EE8 Amber light with Nova

Streaming Audio
#1

At the risk of asking a dumb question in such a technical forum, I have just bought an EE8 which I have connected (via my Amplifi mesh unit) to my Nova. Thus far, I am only seeing the Amber (100 mbps) light for the Nova - whereas if I connect my Sky Q box into another port on the EE8 it glows a satisfying Green (1,000 mbps).

The input is similarly Green, so the mesh unit (in turn connected to my Virgin broadband router) is working fine and feeding through the 350+ mbps stream coming into the house.

So, why should the offtake to the Nova be indicated as 100 mbps or less. Is this what it should be doing or am I missing out?

Thanks for any advice!

#2

That’s normal. The Naim stuff only operates at 100.

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#3

Thanks very much HH - much appreciated!

#4

Just wanted to add for your peace of mind that uncompressed hi-res audio streaming at 192K/24bit, in stereo, uses 9.216 Mbit/s, so the 100 Mbit/s of the Naim units is way more than enough.

Knowing Naim, they chose not to implement 1 Gbit networking because (a) is useless for music and (b) might create some additional influences that are better to avoid if it is not needed in the first place

#5

Very reassuring - thanks!

I suppose Sky Q boxes with their attendant Ultra HD streaming might breach the 100 mbps limit, hence their green lights.

Mistakenly I assumed that the EE8 was in some way throttling back the 350 mbps coming into the house and starving my Nova of all those lovely mbs!

Thanks for putting my mind at rest.

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#6

@Suedkiez - I agree with what you say but if you buy a lot of downloaded music then 1GB is a lot faster when copying than 100mbs!

#7

Roughly ten times :wink: But you are not copying it to the Nova or another Naim streamer? Of course, other stuff like a computer, a NAS or Roon Core, where you would do mass copies, still use 1 GB/s

#8

@Suedkiez - yes I am copying the data to the Naim Core at 100mbs!

#9

Right, I keep forgetting about the Core. I see, yeah. Consider it worth it if Naim thinks (I suppose) it keeps the noise at bay :slight_smile:

#10

The Core runs GB Ethernet - it’s the Naim streamers that run 100MB.

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#11

@ChrisSU - thanks for that - as copying files to the Core is so slow I assumed that it must only be 100 mbs! I have a network attached drive with GB ethernet and the same music files copy there a lot faster than to the Core!

#12

Are the hard disks comparable? And what is the approx data transfer rate per second?

#13

My Core outlet glows a reassuring green on the EE8, so it’s definitely running at 1,000 mbps.

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#14

@Suedkiez - the Core has a 1TB Samsung Evo 850 and the NAS has Seagate IronWolf Pro Drives in RAID 5

#15

@Ridrobs - thanks it is reassuring to know that it does actually work at this this speed!

#16

Thanks, so the Samsung SSD in the Core should not be a bottleneck :slight_smile: And you find wildly lower speeds copying to the Core than the NAS? Intriguing. The only things I can think of right now are:

  • The cable to the Core might not be suitable for gigabit LAN. However, even Cat5 should normally work.
  • The ethernet port to the Core might be configured to 100 Mbit. I don’t know how you connected, but many routers have the ability to limit speed on certain ports to 100. I suppose managed switches do as well.

In any case, most routers and switches have LEDs next the port indicating link speed, usually amber and green just like the 8switch that started this thread. Does yours signal 100 Mbit or 1 Gbit on the line to the Core?

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#17

Having thought about this for a while, I’ve realised that the NAS has two Ethernet ports which allows link aggregation, which would explain the speed difference!!

All the Ports on the Switch are green.

#18

The aggregation would explain it. Also you can simply copy a few files of known size to the Core and take the time it takes until your computer signals the copy to be finished. Calculate the megabytes per second and you will get a ballpark if the Core reaches close to 1 Gbit/s. (There is always some loss, but it should be in the ballpark and easily distinguishable from 100Mbit/s)

Also, with link aggregation the NAS copying should be max. twice as fast as the Core copying, not 10 times faster as if the Core was using 100 Mbit. (The speed your NAS reaches will however depend on the disk configuration, RAID etc)

#19

Thanks @Suedkiez for the explanation - I should have remembered about the Link aggregation before!

I will test the upload speed next time I copy some files onto the Core.

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