My room is quite a distance away from the router. How would I overcome this? Should I get a powerline adapter, then plug in an audiophile switch? Would the adapter introduce noise into the AC line?
In order to answer your question, Tommy, we need to know your system components and how it is currently configured. For example, what are the components in the main rack where you listen and how do you get content from the source (e.g. a Roon Core, music server, etc) to the DAC and amplification componentry? How does your DAC connect to the "content" server? Via USB from a network bridge (a network bridge is just that, a "bridge" between your network and the DAC)? Also, when you say "quite a distance away", what is that distance, exactly?
As as example, my first streaming setup was comprised of a Sonore microRendu, which is a "network bridge". Content from my "music server" in the spare bedroom's Mac Mini was sent via WiFi to an Apple Airport Express near the main rack. From this Airport Express, I connected to the microRendu via an Ethernet cable at one end, and a USB cable from the other end of the microRendu to the USB input on my Gungnir DAC. The Sonore microRendu made for a
significant improvement in audio quality compared to connecting a laptop or mini-computer directly to the DAC via a USB cable. Nowadays, there are lots of ways to do this, and I can safely say many folks have found that the best audio quality is obtained when connected
directly from the "music server" computer or NAS (wherever it is located) to the network bridge or streamer via Ethernet cable or optical fiber (NOT TOSLINK), as Mike has alluded to, and not via Wi-Fi.
If you don't have Ethernet switches that support fiber (which has a number of advantages over copper Ethernet) to connect from the "upstream" switch to the "downstream" switch, then you're going to need a long run of Ethernet cable from the "remote server" (that connects to the Roon Core or NAS) to the main rack, as shown.
This will work, but be very mindful that copper Ethernet can pass low-source and high-source impedance leakage current, which has a notable and
audible effect on audio quality. This is why guys are finding that a run of optical fiber is
really helpful, because the optical fiber can't pass leakage current (the signal is encoded and transmitted as light pulses, thus
no leakage current) between the upstream music server and the downstream network bridge or streamer, and DAC.
Shown here is one way to use a run of fiber with "generic" fiber media convertors (FMCs). Bear in mind that these generic FMCs all use cheap-*ss SMPS (switch-mode power supplies), which should be replaced with Jameco Reliapro wall-wart style linear power supplies (which cost about $12/each) because the cheap-*ss SMPS put all sorts of nasty leakage current into the switches, and the problem that leakage current creates is
threshold jitter, the impact of which is quite audible. These generic FMCs also use crap clocks, which contribute
phase noise, the impact of which is also quite audible.
Alternatively, if you have an EtherREGEN or SOtM s-NH-10G, each of which have SFP cages for use with optical transceivers, you can put the switch with fiber input 'downstream" near the main rack, as shown here. In this configuration, an audio grade FMC, the Sonore OpticalModule is used upstream, and the SFP cage (for the optical connection) of EtherREGEN is used "downstream", near the main audio rack. The Etheregen then connects to a network bridge, which serves to convert an Ethernet input to a USB output. EtherREGEN and the SOtM switches also utilize much better clocks than the sh*t clocks used in el-cheapo generic switches.
I've found this last set-up to provide both the best audio qualiity AND reliability of consistently being able to make a connection from the music server to the DAC. Also, bear in mind that the EtherREGEN has been discontinued, so if you want an audio-quality Ethernet switch that also supports connection via optical fiber, you'll need to get a SOtM s-NH-10G. Moroever, the original Sonore OpticalModule has also been discontinued, and replaced with the higher-specification OpticalModule Deluxe. Both the SOtM switch and the OM Deluxe will also require clean, quiet, linear power supplies.
Lastly, different optical transceivers sound different, as well. Lots of guys like the Finisar optical transceivers for making these optical connections.
