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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
 

@tonnesen that is a very interesting option (running off of batteries).  Are there any downsides to the SQ vs other more traditional alternatives?  

I did read a report from a fellow Audiogoner who had much experience with conditioners before going to a Stromtank - which is a very, very expensive solution.  But even that he mentioned in a post that he felt there was some loss of dynamics.

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,417 posts
 

@nyev is your amp plugged into the PSM156? Reason I’m asking is, when I had this power conditioner I noticed a very significant reduction in dynamics. I always had the amp plugged into the wall outlet because of it. Even the DAC and preamp were affected. I ended up selling the PSM156 and I have everything plugged into the wall now. I would at least try running the amp directly from the wall for a week or so. See what happens. 

nyev OP
1,031 posts
 

@audphile1 , I used to have the amp plugged into the PSM156 but have been running it into the wall directly for some time now, in a dedicated 20A line.  While I prefer it plugged into the wall, I didn’t actually experience any loss of dynamics, end like now, the sound quality would occasionally dip very low.  As I mentioned I’ve tried a number of conditioners none of which helped with this issue.

tonnesen
142 posts
 

I tried the battery experiment for one day, and I should try it again for a longer period and with different amps - but I was not aware of a change in sound quality.  I was using my AGD Duet amps that draw about 13 watts each while listening to music, so they were well below the capacity of the EcoFlow battery  (1800w, Surge 3400w).   In any case, it's good to know I can still listen to music during power outages. 

sfgak
133 posts
 

@nyev

And, one kid is playing games online and the other is FaceTiming friends in a marathon call.

@wsrrsw

Have you asked, bribed or manacled your kids and others to cease web activity during the sound downturn times?

There is a much better solution than cajoling your kids. Look up Quality of Service (QoS) and how to set it on your router. This will enable you to allocate bandwidth to streaming that cannot be usurped by Call of Duty or FaceTime.

You don’t need to allocate a lot to streaming. Even a hi-res 192/24 stream only uses about 10 Mbs.

 

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