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Article: Extending A Network For HiFi


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On 6/12/2017 at 6:37 AM, marce said:

Power line communications works by adding noise to your power lines... some EMC advisers, notably Kieth Armstrong (EMC club) would like to see it banned... It is adding extra noise (EMI) to an already dirty mains, just worth thinking about.

 

Well guess what? I just put on some vinyl since installing the powerline adapters, and what you said could not be more true.

 

Even on a different circuit than my dedicated 20 amp audio circuit, my phono stage is picking up noise generated by the TPLINK.

 

Plugging the TPLINK into a filtered outlet bank slows it down so much that I have dropouts when playing some DSD64 tracks.

 

May have to look at other solutions, too bad because this one was so easy and cheap.

Late 2012 Mac Mini > Audirvana+3 > iFi Zen Stream > Heimdall 2 USB >  iFi iDSD Micro BL > Pass Labs INT-30A > DeVore The Nines! + REL Strata III

Well-Tempered Amadeus Benz ACE SL > Pass Labs XOno

 

"Water is the most critical resource issue of our lifetime and our children's lifetime. The health of our waters is the principal measure of how we live on the land." - Luna Leopold

 

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I read this article with interest since I was in the process of updating an older set of Powerline kit from Billion and TP-Link. I bought the TP-Link kit mentioned in the article but was astonished how much noise came through my hifi. Clearly, I also need to invest in some power cleaning kit.

 

So the TP-Links went back. One of your commenters referenced Eero, and that prompted me to investigate Mesh wi-fi. My research pointed to Netgear Orbi as the best solution for my needs, and I picked up a set. I have absolutely no complaints. Wi-Fi speeds are transformed and I can support ethernet connections via the Orbi routers. Plus, no unwanted noise through my hifi.  The best networking choice I have made. 

 

Now, I need to fix this power conditioning problem...

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12 hours ago, watercourse said:

 

Well guess what? I just put on some vinyl since installing the powerline adapters, and what you said could not be more true.

 

Even on a different circuit than my dedicated 20 amp audio circuit, my phono stage is picking up noise generated by the TPLINK.

 

Plugging the TPLINK into a filtered outlet bank slows it down so much that I have dropouts when playing some DSD64 tracks.

 

May have to look at other solutions, too bad because this one was so easy and cheap.

 

Good news: Found another outlet on a separate circuit which DOES NOT inject noise into the audio circuit, and still maintains >250 Mbps. Just have to run a longer ethernet cable, but now I'm happy as a clam. Keeping the phono stage powered from an analog filtered outlet just to keep it all good in the hood.

Late 2012 Mac Mini > Audirvana+3 > iFi Zen Stream > Heimdall 2 USB >  iFi iDSD Micro BL > Pass Labs INT-30A > DeVore The Nines! + REL Strata III

Well-Tempered Amadeus Benz ACE SL > Pass Labs XOno

 

"Water is the most critical resource issue of our lifetime and our children's lifetime. The health of our waters is the principal measure of how we live on the land." - Luna Leopold

 

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Hi Chris,

 

I am using a AC1900 Nighthawk WiFi Range Extender to connect my audio system on the third floor to the main router on the first floor on a 5ghz connection. A friend that runs a major IT infrastructure company told me about this terrific device.

 

Checkout the performance numbers below.  This is without any other wireless devices connected.

 

Hardware Version: EX7000

Firmware Version: V1.0.0.50_1.0.102

Connection to Existing Network (5GHz)

Signal Strength: 878 Mbps

Name (SSID): ********

Connection Status: Connected

 

Streaming Tidal or whatever is fast and flawless.  It's also pretty cheap as low as $75.

Pareto Audio aka nuckleheadaudio

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The Orbi is a fantastic product and works well.  I have also used 2 asus routers in a media bridge for wired only connection with great speed. In the bridge mode, it pulls from your wireless into wired without too big of a speed loss like the range extender mode does on the asus.     The orbi though I think is a better solution and quite solid. I like that you can run several in different parts of the house. 

