SFP/FMC/Optical cable - The only important ethernet cable?

[kennyb123]

As you stated the Startech was very hard edged and not enjoye, but to another it maybe just their cup of tea.

Unless one compares it to something better, one cannot possibly know how much harm it’s doing. Logic also dictates that an item purposefully built to delight audiophiles should outperform one designed by engineers who never sought to delight audiophiles.

The OM is actually a simple device. It differs from commercial products in that there is additional circuitry that aims to reduce noise. I think I recall Swenson mentioning use of carefully selected regulators to achieve that. We are fortunate to have this product available to us.

I know I will never find perfection however I am willing to subject myself to that elusive search. Just right now I am content, this may change in week, a month or a year. That is why I am here searching for knowledge and what is working for some.

Amen to that.

 

[wackerd]

There is simply no mechanism by which noise can be transferred over an optical cable.

Noise is transferred over electrical connections and no such connection exists using optical. Fiber will kill any noise being transmitted with the data which contains the digitised music.

If this this the case, than the only important ethernet cable would be from FMC to DAC/Streamer - the rest can be "simple" CAT6 U/UTP (see below illustration).

What are you thoughts about that?

Torben

View attachment 113154

Great post. I also bought some basic equipment (70 Euros) to use a new fiber optic connection from my router directly to the streamer. So I have almost the same structure as you. Coming from a Fritzbox via an Ethernet cable, then using two media converters and going into the streamer via an Ethernet cable.

Power is supplied via a Ferrum Hypsos device. I wonder what Telegaertner and others do differently when they offer very expensive opto isolators. Must ultimately be the same technology. It's also not clear to me if reclocking is necessary when using a switch like Telegaertner or SOtM. My optical setup does not have a reclocker. Finally, the music streamer and/or DAC clocks the bitstream. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[wackerd]

When I compared my low cost (70 Euros) fiber isolation between router and streamer with the same music record taken from the SSD inside the streamer I could not find any difference in sound between both. I conclude that any noise coming from ethernet disappeared totally. But I ask why is a Telegaertner opto isolation (2700 Euros) or others so expensive? What are they doing in addition for soundquality, or is it just marketing and typical high price high-end? Any ideas?