When should I disable 802.3az EEE Energy Efficient Ethernet?

The 802.3az standard does reduce the power consumed by a port, but it also introduces a small additional delay when a port “wakes up” and starts to transmit packets.  It can be said that EEE is incompatible with real time applications, such as audio or video streaming, which can lead to degraded clock synchronization and audio interruption. It is therefore recommended that when transporting time critical data, that EEE is disabled.