2. amps-preamps
  3. 178965-155632

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.

jumia
jumia OP
528 posts
 

Lots of talk about packet loss which doesn’t sound good. How many packets are we talking about versus the actual volume of packets that arrive every second.

 

theaudiomaniac
87 posts
 

If using Roon none. If using and of the streaming services which are all TCP based with buffering and retry, none. If using something locally like HEOS, DLNA, etc. not sure all would need to be evaluated (on paper). I remember not long ago seeing a test with JRiver (not sure what protocol) and there were lost packets. That’s not a JRiver issue, just what protocol was used for that connection. In my local network, I have done tests wired and lost no packets over 30+ minutes. WiFi you lose packets but I don’t think anyone would use a protocol with WiFi that loses packets.

donnylovely
105 posts
 

Optical greatly increased the SQ in my system.  Use two Cisco 2960's or Marika 220s cascaded by fiber w/ startech.com sfp's. You can add a shunt and lc filter to the power supply for even further improvements. 

yyzsantabarbara
4,912 posts
 

Read the following on PACKET LOSS, Which can happen even on TCP streaming, contrary to the EXPERT opinion on this thread. This can happen when congestion of the network occurs. Which I said I can demonstrate 100% of the time with a low bandwidth setup of ROON Core.

 

 

John Swenson is someone who is an actual streaming audio expert and no one so far on this thread has shown they are an audio streaming EXPERT.

Great thing about Swenson ideas is that it is not very expensive to implement. If you have functioning ears and a decent setup you should easily hear the improvements from Swenson's setup for under $2K.

I personally have not got any expensive networking gear in my streaming chain. 

 

theaudiomaniac
87 posts
 

Reading something and understanding what it means in application are not the same. TCP ensures all packets are delivered including the logic to resend if lost.

 

 

Network transport protocols such as TCP provide endpoints with an easy way to ensure reliable delivery of packets so that individual applications don't need to implement the logic for this themselves. In the event of packet loss, the receiver asks for retransmission or the sender automatically resends any segments that have not been acknowledged.[3]: 242  Although TCP can recover from packet loss, retransmitting missing packets reduces the throughput of the connection as receivers wait for retransmissions and additional bandwidth is consumed by them.

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