I’m building a new house and about to finalise the network setup for the whole site.
I’m planning on having 3 high grade listening zones:
Living Room:
NAD M66
Michi S-5
B&W 803d4
Home Theatre Room:
Onkyo TXRZ70 running 11.1ch
B&W 703s2 + HTM71s2
B&W CWM 7.5s2 x 4
B&W CCM 663 x 4
B&W DB3d
Office:
NAD M33
B&D 705s2
And 2 additional zones:
Outside:
Bluesound Powernode
B&W AM1
Kitchen:
Wiim Ultra
Rotel RB03
B&W CCM 683
There will be additional zones come in in the future.
I am also building a dedicated server for the site and I have an Intel NUC running ROCK (I have had this for a few years and it has been perfect and stable throughout).
My plans at this stage are to have a Hyperfibre capable Ubiquiti setup in the server with a managed switch supplying hard wired feeds to all the zones and the normal networking zones.
I am trying to work out what would be the best schematic for the roon infrastructure.
The server will be centrally located and running a feed to each roon zone, I’ve been thinking about putting a Silent Angel N8 at the end in the Living Room and Theatre but now thinking of adding the N8Pro at the top fed direct from the Cloud Gateway with each of the audio zones running out of that and the Roon Rock connected into this so keeping the audio separated at the earliest point and all within the clock controlled environment of the N8Pro.
Any thoughts or recommendations??
Also, for the connection to the switches - cable run all the way to the switch and plugged direct in or are keystone plugs OK?
I like the idea of using Ubiquiti UniFi hardware to build a 2.5 Gbps network. They have a set of products that are prefect for this. The design I prefer is to have one big, centrally located PoE switch that powers multiple Wi-Fi access points and PoE powered 8-port access switches throughout the home. So, a two-tier hub and spoke topology, if you like. With all client devices and endpoints connected either to an access switch or Wi-Fi access point, they have the same number of switch hops to reach the Internet or your Roon Server. You’ll have consistent, predictable performance that’s easy to troubleshoot.
I can’t speak to the benefits of audiophile switches and external clocks for networking gear. I don’t understand what problems they are solving, but if you are confident you have those particular problems, they may be helpful. Good luck!
I won’t sit on the fence. The empirical evidence is that they achieve nothing, which isn’t unsurprising for any device that has to meet a standard. Moreover, I’ve seen a disproportionate number of support requests resolved by removing audiophile devices from the digital domain.
Fair shout, you’re entitled to an opinion but it sounds like you’ve never tested it?
I swapped out a few patch leads to Cat 7 triple shielded cables and there was an immediate improvement.
I’m building a house and intend to be here till I’m carried out in a box so want to do this right and more importantly, once.
I will in all reality be running 7 roon zones in total by the time it’s all done, common sense suggests a switch with an upgraded clock responsible for all the signal paths and directly connected to the Roon Server will be an improvement over a bulk standard router/switch.
How would you know? Anyway, I have seen the test results. Moreover, we are talking about data, and unlike audio components, where subjectivity does have a role, it cannot with a network switch.
And besides, whatever fake cables you have overpaid for, they were a scam, not “Cat 7” because by the definition of a Cat 7 cable it can not be plugged into any standard equipment one is likely to have at home.
Relying on “empirical evidence” suggests one of the “expert” reviews that test the ones and zeros not actually the introduced noise - significant difference.
There will be a managed switch at the gateway of the system but if I follow my plan the Silent Angel switches are all unmanaged and will the entirety of the audio side will be running from one central switch unit with the roon server on that as well.
Oh bless, someone who read something by someone has an unshakeable opinion - not american are you??
Anyone with a passing knowledge of physics will understand ones and zeros will be transmitted.
They will also understand that any cable with a current running through it acts as an RF antenna and will introduce noise into a signal.
Cat7 wire standard uses substantially more shielding at both twisted pair and outer sheath than Cat6 and this is a difference.
No, not a review, but measurements. It is a network switch, and does exactly the same thing as a… £35 network switch. That doesn’t surprise me since Ethernet is defined by a set of standards.
What does surprise me is that you ask for thoughts and recommendations, and then mock those who offer these things.
Why do you think an upgraded clock is important in asynchronous communication?
I have had sync issues previously on roon zones, I’m pretty eager to reduce any possibility on this so having improved clock performance at the source switch should help that.
My issue with your position is not offering advice but the total dismissal of valid options simply because you don’t agree with them - I’ve swapped out standard patch leads for relatively cheap but triple shielded cat7 and there has been a marked improvment.
I’ve had inexpensive audio network switches demoed in store and there has been tangible differences, the main thing pointed out to me (and is true of a lot of hifi tweaks) is you can get 90% there with 10% of the cost, I am not looking at ridiculously priced Melco or top end Silent Angle switches that run into the thousands, the N8 is quite cheap in the scheme of things.
The beauty of using all unifi switches is you can control them easily and precisely with the unifi console / app. Introducing other non-managed switches will probably be less amenable to managing your over all setup - which sounds great. With a fiber backbone you will be very happy and I would be skeptical of any improvements on the networking side using “audiophile” switches.
The issues I’ve had are between different zones (Bluesound Powernode out of sync with NAD M33), so you’re saying thats not a connection problem and can’t be influenced by how it’s all tied together?
AceRimmer
("I’m not just a hero; I’m a legend!")
17
Roon usually syncs very well to devices of the same brand/software etc.
I have seen sync issues from components that are a hodge podge of brands etc.
Yeah, that’s why I found it so frustrating that NAD and Bluesound are the same software but fell out of sync during playback while my Wiim Ultra would stay stable with the NAD M33.
It is quite amazing that the less (as in… absolutely nothing) one knows about physics, TCP/IP communications, or Ethernet standards, the more they are confident that their opinions are valid.
You may want to at least look up what a Cat 7 cable is and why you can’t plug a real Cat 7 cable into anything you might have at home.
The empirical evidence is that they achieve nothing, which isn’t unsurprising for any device that has to meet a standard. Moreover, I’ve seen a disproportionate number of support requests resolved by removing audiophile devices from the digital domain.