To extend Ethernet to remote location, are Powerline extenders or Mesh systems better?
I am trying to get Ethernet into a listening room that is not prewired, and it is not practical to run the hard cable through the old house into that room. I am planning to use a new music streamer that requires Ethernet connection (no wifi).
For hifi purposes, for passing the music signal, not just for computer equipment, are ethernet over powerline units better, or are wifi mesh router systems (which bring an ethernet port into a room using wireless transfer between the mesh devices) better?
For Ethernet over powerlines, I am worried about contaminating the power lines feeding the stereo preamplifier/amplifier, I don’t know if hifi power conditioners will filter out that super high frequency noise well enough.
For wifi mesh, it seems that the wireless handling of the music signal to feed the remote Ethernet port might somehow degrade the sound and introduce other problems that a connected wireline would avoid.
I am not a person that understands these technologies deeply, so I would value perspectives from others here who are users and who may be technically more qualified to understand this stuff.
@jerrybj using optical will eliminate noise from the source, the problem is though, it sounds bad, thin, edgy, image is in a letterbox between the speakers. The reason for that is the very process of converting light back into electricity (at the receiving end) generates more noise and jitter. Keeping it all electrical and passively filtering out the noise is much better than using optical. I’ve done extensive listening tests on this to draw this conclusion.
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If you can implement a wired extender or I prefer adding a wired bridged router, then these will work much better than a wireless extender. You might have a weak signal to the wireless extender and then from then on, you will have a Wei signal. I would run a wire your room, a qualified technician can run a wire to your audio room, then you will have the best connection |
I tried using power line extenders. It turns out that they are sensitive to transition zones in your fuse box. In order to get from my router to my listening room there is a two zone drop and then additional drops for other areas of the house. The adapters failed after a few months. I bit the bullet and ethernet wired the house and everything has worked great since. I have also heard good things about the WiFi mesh |
