcting a signal from the ISP, after all we have to have an approved ISP modem to use their services in the US.   If the ISP is providing sub par services no additional equipment after the modem is going to fix it.  So what am I missing,.

Unlike analog, where there’s only the analog signal, digital music is stored in a purely digital format and its moved around using analog voltages.  When your music stream arrives at your ISP modem, its been subject to all the switching and noise nasties of the global internet. The digital signal is still perfectly intact (that’s the benefit of digital) but the analog representation of the signal is probably a mess.  But as I mentioned, analog voltage is only needed if you want to move the stream from one component to another. Each time you move the stream you regenerate the analog (voltage) part of the signal (remember you can’t store voltage).  The regeneration is done according to the stored digital template. The better and more accurate the template, the better and more accurate its analog representation. So if each time you regenerate the analog signal, you are always using an improved template, your stream will gradually improve as it passes along your network, as long as your network is arranged for increasing quality (less noise, more accurate clocking, less jitter/phase noise) 

 

3 minutes ago, Sheldon Simon said:

By power supply I presume I refer to

line conditioner?

No. I’m referring to the switch’s DC power supply from who’s voltage the switch resynthesises the analog part of the digital stream.