I live in a rather new apartment building (2014) which has ethernet wall sockets in all rooms, just like there used to be landline phone sockets back in the day. These sockets are connected with bulk Cat6 cable running inside the walls to the main electrical board which resides in the hallway. Here I have my wireless router (Asus AC86U) which acts as a main hub and shares the internet signal from the electrical board to office room (this is where my QNAP NAS is running Roon core and my music library) and living room (this is where my music system is). Obviously it also shares internet as WLAN.
I have tried connecting my QNAP to the Chord EE8 next to my music system but thereās just zero audible difference keeping the QNAP in office vs having it next to the system. So I prefer having it as far as possible with its switching mode psu and spinning fan.
@w33logic Maybe get 8-port Netgear and ditch the D-Link?
Unless I have missed something here. If the two netgear switches where the same build models, except for being 5 and 8 ports. The cables used to connect, did not change, All would seem to point to a defective 8 port Netgear switch, which could be for multiple reasons.
Oh sorry, I misread your post. Netgear, Cisco and Zyxel seem to be the favored brands on the network gear. EE8 and Silent Angel Bonn N8 are based on a modified Zyxel GS-108B board.
Very possibly NoNaim, itās just strange that it was only the connection to the NAS that caused interference. The rest of the kit is still part of the AV chain that included the speakers. Iām not sure why the NAS would throw up the noise whereas the Arcam and Naim amps/streamers didnāt. An oddity for sure
Yes I understand what you mean. However getting hung up on the Nas, as only when that was connected can be a red herring. If all what I wrote is equal, then only the Netgear 8;switch remains.
Itās unlikely that the Synology is actually the cause, and paradoxically it could be that the 5 port switch or itās PSU are faulty.
Itās likely that the problem has arise because you have created two points of connection from the network to protective ground (i.e. the mains earth), one through the switch, one through the NAS, all connected together because you are using screened Ethernet cables. This ground loop is what is likely to be the real problem.
This is why when you put back a length of āstandardā unshielded (UTP) Ethernet cable the problem went away.
The reason the 5 port switch may be faulty is that its connection from its metal case to the mains protective ground may be faulty, hence not having the second earth connectionā¦ so no āearth loopā (or this connection may just be a design change!).
Thanks Xanthe. Iāve read of ground loops a few times over the years. This is the first time Iāve directly experienced it. You DO learn something new every day. Thanks to all who have highlighted the shielded cable issue.
The follow up question is - is there such a thing as a better quality unshielded cable or should I just stick with the cheap version?
Yes there are better cables, however ābetterā in Ethernet cables just means that the data transmission is less likely to experience resends due to errors (and in a domestic network this is unlikely to occur anyway, unless the cables are badly damaged).
In terms of āsoundā Ethernet cables donāt have a āsoundā of their own; what they do is ātuneā the electrical interference and so alter affect the way the analogue electronics connected to them sounds - itās the analogue electronics that have a sound that can be changed by the way an Ethernet cable picks up interference from the environment. (N.B. in Ethernet, shielding also pick up and transmits noise just as the balanced data pairs do, so in a domestic environment shielding Ethernet doesnāt really give any significant benefit). This effect isnāt really predictable (despite the fact that may people claim consistent sound signatures from specific Ethernet cables). You have to find out by experimental trial and error in your own system.
Fortunately most UTP cables are quite cheap - just get a few, try them and swap them around - the differences can be substantial. In my case I use some certified Cat6 UTP cables. Cat 6 UTP may have a slight advantage over Cat 5e as the twist rate is higher, but on the last leg to the streamer Cat 5 may have a slight advantage over Cat 5e as it only uses 2 twisted pairs instead of 4 (but Cat 5 is generally not recommended for the rest of the network as itās only capable of 100Mbps not Gigabit speed). Only you can tell what works best in your system - no one ells can tell you this!
If I can help, the question was if one or other of the Netgear or TP-Link ports had metal shrouds. These shrouds are a metallic surround of the port that electrically connects to the metal shrouded RJ45 plugs and the ethernet cable screen, thereby electrically connecting all the network screens.
The answer to the question is, subject confirmation of the actual model numbers, all the switches listed have metallic shrouded ports
My adapter has arrived. Contemplating the cable change at the weekend. Too tired for sensible assessment following another trip to North Wales for the football.
Iām still full loom here. Have not thought about changing I.e. BJC, Vodka. Just wondering 2 points. Did you find much change with the C-stream, as you put the hours usage in. Also, wondering how much a Forester would add to switch.
No change over time that I can hear @NoNaim. The F1 PS, in my system, gives a little more presence. Something to do with less noise? Who knowsā¦but I like what it does enough to keep it.
