Dedicated NUC/Nucleaus vs shared PC (w Fiber Media Converter connected to Endpoint)

@truongv0ky The only optical conversion I've done post server included Sonore OpticalRendu which is optical streamer This replaced SOTM SMS 200 Neo ethernet streamer. Was it the streamer alone or combo of streamer and optical conversion that was responsible for improvement?  Presume mostly due to OpticalRendu as it has better clock than SOTM, lower noise floor of optical vs ethernet didn't hurt.

I did try optical conversion in front of server, prefer ethernet here.

Optical does provide 100% isolation, ethernet something less than total isolation. Issue is second fiber media converter injects it's own noise, cheap FMC have noisy power supply and pretty poor clocks. So, bottom line, implementation most important in optical vs ethernet solution.

In my recent experiment of running Qobuz through Roon via an old MacBook Pro and Aurender into the same DAC is as follows:

First Aurender was better, the I switched the Roon connection to a fiber conversion, now I cannot tell the difference.

Now selling the Aurender as I prefer the Roon interface 

I run my core on a dedicated NUC with ROCK installed.  I used to use another NUC as the endpoint.  I figured out that wasn't nearly good enough and now I have a streamer as an endpoint.

The guy who introduced me to Roon, out in the middle of the California desert, had his core way off in another room on another floor of his house.  the core hooks to the network, not the sound system so don't let a fan make noise in your listening room.

Jerry