Poll and chat: Fibre Media Converters (FMCs)

Does not matter for the distances in your house.

https://blog.leviton.com/understanding-distance-limits-multimode-fiber

 

I use fiber only for my Linn Klimax DSMs, which have SFP ports, and are connected to Cisco switches with the same. The Cisco switches made an audible difference over Netgear GS105s with Cat 6; moving to optical was just "why not" but I didn't hear a sound change.

 

Yeah

 

I was skeptical when @ColtMrFire mentioned them in a previous thread, but for less than $100 I figured I'd give them a try (I believe the same links @yotacowboy posted). I found a very, very noticeable positive improvement in my Pi2AES based system at work. I strongly suspect that its the power isolation that is improving things, since our office using POE to power security cameras, VOIP phones, etc... so I assume there is alot of extra "stuff" that can leak into devices.

I bought another setup for home (which is also POE to power ruckus wireless stuff), the difference at home was still positive, but not as noticeable. The system at home is a zen stream to a Walnut x.3 dac... so maybe the zen stream already filters the ethernet coming into it.

FWIW, I also put ifi power adapters on the clean side FMC boxes... All in all, I consider the FMC $$ well spent and probably the least cost tangible improvement I've made in my systems.

 

I have some extra SFPs kicking around, I'm going to replace the Cat6 running from my upstairs switch to my Pi2AES with fiber. Just grabbed a media converter and patch cable to try it out. From previous experience I know Rpis are quite sensitive to EMI/RFI, so I would not be surprised to hear an improvement. Will report back with my impressions.

 

Was wondering if @Michael Kelly ever considered including an SFP cage in a version of Mercury? Could be a competitive differentiator/advantage. Might be a too small market however to justify it. I assume it couldn’t be done with Pi2AES since it’s just a HAT.

Edit: Model name idea - “Hg - Fe” (aka Mercury - Fibre edition)

 

The pi handles Ethernet not the hat.

 

I got the fiber optic cable and converters setup. I can't comment on sound quality changes because I just switched to using my MIB Yggdrasil and am not used to the RED and I didn't listen to my system carefully right before switching over. But it sounds good right now. and looks very fancy!


Does anyone know a female to male DC barrel converter that would go from male Pi2AES Meanwell size to the barrel size that comes with the 10Gtek ethernet to fiber converters? I have 2 NoiseNukes laying around I might as well attach to them for full overdrive.

I'd need 2 that go in opposite directions

female Pi2AES mean well -> 10gteck
female 10gtek -> Pi2AES mean well

Might be fun

I have no other use for them right now

 

Would/could you speculate as to why the switch made more difference than the fiber? I suppose maybe your cabling was already good enough.

My Klimax DS/1 is a few feet from my Orbi - any upgrades I should contemplate there?

I'm a networking guy (software) so I can manage some level of details there. A.L.O.H.A., ftw

 

I can't speak for @earnmyturns, but because I'm not buying that there is any improvement to 1's & 0's based on cable, I'm going to hypothesize that the high quality cisco switch already solved the noise/isolation problem that some cheaper switches might have... so he saw little/no improvement from the fmc.

 

I'm using refurbished Cisco Catalyst 2960C-8TC-S (you can find them online at different prices from reasonable to extortionate). It was a recommendation from my Linn dealer who used to be a network engineer. The theory is that it has a less noisy power supply than the switcher that comes with the Netgear GS105. But since it has SFP as well, and my Linn units have it already, why not use that as well?

 

Is this the one?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3048420428...L8aAJKlNuKt75NBLORVzCelq9tMa|tkp:BFBMzLChzc1j

 

Yes. Note that it is a managed switch, so if it was configured weirdly and not reset, it might not work right. Mine worked out of the box, but they were refurb units that presumably were set to factory mode during refurb.

 

FWIW these videos measuring network “noise” has been making the rounds on other forums. tl;dr was both Ethernet isolator modules and many switches seemed to reduce “jitter and noise” in their measurements but OCXO/clock modded “audiophile” switches actually were worse, and fiber was a mixed bag:




Hard to know how much this makes sense/how stoopid it is to measure and draw conclusions from. These guys just seem to be dudes at a European audio magazine. Cool that they’re trying to investigate, though, versus most other coverage of “audiophile” network nervosa.

 

When we retire equipment we always erase them as a security precaution, but If for some reason you get a switch where the startup-config has not been erased and is password protected it is possible to do a recovery using this procedure;

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/suppo...950-series-switches/12040-pswdrec-2900xl.html

A switch with no configuration will function just like a basic non-managed device. If you want to use options like vlans, trunking, SNMP, etc. or the web interface it is necessary to do some initial configuration through the CLI.

 

I recommend a cisco branded SFP(plenty of used Active Optical ones on ebay too) or else it may not want to transmit without some technical procedures

 

It's very easy to be tempted by smart gadgets and fancy connectors, but I'm happy that the "F---k no" option was included.

And that I'm not the only one



If anyone wants to play Pro Net Engineer when setting up their home systems, I can understand that. I can even go for it in a small way. But not for any audio reasons. Basic ethernet is wonderful!

 

Yes, you will need to add "service unsupported-transceiver" to the config file to use non-Cisco branded SFPs on a Cisco switch.

 

This is something I really want to try out once I get my system issues sorted out. Not sure if I would go with a Pi2 or a Dante processor. Things would be super simple with a Pi2, but a lot of Dante processors are PoE powered and wouldn't work well with this tweak.

 

I put that one in just for you and @Pancakes