Is a 10 gigabits per second network adapter necessary to ensure glitch-free, uncompressed, multi-channel network audio streams?
ASKED BY · Paul Voll · AUSTIN, TEXAS · 09 SEP 2026 · ▶ 00:17:21
A single gigabit Ethernet can theoretically carry approximately 800 channels of 48 kHz 24-bit PCM audio, depending on protocol. 10 gig is rarely necessary for standalone workstations; bandwidth is usually not the first issue in audio-over-IP problems.
Summarised by AI from what the panel said. Watch the moment for the full answer.
From the transcript.
Machine-transcribed, so it may contain errors. Every timestamp opens the episode at that second.
17:13The nice thing about this one is it is up on GitHub. So if you have an idea where this is close to what you want, but it's missing one or two things, this is also an opportunity to see what you can do. If you tack on a couple extra things, if you fire up Codex or Claude Code and start to play around, maybe you can give them a little suggestion for how to make it even
17:39better next question this question comes in from paul valhousan austin texas uh is a 10 gigabits per second network adapter necessary to ensure glitch-free uncompressed multi-channel network audio streams well the how wide how wide the highway is uh doesn't always dictate if the car doesn't know which direction to go uh is my gut feeling on this but mickey will give us the
18:04the real technical answer. Yeah, I think at the end of the day, it depends on how many channels of PCM or AV over IP or audio over IP you need to transport. A single gigabit, one gigabit Ethernet connection would theoretically allow you to transport depending on the protocol that you're using. If you're at 48 kHz, 24-bit, and depending on the protocol that you're using,
18:33you can transfer roughly 800 channels of audio through a single gigabit connection. So if you have a use case that needs to go over that, then you might want to step up to 10 gig or higher. But in terms of a practical use case, I don't really see people requiring that of a standalone workstation. Perhaps if you are doing, say, a virtualization of a DSP, say, you know, with, you know, Tempest from SSL or Lavo Home from Lavo, you may want that.
19:15But there are more there are more industrial grade solutions than the a rando 10 gig Ethernet adapter that connects over. What's this USB? Right, and in general, when somebody's doing audio over IP, bandwidth is not the first thing they're running into when they have a problem. Simply making it, what I was getting at earlier, is simply making that pipe a lot bigger doesn't mean that you've configured your switch correctly.
19:44Now, the other question that I would have is, what else is running through that switch that you feel like you need that extra headroom? Are you managing a virtual network? Are there a bunch of other VLANs on there that also have it crowded? Are you running into an issue with your 1GIG switch or your 1GIG interface because something else is trying to go down that pipe?
20:06Those are the questions that I would start asking if you're thinking bandwidth might be the issue. Next question. This one is coming in from me, AVB versus Milan certified AVB. I hear that there are differences in some non-certified AVB interfaces could potentially have issues on networks with certified ones. Any experience there? And what about AVB switches? I've heard mixed things. Now, it was my understanding that the Milan AVB versus regular AVB, that it was kind of Milan was sort of a subset, so to speak.