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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
1,031 posts
 

@wsrrsw I’ve tried cutting power to the TV, and yeah, I did think of that.  No devices or appliances are near my system. LED household pot lights are near by. No cell towers or anything nearby that I know of.  It’s generally (but not always) the same time windows when quality tanks so pretty sure it’s related to AC and possibly internet service quality blips.

Yes, I’ve tried three different streamers (Innuos, Grimm, N20).

nyev OP
1,031 posts
 

@jeffseight just read up on the Add Power devices and they sure look interesting.  Would definitely like to try one if I could but at the same time, it doesn’t look designed to deal with the specific issues that I’m having.

lordrootman's avatar
lordrootman
376 posts
 

OP can you bypass all the conditioners and plug all your equipment directly to wall AC you can also skip the 20amp AC and use regular 15-10 outlet 

it’s definitely power problem 

nyev OP
1,031 posts
 

@lordrootman, I’ve had this problem for a couple of years in my system, prior to my 20A dedicated lines and prior to my conditioners.  In fact, the dedicated 20A lines and conditioners was my first attempt to address the issue.  I even engaged @kingrex of King Rex Electric to help draft a specification for my dedicated lines. These upgrades really helped improve things, but the massive shift in quality depending on time was still there.  I know this issue is not unique, but I feel like the degree of the variance I get may be extreme and unusual.  Ranges from an unlistenable stuffy mess to absolutely sublime.

 

nyev OP
1,031 posts
 

Just had a thought. People in this thread have mentioned that a component could be to blame. But the only gear that has not been swapped in or out while the issue has persisted, besides cabling, is my Diablo 300 integrated. Everything else has been added removed or changed while this problem has existed.

BUT…. The first time I noticed this issue ever was when I upgraded from Clarus Crimson Biwire speaker cables (fantastic speaker cables these…) to Nordost Valhalla 2 speaker cables. A couple of years ago I did ask Nordost if they’d could be picking up RF energy or something and I think they said something to the effect of yes, but the amount would be negligible and couldn’t have any effect. So I had attributed it to the increased transparency of the Nordost cables exposing the issues. But now, I’m wondering if just maybe it IS a component issue, and the component with the issue is my Valhalla 2 cables.

To be clear I think this is almost certainly not the issue. BUT, because I first noticed the issue when adding these cables to my system, maybe I should try to rule it out. Am thinking I might need to get my hands on a demo pair premium speaker cables to try, at a Valhalla 2 or better level.

 

 

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