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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Thought I’d lay out how I’ve gotten three Wiim Pros and two Wiim minis to work well together with two Wiim Pros hard wired and the rest connected through wifi including my Roon server, an older i7 PC.
I’ve created a fast 5GHz network with an Asus mesh consisting of an Asus RT-AX58U hard wired to my modem and an Asus RT-AC3100 connected as a backhaul access point at the back of our house. I have one Wiim Pro hard wired into the RT-AX58U and another Wiim Pro hard wired into the RT-AC3100. The access point can achieve nearly the same speeds as the main router with the help of MOCA boxes that bridge the two routers. A third Wiim Pro is wifi connected as well as two Wiim Mini’s.
My Roon server is loaded onto an older PC which is also just wifi connected to the main network. I don’t stream any local music. I use Qobuz for all of my music streaming and since the Wiim Pros are all Roon Ready I can group the Wiim Pros together and stream at the highest quality. When I want the entire house streaming, I use Airplay2 to group all of the Wiim’s together.
The key to this working well is the speed of the wifi network. My transmit speed on the network averages around 250-300 Mbps. The consistency of this speed allows for hiccup free Roon.
Naturally, if you can hard wire all of your end points as well as your Roon server you eliminate all kinds of variables but a wifi based Roon system is definitely possible and can work very well.
Yes with very careful design and understanding all the limitations you can achieve good results. Your thoughtful design of using mesh and backhaul with MOCA, which is generally great, sure helps. If your environment is sufficiently RF interference free and you have little spectrum competition from your neighbours WiFi networks this can work well.
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