Mesh network versus a simple Wi-Fi extender

That’s the case at my place. I needed a network connection for a music server- the powerline was the easiest method of achieving that.

Range extenders are terrible. Never use an extender using your electric circuits. There are many options on putting in a network in your home. Wired network with switches is the best. If you don’t have or can’t put in a wired network, then a mesh network is your best option. The next option is using multiple routers throughout your home.

There are multiple ways to install a mesh network or a network with multiple routers. I setup my mesh network in a wired bridge configuration using the latest tri-band wifi6e nodes. I tripled my wifi network speeds throughout the home. My music server uses wifi and my dac is connected straight to the router. Since implementing my mesh network, my connections to the server are more reliable and the speed increase is huge.

lalitk

I don't know if it made an improvement in the sound. I don't listen to digital enough and didn't do a comparison at the the time. It did fix my connection problem.

@jperry 

Did you hear improvements in SQ when you switched to Eero? 

I use an orbi mesh network and love it. For audio, I use a direct connection from the router to my node, broken by a fiber connection, which has a huge impact on audio. As for the wifi, portion it’s rock solid, but all my other nodes connect to the backhaul Ethernet  connections on the satellites. Short answer to your question about audio improvement is yes no dropouts. 

Range extenders worked for a few years, but as more devices use the wifi in my home, I started to have drop outs. TP Link power extenders got that fixed for a few years, while the Internet service went from 10 to 50 to 350 GHz, but drop outs returned.   So I got the  TP Link AV2000 Powerline extenders. Problem solved, for a while I guess.

Concerning sound quality, I hear no difference between Qobuz streaming and same songs locally stored on my Aurender. I also added LHY Switch and DH Ethenet cables. Again, maybe a very small decrease in listening fatigue, but I am not even sure the network is the cause.

I think the Aurender does a great job with network streaming. I don't see any other explanation.