Repeater/extenders are evil!


As highly recommended by dCS, I had the Xfinity tech move the router/modem to near the DAC and Streamer. All he had to do was run the coax line around the outside of the house and connect it to an existing cable coax that was already there in the wall. It took about an hour and only cost me $70 for the service call.

Guess if you have no existing wall port, it would be fairly simple to drill and create one. Maybe in that case there would be a bit more cost.

But go for it!

For decades, I was a die hard analog guy. Previously, I only used my DAC for TV. Music was way digital sounding. Edgy, hard, disturbing. No more. 
It still does not sound more organic than analog, but I now find myself enjoying streaming and not listening much to my TT. I am finally enjoying the benefits of digital. Even though not perfect, the soul of the artists shine through.

If you are connecting by using an extender, get rid of it and hard wire directly to your modem/router.

mglik

They are not at all evil... but getting Wifi working well from point A to point B is sometimes a challenge. I always recommend the use of a free Wifi analyzer to make sure your router is on uncongested channels and your signal strength is good.

Of course, I also hard wire my critical gear like my work PC and TV and stereo to avoid any such issues, but not everyone can.

@erik_squires sure.  but the amount of money we spend on equipment here, using wifi seems to me to be a poor choice.  It's like buying a Ferrari when all you have for fuel is diesel and you have to detune it to 140 hp.  

I spent a lot of time and money upgrading my wireless, not for audio, but for normal use.  and when I started streaming I didn't have a good way to run a wire to my audio location.  So I was wireless for a while.  I didn't figure out a way to get a wire to my system for longer than I had intended so finally I ran a wire across the floor and plugged it in to test it--to see if it was worth all the trouble.

It was probably the biggest upgrade of any tweek I've done. And there will be those that say "But...error correction"  But "FTP"....but "etc".  no, that isn't how streaming works.  So now there is a wire, that is visible but not too bad, to my audio system.  If you're  better decorator than I am, consider putting it under the mob board or installing a chair rail.  It is worth it.

Jerry

Maybe it’s my ears, but I don’t think I can hear any difference between my Netgear Nighthawk hard wired or WiFi. My current streamer doesn’t have WiFi, so I’m using a Netgear Powerline PLP2000 with great success.


NETGEAR Powerline adapter Kit, 2000 Mbps Wall-plug, 2 Gigabit Ethernet Ports with Passthrough + Extra Outlet (PLP2000-100PAS), White https://a.co/d/dAfN1uk