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Ok now I am frustrated with streaming

Help me out here please. I was really enjoying getting into streaming. Just purchased a Node 2i 2 weeks ago and have been enjoying it. Testing Tidal and Qobuz, leaning toward Qobuz. I was testing both wifi and ethernet connection. I seemed to pick up some noise and distortion on what I thought was the ethernet so I have been listening on wifi. I really enjoy finding new music on the streaming service. Tonight I was enjoying Sierra Hull because I listen to a lot of Alison Krauss. I was listening to Sierra Hull's new 25 Trips album and got to track 7 Escape and I heard a bunch of static/distortion, almost like a blown tube, except I have solid state equipment. I switched to Tidal to see if it was a problem with the Qobuz stream and same thing. Hooked up my MacBook pro to rule out a problem with the Node 2i, same thing. Now I am listening to Clapton's Unplugged and I hear the same thing. Is it my internet? I have a brand new modem, a Motorola MB7621, and a brand new Asus AC3100 router. I did a speed test and we are getting 237 mbps. My daughter was watching Netflix on a TV upstairs at the time, when she was finished I did a reboot of the cable modem and reboot of the Node 2i and then it was fine after that. I listened for about an hour after that. Is it my internet speed? Do I need to call Comcast/xfinity and up my speed package? Is it something else? Its getting frustrating and its not supposed to be like that, I am at the point where I may just send the Node back on the return policy and stick with CD's. 
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russbutton's avatar
russbutton
429 posts
 
The bandwidth requirement for streaming media, either TV or music, are surprisingly small.   If you read the linked page mentioned here earlier, the highest quality stream, 24 bit/192 khz, only required 10 mbs of bandwidth and you've got well over 200 mbs.   

The problem you describe isn't something in your router or home network.   Do a bandwidth test from any of the various bandwidth testing sites.  Chances are you'll see your expected 200+ mbs speed.

The data you're trying to stream isn't even coming directly from Tidal or whoever.  All of the Internet companies now use a planet wide caching service call Akamai.   So the network problems you're experiencing are something that is between your internet provider and Akamai, and you have no control over that.

I ripped all of my CDs to flac format to a hard drive.  I play everything from a laptop, connected to a USB DAC, to my preamp.  I also run my CD player through the DAC, but rarely use it as all of my stuff is on the hard drive.  I have all of my music data copied to two other machines in the house as well as an off-site backup service.  I have far more music than I have time to listen to, so I don't bother with streaming services.
rvpiano's avatar
rvpiano
2,654 posts
 
So happy to read this post.  I thought nearly everyone had gone to streaming.
Its good to read so many see (or hear) that CDs are still most often better sounding.

itsjustme
681 posts
 
There are so many half thoughts and disconnected opinions here as to confuse anyone. A fw comments:
1. if your wifi sounds better than Ethernet, you have a problem2. A high res video stream is 3-10 mbps; streaming FLAC music is ~ 0.7 mbps.  so 230 mbps is crazy overkill.3. But what raet are you getting from the music servers? They are affected by many network issues, principal among them peering (dont ask, its techo-legal)4. first trouble isolate. Does it exist with CD? Phono? Etc.5. If its streaming only, ping TIDAL or ??? and get some data6. opinions and raw "on the tin" numbers w/r/t network performance are so much gibberish. Your internet can be fast, yet a server or intermediate point congested.  if so tho, the situation should vary from good to bad day by day7. No magic box will fix. Either you have a misbehaving component that needs repair, or a system problem that needs troubleshooting.
I have never had overt distortion from a streaming service whether low res or high.
Should you discover that you have inconsistent networking, and if you can set your buggers as large as possible.
Good luck. Be step by step logical.
G


itsjustme
681 posts
 
to RVpiano - i play both back to back and on my system vastly prefer streaming to physical CDs - typically from my server but also from Tidal/etc. I rip all my CDs ALAC and play on either Mac with Bitperfect and upsampling, or ROON on  dedicated 4-core ROCK.G
djohnson54
396 posts
 
I am running a brand new Asus AC3100 router and it has a few ports
One thing I would do (if you haven't already) is check for firmware updates to your Asus.  New wireless routers are shipped all the time with immature firmware which eventually gets fixed.  New firmware has fixed network latency issues (and more serious issues) in the past.  Whether this fixes your issue or not it's a good idea to check from a security standpoint.
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