Modem and router

LotusFool

Well-Known Member
I listen to my system every night while my wife usually sits in the chair next to me and surfs the web on her phone. Romantic eh?. She has gone away on a vacation to visit her son who is on a military base for a week. So last night as I was powering everything up and I noticed the lights from the modem and the router and thought I don't need these on until she returns, so I un-plugged them.

As I started hearing the music, I couldn't help but notice the system sounded way WAY better. As if I had up-graded to better IC's or put in a better tube in the MC225. The modem and router are on 24/7 and so I've never heard the system without them being on until last night. I do have a dedicated power line to the amp, but turning off the modem and router was a substantial improvement without any doubt.

I have learned so much in this hobby buy experimenting and trying different things to improve the sound. Some of the things I have learned from different sources are;
Keep the AC plugs clean and polished, with no tarnish
Keep florescent lights off.
Un-plug all phone chargers
And now I've added, turn off modems and routers.


I suppose I could spend a ton of money for a power conditioner, but I don't have the space or the money, so I'll just keep these things off. Try it and see for yourself.
 
I think it's valid.
all your other points are good too, IMO
 
I listen to my system every night while my wife usually sits in the chair next to me and surfs the web on her phone. Romantic, eh?
Ditto. Except my main system is in the living room and her phone-gaming spot is in a nearby bedroom. At least the two of you have the proximity thing down... :rolleyes:
 
I do have a dedicated power line to the amp, but turning off the modem and router was a substantial improvement without any doubt.
My guess is that there is some noise/grunge coming from the router and modem that is getting into the air or the power line. I have personally found that dimmer switches (especially older ones), when on, create all sorts of noise on the line. A power conditioner or noise harvester would clean up what's coming over the power line, but not knowing how much EMI/RFI the router/modem throw off themselves, it might be better to put those in a remote location. My modem and main router are located down in the basement. I have another router (used only as a switch and remote access point) located across the room but don't have any ill effect from it. I can't turn it off since I stream everything digital from the server in the basement, plus I have a conditioner on my system. It's temporary until I get a pro-level switch for the family/listening room and a pro WAP that I can locate in another room that will blast a clean signal throughout the entire house and yard. (The consumer-level stuff is not all that well made, although I will say that buying used Linksys/Cisco routers dirt cheap and stuffing DD-WRT on them has been a good solution for me for several years now.)
 
My guess is that there is some noise/grunge coming from the router and modem that is getting into the air or the power line.
Most surely there's noise introduced into the AC as they use switch mode power supplies. I use a linear to power mine.
 
You used tubes as an example. The few pieces of tube equipment I have (headphone amp, and cheapo pre/attenuator), pickup interference from wireless devices.
 
Most surely there's noise introduced into the AC as they use switch mode power supplies. I use a linear to power mine.
Not really related, but I do want to get a linear power supply for my phono stage. I'm not sure what this thing uses.
You used tubes as an example. The few pieces of tube equipment I have (headphone amp, and cheapo pre/attenuator), pickup interference from wireless devices.
Mine are dead silent but then again, for what they cost, they darn well had better be. :D I really don't have much wireless in the room near the system, though, and I feed the streaming audio via Ethernet.
 
Mine are dead silent but then again, for what they cost, they darn well had better be. :D I really don't have much wireless in the room near the system, though, and I feed the streaming audio via Ethernet.

You probably just don't notice it. Turn your tube amp all the way up with nothing playing. Connect your smartphone to wifi, bring it near the tubes, and start downloading something on your phone. You should hear some sort of low ticking noise.
 
I had a high pitched tinnitus kind of sound through my tube phono preamp. I started turning things off, unplugging them, including routers, modem, tv, ect. It wasn't constant, it came and went. It finally turned out to be my cell phone. When I turn it off the noise never happens. So i used a set of double shielded cables and that killed it with the cell phone on.
 
Years ago, working for a company that issued all of us Blackbury's, you could hear static from the desk phone speakers when the cell phones checked in with the cell towers. I think you are looking at RFI interfearance. You can check by fireing the modem back up to see if you get the interfearance, then turn off the Wi-Fi and check again. Do it before your wife returns. If there is a difference between Wi-Fi on and off then it for sure is RFI.

Shelly_D
 
An office I worked at was only a half mile from WJR's broadcasting antenna. We had phones up in the office, plus a phone back in the warehouse at the end of at least 100 ft. of wire. Needless to say, our whole office was able to pick up multiple radio stations any time we picked up the phone. :D We had noise filters installed at each phone to get rid of it.
 
Not really related, but I do want to get a linear power supply for my phono stage. I'm not sure what this thing uses.
Most likely, a wall wart. Which are noisy switch mode power supplies that pollute the AC. Also, I would definitely NOT use the same line for system and any computer devices.
 
Most likely, a wall wart. Which are noisy switch mode power supplies that pollute the AC.
Yes it's a wall wart. Just took a look and it is one of those multi-region power supplies that can work from 100v to 240v. I'm probably going to go another route with the phono stage so I'm not bothering with a power supply upgrade for it as of yet, unless I get an adjustable linear PS that has the option of changing the coaxial power connector on the end.
 
Great, if I turn off my modem I turn off my music. Now what do I do?

Move something. If the issue is RFI, you have the inverse square law working for you. Double the distance and the interference drops to on quarter, triple the distance, it's one ninth.

If it is noise on the line (I suspect not but I could be wrong) then you need to power the modem from a linear power supply. Not a very hard thing to do. You might have to build one but it is doable, it would probably be a transformer, 4 diodes, a capacitor or two and a linear voltage rectifier. We can help with the design if you like.

Shelly_D
 
If it is noise on the line (I suspect not but I could be wrong) then you need to power the modem from a linear power supply.
I use an HD-Plex linear to power both a Motorola modem and Cisco router. Each requires 12V which is easy to find.

While mine was a bit pricey, you can find them at Jameco quite inexpensively. A 1A model runs ten bucks.
 
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Thankfully my stuff is now on a different circuit, on another floor of the house. With that and the conditioner (which wasn't cheap), things are nice and clean in the system. :)

I'm also looking out for regulated linear power supplies for a couple of my components. They are simple enough to build, so I may end up rolling my own.
 
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