Well, as far as Ethernet working better, not in my setup. Before I had core and streamer both wired by Ethernet to router. Arc never worked, and Roon Core always had problems playing many 192khz files. Could never figure out why and trying everything, except removing Ethernet and just running everything wireless. So, now going all wireless and guess what? Roon ARC works perfectly and Roon server has no problem with 192khz files.
Go figure
Did you originally have both active, Ethernet and WiFi?
If so, that very likely explains your troubles…
Originally Ethernet from laptop to router, streamer Ethernet to router ( tried wirelesss-worked better than wireed, but not completely. Then removed Ethernet from laptop, now everything works great wirelessly. Not sure why.
Damaged patch cords are surprisingly common. You may well have been unkowingly throttling your bandwidth.
I recently had issues with a network video player on a 1Gb/s wired network and found one of my wired legs was being throttled down to 10Mb/s by a rogue patch lead!
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Sounds like somewhere in the chain you may have been only getting 10Mb and/or maybe only half duplex.
If you are using old patch cables (less than Cat 5) they will only support 10Mb. Worth checking all ports on all devices are getting at least 100Mb and that you are negotiating to full duplex throughout.
Streaming 192/24 will almost entirely consume 10 Mb on it’s own without considering other traffic and if you add to that the fact that a Roon Server (or core as it used to be) will need to pull the stream from Qobuz or Tidal and then retransmit it via RAAT to your streamer there would very likely not be enough bandwidth to go around at all times.
Unless you have 1G ports throughout, proper category cables and successful negotiation of that 1G speed at full duplex by all ports there will probably be more “average bandwidth” available via modern WiFi.
The strength of ethernet is that is gets you much closer to an “almost” deterministic network if the topology is designed with discipline and the consumers of bandwidth are known and accounted for. Failing that, most “average bandwidth” generally wins which is why WiFi might seem better in your case.
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