Options to improve digital sound

Here is my SGC ST CPU with ROON Core streaming to 4 endpoints at once.

SGC ST i5 CPU

For networks, you want AS FEW HOPS as you can get. You also want AS FEW conversions along the way. Adding several switches, and swapping from coax, e-net, fiber, and so on is not a good thing.

@mswale can you give us some more detail on the “hop” and conversion points? As long as the information packets are getting through undamaged, do the  number of hops matter? Or is it the case that there’s a risk of packet loss at each hop? Or is something else going on?
 

thanks. 

What commercial switch do you recommend @mswale 

Also, processors might not produce physical noise but they emit EMI. The heat from a processor inside the enclosure as well as the emitted EMI impacts other components an in turn adds noise to the output digital signal. Yes for data transfer it doesn’t matter. But it does impact streaming music. 
I just can’t figure out how it could if there is no physical connection between my roon core and my dac. It’s all done using mesh network. 

The CPU utilization of Roon is quite variable, and relative.  The biggest challenges for Roon CPU are use of DSP and format conversion such as DSD to PCM or vice versa. 

It's also relative to the CPU that you have.  Very low power CPUs as used in micro PC's may be more stressed more easily.  Also, because DSP happens on the server, if you have multiple music streams going on at once this can also increase CPU usage. 

Having said all of that, the CPU usage I observe is generally very low.   Not sure what this has to do with anything though, so long as the stream doesn't break up this should not affect playback quality as the Roon endpoints keep a significant buffer. 

 

So, Roon not cpu intensive. Many monitor their cpu utilization in real time and report relatively high utilization with Roon vs other music players. Also I directly monitor cpu usage via Euphony OS, I can do this by direct connection to streamer or via tablet. I'm monitoring both temps and utilization in real time.

As for digital packets not impacting analog signal, laughable. Streamers don't affect latency, nonsense.@sns 

Taking what I said out of context. Never said Roon was not, said streaming is not. What ever Roon is doing is in addition to the music stream. Chances are they are separate processes/streams. 

Also never said, packets will not affect the analog signal. What I said was Analog and digital are very different, same rules do not apply. If you streamer is in fact introducing network latency, then your streamer needs to be replaced, or upgraded. A streamer should never have network latency.  If I can stream 4k video with Dobly Atmos, you should be able to stream Hi-rez audio. Something else is going on if you are having latency issues. 

@shalommorgan Whether CPU processing noise is relevant, I don’t know. I feel electric noise emitted by a single poorly designed network device or a summation of network devices is the main issue. I don’t think, in general, having fewer network devices is better or best. Logically to me, simply decoupling and/ or reducing electrical network noise is paramount. So whatever it takes to achieve lower noise needs to be done. Of course starting with a device that is designed to limit unwanted noise is key. I respectfully disagree with @mswale that the use of fiber optic is not good, generally speaking. Used wisely, fiber optic connections can be an effective tool at separating/ isolating noisy devices from the DAC. (this topic has been discussed over and over on AG). Sorry to bringing it up again. 

Again, digital domain is vastly different over analog signals. CPU's will not put any noise in the digital packet. Digital packets do not have a concept of noise. Never in my 30+ IT career has any network or computer issue been related to noise. Even in factories where computers are controling manufacturing robots.

Not sure where "decoupling" networks came from. Outside of Audio, this is not a thing. Never said fiber is not good, in fact it is the "best" network transfer method. Would guess around 80% of networks are fiber. Fiber is also the most expensive! If you have any run over 100ft fiber will work better. If you can end to fiber, I would. But when a normal fiber cable with out SFP's are $300, then another $300 for each end SFP it gets expensive quickly.  Air-gaped networks are a thing, but is all about security, and isolation. 

Maybe someone needs to do some packet captures, read the packets, also put an oscilloscope on the cables to see if there is any "noise" on the cable. Not saying it's not there, that it's not a packet transfer issue. If this was a thing, research labs, hospitals, manufacture, would all try to fix that issue.   

 What commercial switch do you recommend

Also, processors might not produce physical noise but they emit EMI. The heat from a processor inside the enclosure as well as the emitted EMI impacts other components an in turn adds noise to the output digital signal. Yes for data transfer it doesn’t matter. But it does impact streaming music. 
I just can’t figure out how it could if there is no physical connection between my roon core and my dac. It’s all done using mesh network. 

Cisco, Brodcom, Brocade, Ubiquiti, HP, but if you don't know how to configure them, they are useless. A "good" 8 port switch will start around $800. 

Everything that has current flowing through it will have EMI, it's a byproduct. CPU's use such low voltages, that it will not have an effect on things around it. What can make a difference are the computers fans kicking in, they produce a ton of noise, both physical and electrical.  But not sure this is affect processing, or affect anything the CPU is processing. 

You are not outputting a digital signal, you are outputting digital packets. The packets contain the data for the DAC to produce a audio signal. The DAC is in fact a computer. 

Home mesh networks are crap. Really wish they would not sell them. Almost all would be better off with a repeater in a couple spots over cheap mesh. To do mesh properly you need really good equipment with a base-station that has all the algorithm to handle hand-off, priority, and switching. Talk about noise, if you use a WiFi signal meter around the lower end stuff, it's just not good. 

On WiFi everyone wants isolation, well, if you are using WiFi, you are isolating your device. Direct connecting is almost always best.

@erik_squires think he is nailing it.