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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.

troidelover1499
yyzsantabarbara
4,912 posts
 

I am not sure about the implementation details of ROON Core but if I were to write the streaming engine for it, I would not be writing anything to disk. I would be writing to super-fast RAM for TIDAL or Qobuz and for streaming from disk-based FLAC files, I would write nothing to disk. So mostly fast reads in both cases.

WIFI should not have any issue with the CORE other than the quality of WIFI could degraded the transmission of the TCP Broadcast of the bits. Here again I am assuming the Broadcast protocol is used for ROON Rock.

WIFI is OK until the inventible when it totally fails on music streaming. This was a regular occurrence when I tested out ROON WIFI streaming with a Matrix Mini I-3 Pro DAC. It was my WIFI and not ROON that was the weak link.

 

jerrybj
869 posts
 

Flat roof from modem to stereo means I cannot install ethernet cable. I do however have cable that used to run Sky Cable to a T-Box for my TV.

Also have a coax cable installed, that I never used. Are either of these cables able to run internet to my streamer, so I eliminate streaming via wifi?

 

I was never Robert.

jjss49's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
jjss49
6,612 posts
 

Also have a coax cable installed, that I never used. Are either of these cables able to run internet to my streamer, so I eliminate streaming via wifi?

https://us.hitrontech.com/learn/how-fast-is-ethernet-over-coaxial/

 

jerrybj
869 posts
 

Those network adaptors look promising.

Will look at installing one next year.

 

No Robert here

musicfan2349's avatar
musicfan2349
239 posts
 

@ericsch Hi, sorry for the delayed response. We were off visiting her family for the holiday.

Yes, I use a Conrad Johnson Premier 6 pre-preamplifier. If you Google for it the pdf is available on their website. It's quite sensitive to RF and when I switched it on, it would send a fairly horrible noise downstream! Remember the coded transmissions Jeff Goldblum discovered in "Independence Day"? :) I tried moving the node as far as I could within the cabinet but it didn't matter. Still noisy. So I installed the node in a book case that doubles as LP storage that is about 15' away and ran a good quality Cat8 cable from it to the Node2i.

The base/Main node is upstairs next to the cable modem so the mesh network is providing excellent throughput all the way downstairs to the node in the living room. And as the remote node is hardwired to the Node2i, I get excellent performance.

A happy side benefit is that my Green Mountain Grill smoker with wifi now gets better signal outside too. LOL

 

Feel free to message me directly if you have any questions.

 

Happy listening!

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