Effect of Internet Service Quality on Streaming?

My immediate reaction was, it’s your streamer. Then I looked at your streamer. I had a Grimm in my system for a while. It sounded very good, definitely worth the money. Sonically it was not quite as good as mine… but it was much less expensive.

But thinking about your problem. I put a very high probability that it is that your streamer cannot cope with either your power or internet connection. Aurender streamers get very heavy as the go up in performance. The Grimm is very light weight… indicating to me it is lacking massive electrical and vibration isolation. That would account for it sounding good in my system and yours when power and the internet is quiet. The Aurrender has massive electrical isolation from outside and cashing to make up for bad internet performance. My streamer sounds exactly the same at all times. While there is a very slight increase in system performance late at night… it is the whole system related to the power grid.

I recommend borrowing a Aurender W20SE. I bet the problem goes away. I would think even an Aurender N20 will significantly if not completely mitigate the problem.

Thanks all. @ghdprentice i wish it were my streamer. My streamer/server is actually an Innuos Zenith Mk3, feeding a PhoenixUSB reclocker (went back from the Grimm in the end). I had the same swings in sound quality with both products - no difference whatsoever on that front.  I also briefly owned an Aurender N20 and the problem also remained.

I will try comparing local files vs streamed when the SQ goes south next (it is great right now).

I live in a quiet, treed area with space between houses and very limited traffic, and even when there are no household ambient sounds I still get poor sound that peaks around dinner time.

I actually do have fibre service, at 500Mbps (worth getting faster service?).

Yesterday I did test latency and jitter, using the online fusion network speed test tool. Latency and jitter readings were absolutely higher during the period my system was sounding worse. But, I’d assume that maybe AC was also noisier during this “peak demand” time.

@hgeifman Thanks I will look into “signal frequency response”. Haven’t heard of that before..

System is back to sounding incredible right now. But after dinner last night was about the worst I’ve ever heard it! Muffled, compressed, no higher frequencies coming through, loss of dynamics, overall dull.

Related question - does anyone know if Class D amplifiers are supposed to be more immune to AC noise?  I’m considering some changes to my system and a possibility is that I could move to the Mola Mola amplifiers.  I am aware of the general pros and cons of Class D but not sure if they are more immune to environmental noise.  Guessing not but it crossed my mind as a possible solution.

Based on your comments above, and the fact that your SQ is great sometimes and poor other times, as I stated above, I suggest you ask your Internet service provider for an in house audit of your Internet signal coming into your home. In addition, please check your router to ensure its software is up to date and working okay.

Your Internet Service Provider needs to check the signal both outside your home and inside In other words, is the signal strong and solid outside your home at the junction box and still strong inside your home at the point of entry and at the cable modem. Please confirm the cable modem is their current model.

For example, my Internet signal was very poor at the outside junction box because of poor wire connections He replaced all connections at the junction box and all connections at the box on the side of my home. Unfortunately, these connections go bad after time and impact the signal. This is why I am suggesting your ISP audit your signal, connections, etc. He also replaced the cables and connections inside my home. Everything worked perfectly after these corrections were made.

@nyev

I would try Muon Pro filter between your Innuous switch and Streamer. Comes with 30days money back guarantee.

@lalitk , I have a Muon Pro, two Network Acoustics ethernet cables, and a Tempus switch on order, to replace my Innuos PhoenixNET and two Audioquest Diamond network cables - assuming I don't return it all in 30 days that is....

That said I still don't know at this point if my issues are due to network degradation (which I DO see on measurements during periods of bad quality), or AC power noise, or both.

I've downloaded from HDTracks a 16/44 version of a test track I use a lot and put it on my server.  Right now, both the Tidal streamed version and the local file sound fantastic.  Different, but both great.  A bit better image specificity on the local file but really I enjoy them both.  I will wait until I get crap quality again, and do another comparison.  If they are both bad, I suppose it means AC power noise is the limiting factor.  If the local file is much better, then I will 1) see if the Network Acoustics gear changes things when it arrives, and 2) follow up with my ISP as @hgeifman suggested.