Bluesound Dropouts

[tmazz]

After playing my Bluesound Node over Wi-Fi for 2+ years without any dropout problems, they recently started to crop up a week or so ago. Two nights ago it got so bad that songs were playing for a minute or so and then muting for 15-20 seconds and starting up again and doing this over an over again top the point where it was simply unusable.

I looked at the Wi-Fi settings on my phoneoand saw that there were about six new Fios SSIDs listed that were never there before. It seems that with the new wider range Wi-Fi routers, my neighbors were starting to step on my signal.

So that forced me to get on with what I have been saying I was eventually gong to do since I got the Bluesound and I ran a hardwired ethernet connection to the Bluesound. It was only a half  hour job, but I had just been putting it off for "one of these days".

Well not that the CAT5 cable is in place the Bluesound has been running for about 8 hours without one single dropout.

It was well worth the effort and something I should have done long ago.

[Nick B]

It’s amazing how they things can operate so smoothly and then go to sh... in a short time. Hardwiring is a nice solution. I had lots of wireless trouble some months back, but everything has been working flawlessly. Switching from the 5.0 to the 2.4 band helped a lot

[Emil]

I know I've mentioned this before but I'm using these to "hardwire" my connection. No dropouts.
Sure, the idea of an audio signal traveling along an electrical line makes one cringe but it's worth a try. Return them if you hear any degradation in sound quality. I dont.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S6DBGIS/ref=sxbs_sxwds-stppvp_1?pf_rd_p=82218735-2b20-4c14-b8b7-9b4d6b044350&pd_rd_wg=rBDjR&pf_rd_r=EP0B02RRES6TEA2B7DWW&pd_rd_i=B00S6DBGIS&pd_rd_w=RYXmd&pd_rd_r=7dfc2cc2-d70e-46f6-b529-fb8ab6a51d29&ie=UTF8&qid=1548512851&sr=1

 

[tmazz]

It’s amazing how they things can operate so smoothly and then go to sh... in a short time. Hardwiring is a nice solution. I had lots of wireless trouble some months back, but everything has been working flawlessly. Switching from the 5.0 to the 2.4 band helped a lot

The 5 Ghz band has considerably less range than the 2.4 so depending on where the receiving unit is located with respect to the router is is not always a good option.

[tmazz]

I know I've mentioned this before but I'm using these to "hardwire" my connection. No dropouts.
Sure, the idea of an audio signal traveling along an electrical line makes one cringe but it's worth a try. Return them if you hear any degradation in sound quality. I dont.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S6DBGIS/ref=sxbs_sxwds-stppvp_1?pf_rd_p=82218735-2b20-4c14-b8b7-9b4d6b044350&pd_rd_wg=rBDjR&pf_rd_r=EP0B02RRES6TEA2B7DWW&pd_rd_i=B00S6DBGIS&pd_rd_w=RYXmd&pd_rd_r=7dfc2cc2-d70e-46f6-b529-fb8ab6a51d29&ie=UTF8&qid=1548512851&sr=1

 

Your right, from the point of view of the AC current that is traveling on the electrical wires the added data signal is essentially noise. And intellectually it seems to go against everything we try to do with power cables and conditioners to purposely inject noise into the incoming AC power.  But like everything else, the proof is in the listening and if your ears tell you that in your system it causes no degradation  then all the theory in the world really doesn't matter.

In my case I had very easy access to the area where the wire needed to run, so the simple solution worked for me. But if my router or the system were in different parts of the house just running a wire would not have been a practical option and this dives very well might way to go.

Of course, like a lot of other things in this hobby, what works in one house may not work in another, so just buy these things from a place that has a good return policy and give them a try. If they don't work for you then you can send them back for a refund. They are certainly easy enough to set up so it will not  be too hard to do a quick test.