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Probably of limited interest to many but may help some .

bencat

bencat

Amplifier Destroyer par excellence
Right I listen to music via a server with a large hard drive with FLAC rips on . I have found that isolating the router and server has a positive effect on sound quality . Firstly I did this using a Cisco switch . Then I found using optical coverters to an SFP capable switch was even better . Recently I found out about DAC sfp cables which make the connection using copper wire . Tried a cheap set of this cable and this sounds even better than optical cable . You also get the advantage that being copper shorter lengths are better so tidied up the wire nest and the sound . Cheap generic ones are an improvement but for best sound I would suggest Amphenol sfp+ DAC cable more expensive but the best sounding this used SKEWCLEAR 2 wire which seems to make a difference .
 
of great interest, ditto killie99 and also which switch did you use, i have seen the SFP audio (optical) ones from LHY (jays Audio i believe) but not copper SFP ones
 
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Sorry never been able to post images on here no idea how I could get a drawing . Will list below the set ups which may help . Virgin Media Router - Ugreen Cat 6 cable - optical converter - DAC Sfp+ cable - D-Link Switch with SFP input - Ugreen Cat 6 cable to LIV Zen music server . That provides the network stream to various systems each with its own Ethernet cable connection .
 
bencat said:
Right I listen to music via a server with a large hard drive with FLAC rips on . I have found that isolating the router and server has a positive effect on sound quality . Firstly I did this using a Cisco switch . Then I found using optical coverters to an SFP capable switch was even better . Recently I found out about DAC sfp cables which make the connection using copper wire . Tried a cheap set of this cable and this sounds even better than optical cable . You also get the advantage that being copper shorter lengths are better so tidied up the wire nest and the sound . Cheap generic ones are an improvement but for best sound I would suggest Amphenol sfp+ DAC cable more expensive but the best sounding this used SKEWCLEAR 2 wire which seems to make a difference .
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Hi Andrew, this is very interesting. To try to help me understand what you are hearing before I jump down the rabbit hole myself, can you give some sort of indication of what you are hearing in terms of sound quality that makes you say these are giving an improvement? Thanks.
 
Hi Nick in my set up using these DAC cables I noticed a few things . First was an even more quiet background which given the advances I had made in this area I did not think could happen . Then the main aural advance was in sound stage as with reduced noise this seems to always improve . In this case it was a case of a wider and deeper image with a more defined acoustic In the recorded area . An example was some tracks on the Cassandra Wilson album Belly of the Sun which were recorded in the baggage car of a train and you could hear the shape and size of the car . Next was an extra feeling of real voices and real instruments in some cases the best I have heard in my system . If you want to try this out preservative few days as I have some Amphenol cables arriving and will then have two one metre cables spare which I would be happy to send you . If they work for you then you can look at replacing them with the better sounding Amphenol cables .
 
These are not extenders they are converters they take the Ethernet wired input then convert it and output a optical cable over SFP . The main advantage is that the input noise which can be on the earth of the wire input is broken as there is no earth connection with optical signals . So this gives a full galvanic break from signal in to signal out . What I noticed using this was a very marked reduction in background noise with a reduced noise floor when playing music . Having this lower house floor then allows you to hear things like image and sound stage much easier and make the sound more natural. Of course this is only on my system with my music and my ears but I have seen enough other listeners who reported the same to know it does work in some other systems and for other people . To be balanced there are also others who report that they could hear no difference so it is one I would report and encourage others to try for themselves but would not state it is a universal improvement .
 
bencat said:
Sorry never been able to post images on here no idea how I could get a drawing . Will list below the set ups which may help . Virgin Media Router - Ugreen Cat 6 cable - optical converter - DAC Sfp+ cable - D-Link Switch with SFP input - Ugreen Cat 6 cable to LIV Zen music server . That provides the network stream to various systems each with its own Ethernet cable connection .
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How does the DAC SFP connect to the optical convertor? If you could give the model number of the converter and the dlink switch I might understand this better, at the moment I can’t see how it all connects together using the DAC cables and using optical or does the converter take RJ45, covert it to optical, convert back to copper and then send the data to the SFP?
 
The DAC Sfp+ cable is fitted with SFP plugs and is a direct replacement for the optical cable with SFP but uses copper wire twisted pair instead of an optical cable . So you connect the router with RJ45 in to a standard FMC . You then plug the DAC Sfp+ cable (which in my case now is a passive cable) then that connects directly from the FMC in to the SFP input in my case the D-Link Switch but others it goes to players that accept SFP directly like Melco and Sondore Rendu .
 
Ah now things are a bit clearer thanks bencat, they would seem to be passive convertors, i have read somewhere else that the increase in sound quality going from active optical to passive copper is because there are no electronics involved, i suppose it's like all else audio, YMMV, an interesting topic though.
 
So ethernet to optical gives a "galvanic break", so exactly like an optical out from a digital source to a DAC then? This looks like another solution that already exists looking for a problem that isnt really a problem, aka 'new foo'.
 
lAmBoY said:
So ethernet to optical gives a "galvanic break", so exactly like an optical out from a digital source to a DAC then? This looks like another solution that already exists looking for a problem that isnt really a problem, aka 'new foo'.
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So you have tried this and it does not work for you ? Reading between the lines I would guess not and you have made your own mind up that this is not something worth doing which is great . I and others have tried it because it is cheap foo by its definition is often expensive and has audiophile versions which add cost without any better results . As per the title this is only of interest to those who have a set up that work with the cable so they already use FMC and SFP etc . Cost of a new set of cables in the DAC format is under £20 so not what I would call foo and you can stop there either if you hear no difference or if the improvement is good enough for you . I like and will report on nice cheap tweaks like this in a similar vein I have in the past advised other users to buy cheap uGreen Cat 6 cables as they sound superb and better than some audiophile cables at 100 times the price . This is my view others will not agree but I would never do the same for expensive items I own as I do not want to encourage others to take a chance on costly items which may not work for them .

In this case if those using a switch as a break which many do and that switch has an SFP input I would say that getting an FMC and cable will be less than £50 total . In fact I have also offered to lend either Cisco Optical cable or DAC SFP cable to try which means outlay is probably under £30 . Not my definition of foo . However if you use a swithc and have no input for SFP then this does not really apply for you as buying a new network switch with SFP is too much of an outlay just to see if it works for you . Hope this clarifies my view .
 
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