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Effect of Internet Service Quality on Streaming?

I’ve struggled for a long time with sound getting much, much worse around dinner time, and in some rare cases I don’t get depth, clarity, dynamics and imaging back until around midnight. Like many people I’ve attributed this to noise on my AC lines. But recently I’ve been wondering if maybe internet service quality is at least contributing to the issue in some manner. When I run tests it appears that speed, jitter, and latency are all higher at times when the sound is poor. That got me wondering if anyone knows whether one type of internet service is better than another for HiFi streaming? For example, is ADSL or DSL better, or does it matter? And what about speed? Particularly interested in anyone who has real world experiences from experimenting in this area…
nyev
nyev OP
1,022 posts
 

@audphile1, I think you are probably right.  I was hoping that just maybe, it was an issue was something I could address, if it was related to my network/internet.

I don’t think my issue is ambient noise; my system sounds almost as good most of the day, it’s just the 3-5 hours around dinner time that is an issue.

erik_squires
15,746 posts
 

High ping times are fine, it’s error rates and high jitter (> 300mSeconds) that can cause issues.  Large ping times may make a stream slower to START but once started don't add up over time. 

500 Mbps is more than enough to stream just about anything.

IMHO, only really poor streamers should have a problem with Internet conditions you’ve described. They usually have several seconds of buffering built in, which can sometimes be configured, which should eliminate all but the worst kind of connections.

IMHO, again, it’s much more likely to be a power issue.

nyev OP
1,022 posts
 

@erik_squires , sigh, yeah I think you are likely right.  I was hoping.

Regarding regenerators, I’ve been curious about them but after digging into them, it seems that they don’t actually help with noise but helps with other things?  Phrased as a question as I’m not totally sure about that.  I have an idea in my mind that they help by removing DC and also stabilizing voltage but again I’m not sure…  

erik_squires
15,746 posts
 

OP:

I prefer Furman power conditioners, and if I have concerns about he power stability I use a Furman with the VR (Voltage Regulator) feature.  IMHO it is a good trade-off to the power regenerators.

lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,064 posts
 

@nyev 

I can’t wait to hear your impressions after Network Acoustics goodies are in place. I’ve read nothing high praises for Tempus switch and Muon Pro. I had ENO in my system many moons ago before switching to Telegartner Gold 12 Switch + JCAT LPS and JCAT Sig Gold LAN cabling. 

@audphile1 

I must be in minority here to report that my system is immune to high’s or low’s as some of you experiencing. Granted, I have paid ‘special’ attention to passive grounding, separate power distributors for analog and digital, pair of dedicated power lines. 

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