Hi 
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Naim, InnuOs, Linn to name a few streamers are optimized for 100Mbit, which is considered the best when it comes to soundquality.
Does this apply generally,.or does anyone here know of any streamers that work best in “1000Mbit mode”.
Same question regarding “hifi- switches” where many of the better ones work in 100Mbit mode.
I think generally trying to squeeze more data down a wire requires more processing, and hence more noise. Slow (enough) and steady is the way
the clock on a 100Mb connection runs at a much lower frequency than 1Gb. I would guess that is inferred is less noise generated in the NIC itself. If you actually look at the network device PCB of a 100Mb and 1Gb NIC you will see they use different value oscillators.
However, there is a caveat. If your NAS connects at 1Gb and the endpoint is 100Mb then of course there is more flow control on both the NAS and the switch. Given enough 100Mb devices pulling from 1Gb data sources, the frame memory on the switch can fill up (data is coming n faster than it is being forwarded on) impacting everything connected to it. This is almost certainly not an issue in a house with 1-2 hard wired streamers though.
On the other hand, I would generally expect this difference to be audibly minimal on a streamer that has taken reasonable measures to isolate network based noise both on the wire and generated in the local NIC itself.
Hi, the only reason 100 Base-TX is said to ‘sound’ better than 1000 Base-TX is because the former uses 4 cables (2 pairs) whilst the latter uses 8 cables (4 pairs).
The idea being the less energised cables connecting the less likelihood of twisted pair imbalance and less reflections and potentially less scope for the streamer to couple noise into itself…
Interestingly the approximate frequency bandwidth between 100Base-TX and 1000Base-TX is the same even though the data line speed bandwidth is 10 x greater than the other
Some practical reasons to use 100Mbps on a (purely) streaming device:
The slower speed won’t matter much for the occasional firmware update.
That’s of course, unless you transfer files, backups (of music stores) or want to buffer larger amounts of data (like when streaming movies). Or do anything else with a NAS/PC.
Using 1000Mbit is more prone to link failures and retransmission if the cables aren’t up to scratch. 100Mbit is absolutely fine with an incredible level of spare capacity for audio streaming.
The cables, similarly, have plenty of “spare capacity for audio streaming”. The only reason they might not be up to scratch in this context is if they were defective, due to a poor connection or a very tight kink, for example.
I would say the other way around in terms of link failures (marginally). 1000BaseT Ethernet leads uses more active conductors than 100 BaseT … therefore should certain conductors break, the link layer will negotiate to 100 Mbps instead of 1000 Mbps… the carrier frequency is approx the same between the two link types. You should hardly ever if at all get a data failure on a wired Ethernet lan link at these relatively slow speeds.
I think in the real world they are as reliable as each other.
100 BaseT or FastEthernet link speed as many streamers use is absolutely fine and ideal for that use case. Hidef loss less audio is a relatively low bandwidth flow.in the grand scheme of things on a 100 Mbps link… 192/24/2 uncompressed loss less is about 10 Mbps with transport overheads.
