TP Wired or Wireless

Arnoldhasmail · « **on:** 8 Apr 2009, 01:06 pm »

Has anyone made a comparison of the TP wired compared to wireless...and if so...what differences did you hear? Did different style cat cables change the sound?

Thanks

TF1216 · « **Reply #1 on:** 8 Apr 2009, 01:21 pm »

I was at Zybar's house when he compared wired vs. wireless with his Modwright Transporter. My ears noticed a difference and so did his. You will have to ask him if he still runs wired which is what we heard to sound better of the two.

zybar · « **Reply #2 on:** 8 Apr 2009, 01:24 pm »

Quote from: tf121682 on 8 Apr 2009, 01:21 pm

I was at Zybar's house when he compared wired vs. wireless with his Modwright Transporter. My ears noticed a difference and so did his. You will have to ask him if he still runs wired which is what we heard to sound better of the two.

Yes, I am still running wired. As Tyler stated, it sounded better wired.

Lots of posts on this topic with varied findings.

George

ted_b · « **Reply #3 on:** 8 Apr 2009, 01:27 pm »

This has been discussed more than once on the TP thread, the latest this week in fact. When I went to wired (about a year ago) I noticed an improvement in smoothness and weight (better bass control), and I'm not talking reduced dropouts (I never really had them with wireless). I know there is no real explanation, but theories suggest noisy wireless transmitters, maybe a better jitter measurement with wired, etc. Dunno.

Arnoldhasmail · « **Reply #4 on:** 8 Apr 2009, 01:38 pm »

Has anyone made a comparison of solid core and stranded cat wire?

DSK · « **Reply #5 on:** 9 Apr 2009, 09:28 am »

I ran my SB wireless for most of the last 2.5 years and suffered no dropouts, signal strength typically 83%. Reason was that it wasn't going to be easy to run a patch cable from upstairs router to downstairs listening room.

Last year I ran a temporary CAT5/E cable down the stairs and across the floor and did some A/B comparison. Can't really say that I would have put any money on being able to tell which was which blindfolded.

A couple of weeks ago I finally worked up the energy to crawl up into the roof and inch my way across on my belly, taking my weight on forearms and lower legs to avoid putting a foot or elbow through the ceiling. After some hours and loss of a few gallons of sweat (it was ssoooo hot and humid up there between the insulation and the roof tiles) I completed the run of CAT6 cable and have it coming out neatly behind the hifi rig downstairs. I disconnected the antennae on the SB. I haven't done any A/B but do have the overall feeling that it is slightly better (smoother, fuller) wired but again, not sure I'd put money on it.

Whenzir · « **Reply #6 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 09:07 am »

I think it has a big difference in terms of speed between TP Wired and Wireless.
What do you think about this theory?

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ADT Home Security

Big Red Machine · « **Reply #7 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 12:13 pm »

So you mean wiring the computer to SB, correct? Thereby bypassing the need for the router?

DSK · « **Reply #8 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 02:09 pm »

Quote from: Whenzir on 23 Oct 2009, 09:07 am

I think it has a big difference in terms of speed between TP Wired and Wireless.
What do you think about this theory?
_________________
ADT Home Security

The transmission speed is certainly quicker across ethernet cable than wireless but it makes no difference as the TP and SqueezeBoxes buffer the incoming data anyway.

jwes · « **Reply #9 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 02:35 pm »

I wanted to try this experiment quickly last weekend, but I plugged in an ethernet cable and couldn't get to an option to switch to ethernet. Do you have to completely power down and reset as a 'wired' network before doing this or is there an easier way to go back and forth?

Also, the only ethernet cable I have is long - maybe 30 feet. Would this screw up the comparison?

DSK · « **Reply #10 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 02:44 pm »

Quote from: jwes on 23 Oct 2009, 02:35 pm

I wanted to try this experiment quickly last weekend, but I plugged in an ethernet cable and couldn't get to an option to switch to ethernet. Do you have to completely power down and reset as a 'wired' network before doing this or is there an easier way to go back and forth?

Also, the only ethernet cable I have is long - maybe 30 feet. Would this screw up the comparison?

30 feet is no problem, you can safely go up to about 100 feet with ethernet cable. Mine is approx 65 feet. Use CAT5/E or CAT6.

Not sure of process with TP, I am using SB. With the SB you completely power it off then on and (from memory) hit the right arrow to select ethernet instead of wireless, then enter the IP addresses.

ted_b · « **Reply #11 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 02:49 pm »

Same process with TP. I stated a number of months ago that I was floored by the sonics of wired vs wireless. It makes little sense (given the buffering in both cases), but oh well.

GBB · « **Reply #12 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 03:09 pm »

Quote from: ted_b on 23 Oct 2009, 02:49 pm

Same process with TP. I stated a number of months ago that I was floored by the sonics of wired vs wireless. It makes little sense (given the buffering in both cases), but oh well.

Here's one more data point. It isn't easy for me to wire up ethernet cable, so I tried an experiment using an external wireless bridge into the ethernet port. I also noted a good sonic improvement through the use of the external wireless adapter. So I'll speculate that turning off the internal wireless card is somehow helping the sound quality by getting some very high frequency noise out of the internal power supplies, where it can otherwise wreck some havoc.

---Gary

ted_b · « **Reply #13 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 03:15 pm »

Yes, George (zybar) has brought that up, too, and it makes a lot of sense. Good experiment.

jwes · « **Reply #14 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 03:34 pm »

Wow - significant difference. I'll stay out of the audiophile dictionary and just go with smoother, more analog. Less dirty. Also picking up additional detail.

Using a very old (7 years) 50 foot Cat 5 cable.

jwes · « **Reply #15 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 06:15 pm »

OK, so that sounded better, but now that I'm wired, I'm not connecting to radioio or other internet radio. I still thought this would come through the computer wired. Do you need to be wireless in order to get Radioio, Pandora, Sirius, etc.?

ted_b · « **Reply #16 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 06:19 pm »

Quote from: jwes on 23 Oct 2009, 06:15 pm

OK, so that sounded better, but now that I'm wired, I'm not connecting to radioio or other internet radio. I still thought this would come through the computer wired. Do you need to be wireless in order to get Radioio, Pandora, Sirius, etc.?

No. You prolly just need to reboot or something.

jwes · « **Reply #17 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 06:30 pm »

Quote from: ted_b on 23 Oct 2009, 06:19 pm

Quote from: jwes on 23 Oct 2009, 06:15 pm
OK, so that sounded better, but now that I'm wired, I'm not connecting to radioio or other internet radio. I still thought this would come through the computer wired. Do you need to be wireless in order to get Radioio, Pandora, Sirius, etc.?

No. You prolly just need to reboot or something.

Thanks Ted. I rescanned, turned off the server on the macbook, turned it back on; did a hard reboot (unplugged) the TP. Still for anything like this (radio oriented), it just sits there saying "Connecting" on the TP, while the window on the laptop shows that it's playing. Any other thoughts?

srb · « **Reply #18 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 07:06 pm »

Did you use a static IP address for the TP? If so, it sounds like you still need a Gateway IP address defined to your router/modem.

Steve

lcrim · « **Reply #19 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 07:35 pm »

I now run the sound portion (Squeeze Sever,2 SB3 of my home network wired and it may be psychoacoustics but the improvement is highly noticeable. People who haven't visited in a while, ask me what I did and the running of cables is all I can think of. Hard to imagine that turning off the wireless card had that big an effect on the sound.

I also think that your TP may not know how to get to the internet. I would bounce the (presumably wireless) router and also the DSL device or cable modem.