Simple, Inexpensive & Effective Ways To Improve Your Streaming Experience

I sell a lot of streamers. I probably sell more streamers than any other product on my site currently. With those sales comes a lot of experience in troubleshooting when things are not going as planned for my customers. I hope these recommendations will help avoid some of those issues when you set up your new streamer.

Many Variables

When you connect a streamer to your audio system, you are also connecting a modem, a router, a server (if you have a music library of your own) maybe a network switch, maybe a hundred feet or more of Ethernet cable.  All of these things can have an effect on the streaming experience. Not to mention the software one uses to control the streamer and  connect to their music library and streaming services. That's a lot of variables!

It is also about more than sound, that's why I frame this in terms of the streaming "experience". It's network connectivity, speed, and user interface in addition to sound. 

With that in mind, here are a few basic, relatively inexpensive tips I give to those that ask. I thought I would post them publicly so I could just reference my blog instead of rewriting these in an email. So here you go.

1.  A high quality router -  First, make sure you are using a router that is less than 3 years old. internal processors, and clocking mechanisms improve greatly every year, so making sure you have a router that is up to date and capable of handling the bandwidth available with ease is generally helpful. I have Spectrum as my provider, and they gave me a modem and router when I started out with their service. The modem I was stuck with, but I was able to upgrade the router to a Netgear Nighthawk and there was a subtle sonic improvement initially (more on that later). The big thing though was my iPad and phone stopped losing their connection to the streamer and server. It became rock solid. That made my experience much more enjoyable because now my controller wasn't losing connection to my server and having to "find" it every 30 minutes. 

   

   Netgear Nighthawk Router

   
   
2. Linear power supplies for your modem, routers, switches, etc. - The next thing I did was buy linear power supplies to replace the cheap switching power supplies that came with these devices. Jameco makes all kinds of small, inexpensive linear power supplies that are way less noisy and not terribly expensive, like under $15. What I did was look at the voltage and amperage requirements of the existing power supply on the modem, router, switch and try to get as close as you can. you can usually find this information in the instruction manual, written on the power supply itself, or where the power supply input is on the device. For me, I ordered a 12v and a 15v 1 amp power supply for my router and modem and they were quite happy. You can, of course because it's audio, go nuts with linear power supplies, and they do get better if you spend more and get higher quality. My point is, you can get a lot of improvement without spending a fortune just by getting an inexpensive linear supply.
   

   

   Jameco 12v 2 amp linear power supply

3. Balanced isolation transformers - Another thing that reduces noise, and isolates computer components (meaning does not allow them to put noise back on the AC lines) are balanced power transformers. Ebay sells these nice 4 outlet versions for about $200 shipped. Balanced power cuts the noise on the AC line feeding the power supplies by 50%. That, coupled with the new linear power supplies made a significant difference on the sound of my streamer. Balanced power on audio equipment is hit and miss performance wise, but on computer equipment I feel it is always an improvement
   
   
   
   
4. Ethernet cables - Keeping with the cheap and cheerful nature of this post, I am not going to recommend an audiophile ethernet cable. Many times the ethernet cables that come packaged with products or are part of the installation of our modems are sub par in data transmission capabilities. I have had service people in my home troubleshooting my network and finding faulty ethernet cables. I have found these ethernet cables on Amazon to be of good quality, and frankly they sound just fine as far as I can tell. Your mileage may vary of course.
   
   

There you have it. For not much more than a couple hundred bucks you can significantly lower the noise getting into your network,  improve the sound of your streaming system and keep the network components from injecting noise back into your home's AC grid. I hope you found this helpful!