Anyone Running Fiber to their Streamer or Network Bridge?

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by Formerly YB-2

While the fiber may add "little" in the way of noise to the transmission of data, one must add into the equation conversation devices added at either end of the fiber (analog/digital to light and then back to digital/analog). There is no way that this action can add not noise to the equation as these are simply another set of electronics and they are noisy at some level (unless you are running them at near absolute-zero, essentially freezing out the phonons, etc. - think only Ivan can afford this ). As far as providing a better SQ, only the end user (you) can decide. This is an interesting thread and will guess that at some point in the not-too-distant future high-end gear will offer the ability to use fiber-optic interconnects without the need for external conversion amps.

BTW - sent this thread to my digital engineering (Ph'D in math) friend who has worked in the communications industry for 30+ years. He is not deep into audio as we are. His primary comment was that it is not 'noiseless'. Do know that many of his calc's for the industry involve multi-dimensional math and packet theory (I think he said) in order to reduce error-bits, etc. Far above my pay-grade.

Hey YB,
Yes, I realize its not perfectly "noise-free". And of course, any electrical device at either end will add some level of noise, this is just a fact of "physics life". That's why I used my iFi iPower ultra-low noise LPS on the device near the steamer. In the end, I just wanted to see if the article published in 2016 by Michael Lavorgna using a fiber path in between Ethernet would result in a cleaner and quieter signal, and thereby, improved sound quality over using a straight run of ethernet from the EoP adapter. And, it very clearly did, the improvement on top of the significant improvement brought by the installation of the Shunyata Alpha USB was another clear step up in audio quality, along with a concomitant and notable reduction in noise.

Also, this is a very good solution for others that might need to use a long run of Ethernet between server and a streamer. Aftermarket, high-end Ethernet cables are expensive. For example, an 8M run of Audioquest Vodka Ethernet is 1400 smackers. I know that doesn't sound like a lot for some of the folks here, but hey, 1400 bucks is 1400 bucks. Instead of using an 8M run of expensive AQ Vodka ethernet, you can spend $50 on a two used FMCs and a $16 run of fiber, than a single, 0.5 M length of Vodka for ~$323.

Lastly, I'm not going to make a PhD thesis out this study. It was a simple little experiment, and, worked, and brought a notable improvement. I'll post my comparison comments later when I do some more listening, but this little tweak provided more of an improvement than I expected, so its all good.

So...I'm done, its better and it sounds REALLY GOOD. Cheers.

[wklie]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Lastly, I'm not going to make a PhD thesis out this study. It was a simple little experiment, and, worked, and brought a notable improvement. I'll post my comparison comments later when I do some more listening, but this little tweak provided more of an improvement than I expected, so its all good.

So...I'm done, its better and it sounds REALLY GOOD. Cheers.

Glad it turned out well for you. Theory aside, here's another subjective SQ comparison of Ethernet vs FMC vs nature fiber network:
https://6moons.com/audioreview_articles/lumin7/2/