If you stream music from the internet, I can't recommend this more highly


I had been using a Roon Nucleus to stream Qobuz, with my Chord Qutest directly connected to the Nucleus. I thought I was getting pretty decent sound quality. And then I got a marketing email from Small Green Computer touting some of their optical gear. The basic idea is that normal cables and connections used to stream from the internet pick up noise of one kind or another (radio frequencies and electromagnetic something or other). But fiber optic cables and their connections/interfaces do not. I don’t know anything about anything, but it made theoretical sense to me, it wasn’t a huge amount of money ($1,400), and with a 30 day return policy I figured I could always return it if I didn’t hear any improvement. Well, I didn’t just hear a slight improvement; it was like turning on the lights in a dark room. Much greater clarity and detail, much better micro and macro dynamics, better timbre to acoustic instruments -- overall just more lifelike. Two quick examples: I’ve listened to some of Steely Dan’s top songs 100s of times over the course of my life, and this is the first time I’d ever noticed a particular and very subtle sound characteristic of Fagen’s keyboard in Babylon Sister. It’s hard to describe, but it’s like there’s a slight sound of air being exhaled by it. The other example: the specific timbre of whatever percussive instrument is used at the beginning of Copeland’s "Fanfare for the Common Man" (a recording by the Minnesota Orchestra). There’s more of a metallic sound than a drum skin sound to it that I didn’t know was there before. The metallic sound starts in the center and then projects out and to the sides, like a wave washing over you. Anyway, I’m just thrilled about having stumbled upon the whole "optical" thing and felt obligated to let others know about it. If you stream music over the internet, I highly recommend giving it a try. (The product I got was the opticalRendu, with the linear power supply option, and the Fiber Ethernet Converter Bundle option.)
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Very nice to see that SMC and SONORE (which has the systemOptique technology) is getting some good feedback. 

I reviewed the SMG sonicTransporter and SONORE Signature Rendu SE for Dagogo.com, and did a follow up article on the systemOptique ethernet to optical converter. It was a remarkable change holistically, and I have been most pleased with continued use of it. 

FYI, this was the only time I recall in 30+ years of being a hobbyist, then reviewing, where the addition of a device and set of cables (optical) resulted in the perception of the system becoming significantly better in terms of lower noise and higher resolution. To me, that is a remarkable result and validated the conversion from ethernet to optical link.   :)
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Hi Doug.  It was your review and our conversations that convinced me to go with the Sonore Signature Rendu SE and an i7 server from Small Green Computer, which was a HUGE step up from my MacBook Pro.  The optical upgrade yielded another definite improvement.  Eventually, after a massive planned upgrade of my system, We'll have a shootout with the Taiko Extreme.
Buy a Jcat  Ethernet card ,it is great ,thus card has Femto clocks ,excellent isolation and high quality regulators ,hooks 5 watt linear power supply ,even better still.
Doug, thanks for your comment. I looked up your reviews and they confirm my own thinking about this technology. I don’t think people in this hobby fully understand the significance of it yet. There are people who can go down very expensive and time-consuming rabbit holes trying to improve the sound quality of the source/signal. Tens of thousands of dollars for high-end turntables, styluses, real-to-reel tape decks, servers, audiophile ethernet cables, switches, etc., etc. I for one was considering starving myself for a year to save up $30k to buy the Taiko Extreme music server, before I stumbled on this whole optical thing. There’s no way I would ever put more than a couple of grand into a server now, because the optical technology makes the server so much less important. I’d really like to spread the word to spare people like me all of those costly rabbit holes.