Uniti Atom stops when playing album from NAS

[DavidHB]

@Nothung

Apologies for not coming back sooner. Christmas can be a bit of a distraction!

It is unsurprising that the EE router is similar to the BT counterpart with which many of us are familiar. My experience is that the gigabit switches built into the more modern BT routers are quite decent, so a separate switch (which would normally be my preference, and is the way I do things) may not be required. Of course, if you do use a separate swich, it needs to be a decent one; I use three Netgear GS108s in my system, and can recommend this model. Incidentally, for home networks I would recommend using unmanaged switches, as that reduces setup complications.

I am surprised by the information that IGMP is kept active for Ethernet but can be deactivated or wireless connections on a BT router. I would have expected (and on other routers have found) it to be the other way round.

All in ali, if Wi-Fi works best for you, there is no need to fix it. That, I admit, goes against my prejudices and preconceptions. I have always found that a fully wired Ethernet connection, using reasonable quality components and cables (by which I do not mean the more ridiculously expensive cables sold for 'HiFi' use), is the most reliable and the easiest to fix if it does go wrong.

As regards the issue of sound quality differences associated with different network (or, come to that different mains power) connections, I am always amazed ar the way in which the differing views on this subject can so easily turn into some kind of religion. The only relevant concept that makes sense to me is that, in any electronic system, every active component generates noise and every conductor carries noise (which is, of course, by its nature analogue). To the extent that sound quality differences are really associated with network connections, noise is likely to be the real culprit.

Human hearing seems to be very adept at perceiving noise, so system designers face significant challenges in lowering the noise floor to acceptable levels. In the audio systems we are mostly using nowadays, where the signal is in the digital domain everywhere except at the point of recording and the final amplification and reproduction, noise tends to be even more of a challenge than distortion.

IMO, sound quality issues associated with network (especially Ethernet) connections rarely if ever result from degradation of the digital signal as such. Rather, they are the product of inadequate suppression of the analogue noise produced by the high speed switching in the network. In some of today's more expensive Hi-Fi components (for example various Melco models and the Linn's recently introduced Klimax Organik players), we are seeing increasing use of optical network ports, of the kind used for some years in critical medical systems, for noise suppression. This approach could well become mainstream in the foreseeable future.

David