Is optical mostly a waste of time versus Ethernet?
The only value I see with a fiber optical cable is if you have a long long run.
All the noise coming into an optical fiber is preserved and comes out the other side. I guess there is a value in not creating more noise while it is traveling through the optical cable. But if it's a short run of two Feet then is it really worth it. Seems a well shielded Ethernet cable would do just as fine without all the hassle of converting to optical which is a pain in the ass.
I always thought there was value with optical but it seems they're really may not be. Maybe I'm wrong. It seems a switch likely produces a lot of noise and inserting an audio grade switch is very prudent and going optical really doesn't solve switch noise problem. The benefit of re-clocking offered by a decent switch to clean up the signal is worthwhile.
@sbank Good post, one little nit, OpticalRendu requires optical cable input, thus, requires FMC, unless one's router, switch, server has optical output.
And yes, I believe highest quality lps a must to extract max potential from OR. Sonicorbiter OS very easy to navigate, easy to implement OR into streaming system. |
Router and/or switch with optical out could be contender, one issue could be lack of choices with optical. Some claim audiophile switches superior to generic, don't know of one with optical.
Don't know if I already mentioned in this thread, but thus far I prefer ethernet vs generic FMC going to server, optical post server best for me. |
Sns, you wrote about in one of your other posts about using a server with a incoming Port and an outgoing port versus the traditional Single ethernet cable that involves a 2 directional flow. I hope I’m getting that correctly. I’m trying to understand the flow of your optical versus Ethernet Signal path and all the streaming gear that you have. I also took a look at your system and found it a Little scary because i had trouble following all that’s going on. But focusing back on the traditional server set up using a single Ethernet Cable it does present an interesting question as to whether there is a better way to do this. The music data flows into a nucleus and then flows back to the switch and then to the streamer/dac. Not sure if I understand the originating flow of Sonic data as it finds its way into the streamer/dac. It would seem to be a very turbulent journey for all those packets before getting to the comfort offered by a streamer. |
Do you really need to run fiber from the router to the server or is an optical isolator (such as Gigafoilv4) just in front of the server sufficient to clean up any noise on the Ethernet cable? Is a transformer isolator (such as the NA ENO or Muon) just in front of the server sufficient for the same purpose? If your only wired connection out of the router is your audio system, why do you even need a switch and how can the switch possibly improve sound quality in that situation? It does seem that simplifying the digital signal path and removing converters and power supplies should in general reduce noise, unless there is something amiss with the digital signal delivery. |
