Router for Audio Streaming

And thank you, @yage !  And thank you also for the links!  No, I have not looked into unbricking etc...  Fascinating stuff but not sure I'm up to diving into it. On the other hand, if the router is a brick the worst is buying a new one, which obviously I'm mentally getting prepared for...

My understanding of digital signal transmission and processing is very limited but I read/heard about bit error issues and clock accuracy issues.  I guess how the data is sent is one thing (and do we know exactly what equipment they use?) and how it is being received and processed is another, isn't it?

Thanks again!  My current plan is to order a new router from Amazon Prime (as to which one I'm soliciting opinions here).  Once it arrived, try a hard-reset of the Netgear.  If successful, send the new one back.  if not, set up the new one and take the Netgear to the electronics recycling pile.

I would recommend the Add-Powr Symphony I/O, for more info check their website.

That's worrying about your router's upgrade failure.  Netgear have been fine for me so far, aside from the avaricious nature of their support and service add-ons. 

I have a Netgear Orbi mesh system, and it’s very reliable. The router has an ethernet cable to the ISP-supplied fibre modem, and I have more bandwidth than my entire street could make use of. The Orbi uses a dedicated 5Ghz backhaul to an Orbi satellite in my lounge which is physically connected to my streamer. The satellite has an iFi iPower Elite powering it. I can’t tell if this makes a huge difference, but some things are simply required if only to eliminate a possible source of noise.

Some would argue for ditching the wifi backhaul and therefore remove a source of noise. But, in reality, if have to use it.

No dropouts at all. Quite often the Innuos app struggles to find the server - cause unknown.

I have a decent ethernet cable on order (SotM). And hope to trial a decent fiber bridge, and the EtherRegen (or replacement)

Thank you, @kota1 and @lollipopguild !  All good inputs!

There are several methods to monitor the performance of your network interfaces for bit errors.

On Windows, you can use the built-in Performance Monitor tool and add a counter for receive errors related to your network interface. Make sure to uncheck the processor utilization counter so it doesn't overlay the counter you added.

On Linux and macOS systems, you can type 'netstat -s' at a command prompt. On Linux, the line I look for is 'bad segments received' in the TCP section. On macOS, the relevant line is '... discarded for bad checksum'. (Note you will need to be root in order to view non-zero TCP stats on a Mac.) You can also use the 'ifconfig' command to see if there were any Ethernet receive errors (RX errors) as well.

Identifying bit errors by ear isn't all that tricky - if you hear ticks / pops / bursts of static, or have dropouts then the digital data is getting corrupted. You can find an example here - What does a bad USB (or other digital audio) cable sound like?