How to Troubleshoot a High-End Audio Ethernet Network

MikeCh

MikeCh

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Hi Everyone,

The other day I was reading here on AS a thread about somebody (Brad225?) having issues with re-connecting all their Ethernet connected gear (can't find that thread now) and getting it all to communicate properly once again after disassembly. It's been my experience that many folks have issues connecting and maintaining Ethernet connectivity within their audio systems due to the complexity/myriad of gear types often employed. To hopefully assist, here's a blog post that I wrote about a year and half ago based on simple linear troubleshooting that may be of help to those that struggle with Ethernet connectivity and keeping things on track:

How to Troubleshoot a High-End Audio Ethernet Network

How to Troubleshoot a High-End Audio Ethernet Netwok.JPG
 
Re: How to Troubleshoot a High-End Audio Ethernet Netwok

What percentage of network problems are caused by audiophiles complicating their networks with digital doo-dads?
 
Re: How to Troubleshoot a High-End Audio Ethernet Netwok

MikeCh said:
Hi Everyone,

The other day I was reading here on AS a thread about somebody (Brad225?) having issues with re-connecting all their Ethernet connected gear (can't find that thread now) and getting it all to communicate properly once again after disassembly. It's been my experience that many folks have issues connecting and maintaining Ethernet connectivity within their audio systems due to the complexity/myriad of gear types often employed. To hopefully assist, here's a blog post that I wrote about a year and half ago based on simple linear troubleshooting that may be of help to those that struggle with Ethernet connectivity and keeping things on track:

How to Troubleshoot a High-End Audio Ethernet Network

View attachment 32343
Click to expand...


Thanks for sharing Mike!
 
Re: How to Troubleshoot a High-End Audio Ethernet Netwok

Well written and broken into logical steps and explanations. Thanks for posting it.
 
How to Troubleshoot a High-End Audio Ethernet Netwok

mep said:
What percentage of network problems are caused by audiophiles complicating their networks with digital doo-dads?
Click to expand...

A very large percentage in my experience.
 
Re: How to Troubleshoot a High-End Audio Ethernet Netwok

mep said:
What percentage of network problems are caused by audiophiles complicating their networks with digital doo-dads?
Click to expand...

When you read through the article you can see the answer is probably "quite a lot" although it is not quantified, and no actual evidence is presented although the logic is sound.
 
Re: How to Troubleshoot a High-End Audio Ethernet Netwok

MikeCh said:
A very large percentage in my experience.
Click to expand...

That's what I figured. Somebody on this forum had made his digital system overly complex and had numerous reliability problems with it as a result. He ditched his digital doo-dads and upped his system reliability. Nows he's back to digital doo-dads.
 
Re: How to Troubleshoot a High-End Audio Ethernet Netwok

mep said:
That's what I figured. Somebody on this forum had made his digital system overly complex and had numerous reliability problems with it as a result. He ditched his digital doo-dads and upped his system reliability. Nows he's back to digital doo-dads.
Click to expand...

Mark, it doesn't surprise me. The chase for cleaner/better music is too tempting to stay away from.

From another thread on, "Ethernet Switches" here on AS, I chimed in with the following (which gives a little more context and an additional linear troubleshooting method for Ethernet connectivity):


"Since there is no real "standard" that audio equipment manufacturers follow (unlike makers of Ethernet Network gear such as Cisco/Nexus, Juniper, et.al) rather they seem to choose their own Ethernet recipe for what is best for their design even down to how to decipher link-light-status at the RJ-45 or fiber ports. Not to mention, very little if any Audio gear to my knowledge allows a user to adjust duplex/speed settings or allow timing/clocking adjustments within a managed GUI. Just look at the various manufacturers of Ethernet connected "audio" gear or digital-doo-dads/filters/converters that have no standard on link-light-status colors for 10/100/1000 speeds or blink/no blink for "activity" or error rates.

One simple thing to do if you're having timing or physical errors in your audio network (or suspect such within your audio setup) is to simply unplug the END-MOST device (streamer, server, etc.) and plug your laptop computer into that cable. Go out and download something huge off the internet or start a stream of some sort and watch your Laptop NIC diags for any errors incurred. IF you see no errors counting up, then the issue is likely with communications at that Audiophile piece of kit/NIC. IF you see errors stacking up, then most certainly, look upstream one step at a time doing the same test in order to diagnose the problem and find the culprit. Linear troubleshooting in this manner can ferret out most issues."
 
