Are my CAT5 and router my weak link?

Try a linear supply for the router..
I have two d-link boxes both now with linear psu's, made a small but noticable improvement.

The installation of just one MeiCord Opal cable made a nice improvement.

Now finding out the above affects sound repro, I'm hoping to run a dedicated pc with my Meicord just for music, cutting out the d-link boxes and two cat cable runs.

You may find this interesting:
http://soundcheck-audio.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/touch-toolbox-hw-and-network.html

Bryoncunningham.
Glad you liked the CAT 7!
It's funny although cables aren't supposed to make a difference the CAT 7 do. Funny my PS Audio PWD system has functioned better and better each time I jumped from CAT 5,6 and now 7. I have no explanation why. All the cable Gods here will never admit that it does.

In my own setup, I use an Ethernet Opto-Isolator that sits between the ethernet cable that feeds my "sterile" PC and the router that the cable connects to.

This device stops any electrical noise from traveling thru the copper conductors of the ethernet cable before it gets to my music server. Same concept as installing a dedicated circuit for your audio equipment, but for the LAN connection.

All the cheapo routers, NAS drives, ethernet printers..etc found in the home environment have no need to perform their function in a silent manner nor where they designed to do so. If you start to add up just the Wall Wart switching power supplies alone in the path between your PC and your DAC you begin to see an ugly picture form. Certainly the PC needs no additional help when it comes to generating noise so I feel anything you can do to help isolate it from the rest of this crud is a bonus.

Granted, the number of configuration choices one could pick from to setup a music server are fairly broad so some may be more affected by said noise than others and if you have done nothing at the PC level to help lower its own noise than all of the above may not matter anyway.

In my own setup I use a low power ALIX computer running Voyage Linux which only requires about 12 watts of power to perform its duties. I feed the ALIX computer power via an adjustable laboratory grade linear DC power supply. In my case this Opto-Isolator makes sense as the music server is already pretty clean from noise so any additional filtering is a plus. My DAC is also optically isolated from the Alix computer over its USB port Input (Ayre QB9).

08-12-12: Jeffatus
I have my computer hard drive connected to the router via cat6 cable, non shielded. That run is about 10 feet. Then I have a 50 foot run, cat6 unshielded, from the router to the DAC.

It sounds like a relatively inexpensive experiment to try the shielded runs, but what about the router? I just keep thinking about all of the money I have spent for high end gear and their fancy connectors, etc. and want to know if a $120 router will be my weak link.

I'm hesitant to contradict Al's opinion, since he's eminently qualified in these kinds of technical matters, while I am not.

Having said that, I suspect it's possible that your router is degrading SQ. I would consider two experiments...

1. Replace your unshielded Cat 6 with either shielded Cat 6 or Cat 7 (always shielded by specification). Cost = about $25.

2. Remove your router from the system, run a direct ethernet line (preferably shielded) between your computer and your dac, and see if it sounds better. If it does, but you need the router for functionality, you can either...

(a) use the router wirelessly, so that there is no hard line between it and the computer, or...

(b) add a simple ethernet switch downstream from your router. So the arrangement would be...

computer -> 1' Cat 6/7 to ethernet switch...

...ethernet switch -> 10' Cat 6/7 to router
...ethernet switch -> 60' Cat 6/7 to dac

If you added all new cables and an ethernet switch, cost = around $65.

As I mentioned above, I experienecd significant improvements in SQ when I went from unshielded Cat 5 to shielded Cat 6 and then more improvements going from Cat 6 to Cat 7.

As for the router, in my current arrangement, I have two ethernet switches in the configuration, so that when I listen to music, I can kill the power (with a simple rocker switch) to the ethernet switch closest to the router, which severs the hard line between the router and the audio system.

You may just wonder why I don't just shut off the router. The reason is that I don't want to interrupt the other wireless devices in the house from communicating with it, and I don't want to wait for a long reboot when it turns back on. With the ethernet "kill switch," the reboot is about 5 seconds and there are no settings to be lost/changed, so it's idiotproof. Good thing for me.

Bryon

Eniac26,
So what is the brand of the opto isolator and where can I buy one?
Thanks in advance!

Steve