How do I switch from Wi-Fi to Ethernet cables?

Repeaters halve your available bandwidth by their very nature. Don't do it. Wifi6 supports multiple simultaneous streams and is a very good idea - but all your equipment has to support it. Mesh routers help even out coverage and the best ones support a dedicated backhaul to the master. They can work wonders if you have coverage problems. Contrary to the nay-sayers, wiring up your system will not get you better zeroes and ones. That's simply not how Ethernet works. After you recable with Cat 6 wire, rather than use patch cables of the same Belden wire, they would have you believe that $100 or $200 or more for a 10 ft patch cables will somehow sound better. But none of them can come up with a shred of a theory or facts or data to support their claims. Like Bill Maher says, "I can't prove it, but I know it's true...[insert punchline]". My two cents, as someone who has worked with Ethernet for almost 40 years, put in a good WiFi 6 mesh router setup, put a good network analyzer on your phone and learn how to assign WiFi to unused channels that give you good signal strength. That is the state of the art.

If you end up running any wire, I would suggest cat out to a fibre media converter, make the long run to where your dac sits with optical fiber, then use another media converter for optical back to ethernet with a very short, shielded cat 6/7/8 cable.

Should not only “clean up” any analog interference from the router side, but also, as optical isn’t affected over that run from electromagnetic interference, you’d end up with a pretty dang clean signal to the dac.

I knew that statement of (no need to run a hard line because wireless is just as good) was coming.  I'll get my popcorn🍿 

Digital data transmission is basically an all or nothing proposition. If you don't have dropouts, hiccups, or pops during playback then the audio data is getting from point A to B intact.  There's no logical reason for the sound quality to be different whether you're using a wireless or wired connection.

@yage You’ve obviously very little experience with various streaming setups and have no idea what you’re talking about.  Go back to ASR where you’ll find many friends and disciples. 

Digital data transmission is basically an all or nothing proposition. If you don't have dropouts, hiccups, or pops during playback then the audio data is getting from point A to B intact. There's no logical reason for the sound quality to be different whether you're using a wireless or wired connection.

Let's think about this rationally, if wireless transmission were so fragile, why would you use wi-fi to do even more important stuff like banking online? Why would you trust a wireless system to help you navigate on a highway?

Your time and money is more effectively spent on better headphones / speakers and finding well mastered / engineered releases of your favorite recordings.

@balooo2 yes I have yet to find any issues with the equipment I have owned for wifi versus ethernet. Wifi actually isolates from electrical interference that can be picked up on ethernet cables some times.

I actually tried a Lumin U1 on a $29 Netgear mini travel router powered by the Lumin USB port and there was absolutely no change in sound from hardwiring it with ethernet. The only difference was being able to ditch a long ethernet cable running along the baseboards.

Even old Wifi N can do up to 450Mbps which would allow for a couple hundred Tidal streams at once in theory.....

@calieng +1 on the Asus Ai Mesh system,I have 4 Asus Mesh capable wireless routers and it is the best wireless setup I've had in my home thus far.WAY more powerful/capable than eero and the like. The UI can put a lot of other posters issues to rest as you can see the up-down bit rates and what is connected to the network and assign bitrate priorties to a device.  What I've found is there is no appreciable difference in sound quality between wireless streaming and a wired set up (with devices I own,YMMV) as stated previously you don't need a ton of bandwidth to stream music. The OP would be wise to stick with wifi using the Bluesound Node the added preformance is likely to be not worth the headache because the Bluesound Node has an excellent wireless receiver built in. Some have experienced better results via a Lan connect but in those instances my guess would be the wireless module in the unit is likely an older wireless protacol which is not the case with the Node the real magic depends on what you are feeding the Node into for most mid teir systems much like dacs.

There is a lot of debate regarding this topic if you disagree with me fine, but please lets be adults and civil about it...

If you do not have wifi drop out then money best spent would be on a better streamer. Innuos Pulse Mini, Matrix Audio I2 to name just a few of the many out there.

Bluesound Node is ok but more of an entry level product. You dipped your toes in the water so now jump in and have some fun.

This is a very interesting discussion. My goal is to get the best sound quality from my system. Given that I am currently running my streamer with wi-fi, it seems worth considering the cabling options that many say are superior. I haven't had any problems with wi-fi dropping out, so it's more a curiosity of what I may be unaware that I am missing and optimizing this particular link in the chain.

I don't expect a massive improvement from this, but even slight improvements at this stage are very satisfying. So thank you for sharing your thoughts and experience in this area. Sometimes I feel like I may be chasing my imagination, but it is a good time...so I keep doing it! 

Wifi6 can do 1.2Gbps and most home ethernet is 1.0Gbps.

If you are streaming say hi-res Qobuz which is a few hundred kbps typically (max is 9216kbps theoretically for lossless hires but never achieved) and wifi6 does 1200000 kbps then just do the math.

