Wifi VS Ethernet for streaming quality

[Timcognito]

I did flood wire my house with CAT5e when I moved in almost 20 years ago, so this decision is easier for me than most others.

Me too and whole closet full of unused coax cable running everywhere in the house and separate garage/shop.

 

[Mnyb]

Sometimes it’s not the network but the devices themselves, the wifi in some my old squeezeboxes are a bit meh ? And it suits my temper as an engineer to use a simple wire if the freaking things sits still

 

[kyuu]

Sometimes it’s not the network but the devices themselves, the wifi in some my old squeezeboxes are a bit meh ? And it suits my temper as an engineer to use a simple wire if the freaking things sits still

Yes, particularly in ye olden days the wi-fi implementation was often pretty poor in end devices. That seems to be less of an issue these days, but it still does come up. For example, the wi-fi in my TV that's only about 3 years old just stopped working. Not particularly broken up about it, it was only connected to the network for my wife's convenience.

 

[GD Fan]

Yes, particularly in ye olden days the wi-fi implementation was often pretty poor in end devices. That seems to be less of an issue these days, but it still does come up. For example, the wi-fi in my TV that's only about 3 years old just stopped working. Not particularly broken up about it, it was only connected to the network for my wife's convenience.

I recently replaced my TV because of wifi connection issues that were getting worse. I think it was from 2018, maybe '19. New Samsung at a fraction of the old one's price works like a charm!

 

[EJ3]

I was referring to Ethernet cables I definitely ruined other cables during my creative lifetime so far

I find it interesting when they are not the CAT category that is marked on them and you then have to make the run again with a correctly classified one!

 

[john61ct]

Trustworthy sourcing required. Monoprice and Home Depot for me

 

[EJ3]

Trustworthy sourcing required. Monoprice and Home Depot for me

I discovered that not all CAT's are what they say they are while I was overseas (2001-2018)

 

[kyuu]

Those CATs can be tricksy.

 

[Digital_Thor]

Just retested. Cable has a ping of 2 and around 4-5 in latency when testing my 500Mbps.
Wireless has around 450-480Mbps in most of my apartment, with a ping of 7 and latency of 17 in download and around 50 in upload.
So I definitely feel some nice "snappiness" with the cabled PC.
I admit that my old router still works quite well too

 

[middlemarch]

I can't believe this has already gone 89 posts

 

[GS430man]

In my house:
Stationary = wired Ethernet
Mobile = wireless Ethernet

But, we could pull wired infrastructure where we wanted it.

If I was a renter, or lived in a home without Ethernet wiring infrastructure, I would probably use wireless for stationary items simply for the pure convenience and lowest cost.

 

[Chrispy]

Yesterday, I put to the test, a long standing assertion in audiophile realms: ethernet is better than Wifi. I have seen countless threads on ethernet cables and switches. I have gone down this rabbit hole myself. Common audiophile wisdom is that a physical ethernet connection provides better sound quality than Wifi. Yeah right…

I disconnected my switch last night and went Hifi. I am getting 700 mbps download speeds through Wifi. More than enough for hi res music and 4K HDR streaming.

I perceive no quality differences when listening to music, as well as watching 4K HDR movies.

I no longer have the clutter of an ethernet switch and cables. Another Hifi myth down the toilet!

I tend to put this with most "audiophile" claims, i.e. nonsense.

I've had a variety of setups, and often simply rely on wifi as mostly a hardwire connection is a pain. I've not found any deficiency generally with the wifi setup, even when I lose internet for the network, the local wifi for things as simple as audio or even video aren't that big a deal IME.

 

[john61ct]

In my house:
Stationary = wired Ethernet
Mobile = wireless Ethernet

So confused, the latter is simply not a thing. "Ethernet" or IEEE 802.3 is by definition a wired standard

You likely meant Wi-Fi, IEEE 802.11