After 12 months of finally enjoying music through an inherited streamer/DAC via a cheap but noisy Vonets bridge I finally got off my music loving arse and moved the bridge to other side of the room. See Choice of wireless bridge and cable - #33 by sktn77a.
The CAT 5 is cheap but there’s been a further leap in clarity and a definite drop in audible noise from the Vonets now it’s nowhere near the pre/streamer. It’s a little on the hard side now at higher volumes but I’m largely a relatively low to medium volume listener anyway.
I am absolutely in no hurry to do massive upgrades. There’s little room for a switch in the living room or indeed anywhere else but two things have caught my eye. One was the insertion of a short run of fibre as per Trying out ADOT fibre and Network Acoustics ENO whilst the other was adding an LPS to the Sky hub/router.
The hi-fi is all in the living room downstairs whilst the router is perhaps unusually upstairs in the study. I get a sense reading various threads here and elsewhere that there are mixed views about an LPS on the router, possibly depending on proximity to the rest of the system?
So, thoughts? I’m not looking for a massively expensive next step. Music listening is not leaving me massively dissatisfied. Far from it. I’m just conscious there are potentially small but effective things I could do to move things on. My money is being put aside for a downsize to an integrated amp and likely one of the small Innuos boxes i.e. PhoenixNET or USB or even both.
Mike - Good to see you’ve got positive benefits of moving the Vonnets access point away from the Hi-Fi - A good move. As you’re connected wirelessly to the router, I don’t think money would be best spent putting a linear PSU on the Sky hub.
Just out of curiosity, apart from the TT2, what else (input wise) do you have connected to your 202 ?
Thanks @james_n. I had read that elsewhere but trust the members of this forum to confirm.
The only things going into the 202 are the DAC and a cheap analogue feed from the Pioneer Kuro. Could theoretically switch to a digital out from the Sky Q itself to the DAC etc. but every time I’ve tried it previously I found the TV sound anaemic and unengaging.
As you have probably read, my system has benefitted from the addition of the ADOT optical fibre kit. I would think your bridge gives some isolation from the rest of your network if there is simply just a cable that runs from that to your streamer/dac. However, I think those types of devices can tend to be quite noisy in themselves. I think you will only really know if fibre is the way to go by giving it a try. Perhaps your dealer stocks the ADOT and could assist you with a loan? If not and you are southeast-ish in the UK, I can thoroughly recommend giving the boys at Signals a call - they are very helpful, knowledgeable and have one available for demo if you ask nicely! Enjoy.
I fitted an ifi power 2 to my Sky Q router a few days ago replacing the supplied one and there was a definite cleaning up of the sound. I am fortunate enough to own an outstanding Naim/ Chord/Kudos system that is very revealing but the improvements were obvious lifting streamed music very close to ripped CD’s through my Core at a cost of a mere £59.
@Cohen1263 so I suppose the question is eh wr her you’re using Wi-Fi? Across several forums there seems to be a low key but broad acceptance that if the streamer connects via ethernet then there’s some advantage to an LPS on the router but not if the starting point is wi-fi.
I’ve a wireless bridge downstairs from the Sky Q Hub which then connects to a 5m run of ethernet into my streamer.
I can vouch for the benefits (including health) of improving the power supply to a router;
Years ago I upgraded our TalkTalk router, which unfortunately is situated in the lounge and is also WiFi. All hifi was cable-connected but the WiFi was needed for laptops in other rooms.
Streaming music sounded cloudy and muddy. We also noticed feeling lethargic and getting headaches in the evenings.
So I did some research on the negative effects of EMI and RFI, both on hifi performance and on health. It was a shocking wake-up !
I invested in a Puritan distribution strip (it was recommended by the dealer as they are mains ‘purifiers’ rather than ‘conditioners’) and shielded / insulated mains leads, and plugged in an SBooster power supply for the router.
There were very noticeable improvements - no more headaches, and streaming music was much clearer and cleaner to the point of actually hearing timbre and texture.
IMO a very worthwhile project overall.
Enjoy.