 

The google version of the mesh network I have heard is much cheaper then the orbi but not as fast.  Lots of comparisons on the web on the 2 

Den: Kef LS50 Wireless, Velodyne SPL1200, Lumin D1, Cayin SCD50T, Jolida D9, Technics 1200, Denon DL160, Wireworld Eclipse Silver 7 IC

Livingroom: T+A PA1530 r Integrated Amplifier, Innous Zen MKIII, L.K.S audio MH Da004, Tyler Acoustics Highland H2, High Fidelity Reveal IC, Wireworld Eclipse Silver 8 Speaker cable. 

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  • 1 month later...
On 6/20/2017 at 10:26 AM, watercourse said:

 

Good news: Found another outlet on a separate circuit which DOES NOT inject noise into the audio circuit, and still maintains >250 Mbps. Just have to run a longer ethernet cable, but now I'm happy as a clam. Keeping the phono stage powered from an analog filtered outlet just to keep it all good in the hood.

 

Another interesting point, which I am talking to Pass Labs about: Turns out that the noise only gets picked up when using the balanced connections on the Aleph Ono. The single-ended circuit evidently does not carry the powerline adapter signal.

As we all know (well, those of us that are still vinylheads), the phono cartridge does not produce a true balanced signal to begin with, so there is some extra circuitry involved in taking the signal and creating a balanced output in the phono stage. I used balanced connections to reduce the chance of picking up any stray noise from RFI or EMI, and to equalize the volume output of my analog and digital front ends (balanced usually has higher output). Really just a convenience thing, maybe also a bit of a paranoia thing.

The single-ended Ono output sounds more coherent and articulate to me in any event, so in the end I trade convenience and paranoia for another type of convenience, no dropouts, and better analog sound.

PS My balanced DAC output does not carry any powerline adapter noise.

Late 2012 Mac Mini > Audirvana+3 > iFi Zen Stream > Heimdall 2 USB >  iFi iDSD Micro BL > Pass Labs INT-30A > DeVore The Nines! + REL Strata III

Well-Tempered Amadeus Benz ACE SL > Pass Labs XOno

 

"Water is the most critical resource issue of our lifetime and our children's lifetime. The health of our waters is the principal measure of how we live on the land." - Luna Leopold

 

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Upon some further research, I bought a range extender from Netgear

 

EX7000 Nighthawk, AC-Repeater, ac1300/n600

 

The name extender is quite misleading in this case, since the unit has direct sight to the router. Setup was straightforward, works ok with all wired up directly to the unit. I will see what happens when moving the server to the main side of the network and leave only the renderer (and TV which is always off for music) on the "far side". I expect no issues.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I bought an AV2000 before reading this article and noticed that I don't hear any noise injects from the Ethernet or Power adapter from my digital equipment but my Bottlehead Crack picks up all kinds of noise from it even after being turned off and I would occasionally get it after it was unplugged as well (crazy). Another interesting observation is that the if I used a travel AC adapter (gives me 3 AC receptacles instead of one) the noise would be reduced if I plugged in an IEC power cable to it even if the power cable wasn't connected to any gear. This was really frustrating as I couldn't fin a solution as was about to return the AV2000 to Amazon but I ended up fidning out that plugging the Crack into my SA-1810 power strip in my main system would prevent whatever EMI that was affecting this amp from getting through and dissipating it from then on. Anyways, just felt like sharing my weird story with the group. Carry on...

 

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  • 6 months later...
On 16/08/2017 at 5:21 PM, unbalanced output said:

Upon some further research, I bought a range extender from Netgear

 

EX7000 Nighthawk, AC-Repeater, ac1300/n600

 

The name extender is quite misleading in this case, since the unit has direct sight to the router. Setup was straightforward, works ok with all wired up directly to the unit. I will see what happens when moving the server to the main side of the network and leave only the renderer (and TV which is always off for music) on the "far side". I expect no issues.

I just bought the same "extender" (EX7000) to substitute a powerline ethernet adapter and am super happy about the change.

After familiarising a bit with the setup page I deactivated both WiFi transmission channels (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) so the only thing the thing does now is get the wifi signal from the router and send it to the wired ethernet output connected to the Network Player.

I guess that by doing so I also cut completely the risk of having the WiFi signal output by the EX7000 interfere with the rest of the equipment. 

NUC10i7 Roon ROCK > EtherREGEN > Lumin U1 Mini > Chord DAVE > Focal Utopia 

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  • 1 month later...

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