Saying wifi cannot support music streaming is simply false and misleading to those searching out help.

I have a multi hundred $ mesh system.  Finally I just ran a test cable across the room to compare wired with a generic ethernet cable to my wireless.  There was such a big difference that I left it across the room until I could run something more permanent.

@carlsbad2 That is very useful and valuable info Jerry.  Thanks!

your cable company may be able to help your relocate your modem.

Upgrading from wireless to wired is one of the bigger upgrades you can make.

Many try to justify it because wireless is so much more convenient but it can’t support high end streaming.

I will add that my modem is only 15 feet from my system but there is no way to get a wire to the system invisibly because of doorways etc.  I have a multi hundred $ mesh system.  Finally I just ran a test cable across the room to compare wired with a generic ethernet cable to my wireless.  There was such a big difference that I left it across the room until I could run something more permanent.  It shows, but it is worth it.

Jerry

I think you want a nice set of wifi6 mesh routers. I have had good luck with ASUS AiMesh equipment.

That not only would solve your concern with the Node but would benefit all other wifi devices you have or may purchase in the future.

There are also power line adapters that plug into the electrical outlet and provide an ethernet connection if you are trying to connect just one specific device that is out of range of your wifi.

I’ve been using Wifi and carefully analyzing it’s behavior and performance for both audio and video streaming, and I think this is a little unfair:

IMO, even if you pour a bunch of money in your wifi, it will not be as stable as a wired connection.

It really depends on a lot of things, like how congested your wifi neighborhood is, and where exactly your router is and the quality of the signal. I live in the burbs and I can easily do wifi for audio or video here. 4 other competing signals and 4 bars of signal strength. In my San Francisco apartment though, I couldn’t stream anything. :D

I do generally agree that those are the only two options:  Optimize the router channel and placements, and have a hard wire run.  The latter of course is best. :)

IMO, even if you pour a bunch of money in your wifi, it will not be as stable as a wired connection.  Follow @cleeds advice and get a bid.  

There’s no good adaptor solution that is better than your current set up.  Besides hiring an electrician to run a new cable for you I encourage you to find a Wifi analyzer for your phone or laptop to check the signal strength and also make sure you are an uncongested channel. Also, use 5GHz instead of 2 GHz if you have a strong enough signal. Fewer people use it and it has better bandwidth.

Keep in mind that audio requires very little bandwidth. A good wifi signal has many times more bandwidth than you’ll need unless you have many other users in the home.

You can get a modem that uses a SIM Card, park it right next to your gear.

I had an extender and didnt have much success with it. Went to a mesh setup and solved most of my dropout problems but hard to tell if it made an SQ difference cause I made several other changes that improved my SQ. But I believe it has a roll. My modem is on one end of the house and my rig the other, half dozen sheets of drywall to go through.

I have 3 nodes. The base node connected to router is in direct line of site of node #2 and the 3rd node is hard wired to streamer and is in direct site of #2. Node connected to rig is not in the cabinet with other gear. Its out in the open on the floor.

My neighbor had an extender but was still suffering droputs on his upstairs laptop. Went to a mesh and placed one node on 1st floor directly under the upstairs room where the laptop was used and in direct line of site of the base unit. Problem solved.

I hear ya, and on the surface it doesn’t make much sense but it works.  Many people here with $$$ streaming setups swear by them.  My guess is that hardwiring the stream prevents the streamer from having to use circuitry to process the Wi-Fi signal over the air, but that’s just a guess on my part.  The good news it’s not all that expensive (in audio terms anyway) to give it a shot and if it doesn’t provide significant improvements just return it.  And yes, I believe inserting a quality switch, optical connection, etc. between the node and streamer could yield further meaningful improvements, but I’m sure someone here who’s actually done this could chime in further with more direct specific info.  The one thing I’ve learned is that with streaming everything matters — and matters A LOT — so there are lots of ways to engineer in further improvements, which is at once exciting and daunting.  Just my $0.02 FWIW, and best of luck.

imaninatural

The problem is that my modem is in the basement and the Bluesound is on a different floor. There is not a clear path for running cable. 

I've had issues like that and been amazed at what a pro installer could do to fish wire. A good electrician or network/alarm system installer can often work wonders. It's worth having one evaluate your situation.

Ok, yes, @soix I was wondering about a mesh node or extender. Given that either of those also rely on Wi-Fi it would seem (on the surface) that this wouldn't really accomplish anything. However, I am wondering if a high quality ethernet switch between a mesh node and my streamer could result in better sound quality than just wi-fi to my streamer. 

You can use a Wi-Fi extender or a mesh system, plug extender or mesh node into the room where your system is located and run an Ethernet cable from the node to your streamer.  Works well.