Advice for Streaming Newbies - Best Bang for Our Bucks

@jabbaman I had it reset to default by a friend. I use it near my system, I have it on a filtered mains block. I feed optical out to an uptone Etherregen with it. That then feeds a Lyngdorf TDAI3400, and I stream Qobuz and Spotify. Qobuz sounds better than Spotify.

I use bubble upnp for Qobuz to stream, it is worth the price of the app.

My router to Cisco is CAT 8, get the best service to the property you can afford. I went from a 32mb copper service to a 900mb FTP service. I no longer get dropouts which used to spoil the listening experience on occasion. 

Thanks, @discopants, that is all insightful.

I've found a 2960G (1Gpbs version) for a ridiculously small sum, great condition, Cisco IOS 15 and factory reset so I will deploy between Router and EE 8Switch.

I'm not sure you need CAT8 specifically as CAT6 is more than capable and has the advantage of being unshielded so won't inadvertently cause a grounding issue.

I'll look into bubble UPnP and see if I can get on with it though so far Tidal has sounded plenty good to my old ears!

The Etherregen does look great but they are not being manufactured at present which is a shame.

Have you looked at the ENO AG filter?

In terms of Internet service, I'd say reliability and latency are more critical. Bandwidth itself is less of a concern as digital audio files are pretty small. For example, Tidal MQA uses c. 7.5MB of data per minute which translates to c. 1Mbps.

My service is over 5G cellular and has stonking bandwidth but most importantly great stability and consistency.

I did read much on the ENO filter and I nearly tried one. I bought my speakers from Richard Truss when he wrapped up his HIFI store to focus on the network acoustics business. There are lots of folks who rate them very highly. I already owned the Etherregen I think I was in on the 3rd batch to go out. Uptone are working on a new design due to supply chain issues on the original bill of materials.

Cat 8 is more robust than CAT6 I have it running along my skirting. I used Kapton tape on the sides of the RJ45 jack going in to the Cisco so no shield grounding into my system.

I'm considering ordering an ENO AG Streaming Kit when payday arrives this week as an evaluation!

I'm also strongly considering evaluating the EtherRegen v2 when it is realised in the coming months. I absolutely love playing with kit!

Good shout on the Kapton tape, glad you've got that covered with the CAT8 to deal with the grounding.

Where is Occam's razor when you need it.