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Better sound with ethernet cable?

I'm presently streaming music WIRELESS from my WiFi router to my Yamaha receiver.  I was told I would get better sound if I ran an ethernet cable. It's a fairly long run, maybe 50 feet total by the time I fish down through the basement and back up.  Before I drill holes and fish through the basement, I may just run it across my living room and see if it improves the sound.  Also, in my manual there are two different instruction for hooking up to wired or wireless. Can I just plug in the cable now or will I have to re-connect through the wired instructions?  Thanks for any input.  Doug
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Showing 2 responses by kijanki

kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,394 posts
 
It shouldn’t matter. In either case, wireless or Ethernet, you’re sending just data (no real D/A timing involved). Both can produce electrical noise, radiated or coupled, that might affect the sound but it’s hard to tell which one will sound better and I bet you have/use wireless router anyway. I use wireless (Airport Express) and had dropouts on 2.4GHz. I switched to 5GHz and had no dropout since.
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,394 posts
 
Claims that Ethernet has to sound better than WiFi have as much sense as claiming that HDTV connected by Ethernet has better picture than one connected by WiFi. In both cases it is just compressed and buffered data. WiFi can be a real blessing preventing computer from injecting electrical noise directly into DAC.
 
DAC designers might avoid WiFi because of possible dropouts (and not the sound quality).
WiFi dropouts occur because of very limited number of channels since there are only 3 non-overlapping channels (my microwave oven operates on one of them). 5GHz not only has more channels but also poorly penetrates walls, making transmission more immune to outside interference. I had no single dropout on 5GHz for many years and my router is on different floor (basement). My 4k TV streaming also comes thru this WiFi.
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