Re: How to Troubleshoot a High-End Audio Ethernet Netwok

My network is damn near flawless.
 
Re: How to Troubleshoot a High-End Audio Ethernet Netwok

Yes Mike, there is a good chance it was me. If I haven't listened to music for 10+ days often one piece of equipment is not found in the chain of equipment.

I don't know about dingleberries but, mine train in the room is from, coax - ethernet - switch - NAS - Streamer - Ethernet to USB conversion - reclock & convert to fiber - Dac.

Usually a reboot or having the system search for the UltraRendu cures the problem. It clearly was an issue more in the past fortunately.

Thanks for posting the article I will definitely read it.
 
Re: How to Troubleshoot a High-End Audio Ethernet Netwok

A few days ago I broke my nuc network connection. Wanted to try roon arc and got it to work via a port forwarding rule in my router. It worked. Then i wanted to install it on a separate disc with a big SSD for my cd collection and listen to roon arc in my car and there it went wrong…

All nucs work, but this one fails after reinstalling linux twice on m2 and sata ssd roon rock crashes over and over no matter what I try, brought the bios to default settings, removed the port forwarding rule

Every other nuc works. Why??!!

Networks: I thought I did understand it. ☹️
 
Re: How to Troubleshoot a High-End Audio Ethernet Netwok

Alkyogre said:
A few days ago I broke my nuc network connection. Wanted to try roon arc and got it to work via a port forwarding rule in my router. It worked. Then i wanted to install it on a separate disc with a big SSD for my cd collection and listen to roon arc in my car and there it went wrong…

All nucs work, but this one fails after reinstalling linux twice on m2 and sata ssd roon rock crashes over and over no matter what I try, brought the bios to default settings, removed the port forwarding rule

Every other nuc works. Why??!!

Networks: I thought I did understand it. ☹️
Click to expand...

Seems like a problem with the offending NUC and not your network. Simple way to determine the health of network connectivity to the offending NUC is to plug a laptop computer in place of the offending NUC (at the cable end that feeds the NUC) and see if you can get out to the internet to a page you'd normally not surf so that you're not relying on the PC's cache...for example, jeep.com or vw.com. If you can get to the internet, then the network is fine.

Can't help you with the NUC, sorry.
 
Re: How to Troubleshoot a High-End Audio Ethernet Netwok

brad225 said:
Yes Mike, there is a good chance it was me. If I haven't listened to music for 10+ days often one piece of equipment is not found in the chain of equipment.

I don't know about dingleberries but, mine train in the room is from, coax - ethernet - switch - NAS - Streamer - Ethernet to USB conversion - reclock & convert to fiber - Dac.

Usually a reboot or having the system search for the UltraRendu cures the problem. It clearly was an issue more in the past fortunately.

Thanks for posting the article I will definitely read it.
Click to expand...

What I highlighted is what I would eliminate. All of those conversions are weak links in the chain prone to breaking down and decreasing your network reliability.
 
Re: How to Troubleshoot a High-End Audio Ethernet Netwok

For almost all DACs, the Ethernet to USB conversion is a necessary step; it usually occurs within the streamer/server but there is little reason to think that is more or less trouble free than the same conversion (usually using the same equipment) performed outside the server/streamer.
 
Re: How to Troubleshoot a High-End Audio Ethernet Netwok

rbbert said:
For almost all DACs, the Ethernet to USB conversion is a necessary step; it usually occurs within the streamer/server but there is little reason to think that is more or less trouble free than the same conversion (usually using the same equipment) performed outside the server/streamer.
Click to expand...

Both my Roon Nucleus+ and my HiFi Rose 150B have ethernet connections. Both plug into my router and that is all the cables I use for my streaming aside from the ethernet connection from the wall that runs to the router.
 
Re: How to Troubleshoot a High-End Audio Ethernet Netwok

mep said:
What percentage of network problems are caused by audiophiles complicating their networks with digital doo-dads?
Click to expand...

Almost 100% :). That and so much misinformation saying that they need this doo dad or that one... they make SOOOOOOOOOOO much of a difference. Most are utter non-sense.
 
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