Cheapest way to enhance SQ with digital streaming

Just installed this inexpensive solution and frankly, I was not expecting much if any benefit. Well, I was wrong. In my system, the impact was signfiicant in its dynamics, soundstage and detail right out of the gate. Last night I made a point of listening to the system and putting some tracks aside for an inevitable comparison.

As it turns out, wasn’t even necessary. For my tube monoblocks system, the impact is outstanding. I won’t belabor folks with lengthy dissertations on the sound improvements because you can discover it for yourself (or not).

My system is 65-watt monoblock amps, the RME ADI-2, McIntosh LS340 speakers, and a 2011 Mac Mini running Audirvana Studio.

Used the basic recipe as stated here with 2 one-foot ethernet cat 8 cables from a Motorola dual wifi router. It’s a stunning impact here folks in what was (as I thought) an excellent sounding system. I’d have a tough time indicating how much but it’s probably on tier with a major component upgrade. It certainly spared me more internal debate about getting a streamer as this has definitely hit the fiber spot here. Hard.

Thank you @romney80! Thank you very much.

You’re completely on target here. If someone already has an audio grade ethernet switch theoretically addressing noise, can't speak to that. Have been trying to get my head around this simple fiber optic cable change and it’s the biggest audio "upgrade" I’ve experienced. My mono blocks likely played a role here but I’ve been in this hobby for some time. Had the original Sony SACD player (what a tank) and I had that upgraded not once but twice. That was very nice and doubled the cost of the unit but this is simply astounding improvement for under $100.

Understand some folks are looking at linear power supplies and I’m not sure I’ll dive in on that for the moment. Have a Richard Gray and the generic switches are getting powered through that. I do use a battery powered device for the RME ADI-2 DAC and that produced a very nice improvement. So, I’ve had to get up to speed on this whole end of things from the streaming perspective. Eye opening.

Just read a July 2020 Absolute Sound article and there is reference to further improvements using audio switches replacing the generic FMCs with Sonore’s OpticalModule and higher-quality power supplies. That’s a significantly larger investment and can’t touch this bang for the buck. It will for the moment remain an open question. So thanks again for sharing this.

Just an update from February with this inexpensive approach. I had been looking around and examining 5v linear power supplies. Finally pulled the trigger on a unit by Solupeak.

So of the two media converters with the fiber connectors, I have one on the "dirty side" as they call it. Result?

Astounding, simply astounding. I was hoping to see a little improvement but once again, it just made me regret not doing it sooner. 

Again, my system is unique but consists of 65w tube monoblocks, RME ADI-2 DAC, McIntosh LS340 speakers, using a 2011 Mac Mini running Audirvana's Studio software. 

The depth of the sound, the separation and black space all take another major leap. I'll add that my setup is especially sensitive to changes, even a small tube can offer some nice change/improvement. 

Also running a LPS on the RME DAC. That was very nice but this is more than I could have imagined. It's going to be a spell digesting this one. 

Thanks again to @sns  and @romney80 as this is a superlative low investment for big bang results. Thanks to everyone else who also shared their experience. 

Early this year, I installed this inexpensive fiber solution into my tube monoblocks = system to great effect. Only recently did I finally add an LPS. I've reported on that positive impact here on only one fiber media device. A significant improvement that made me wish I had done so sooner. 

Now, I've closed out the loop with LPS flowing into both media converter boxes and didn't expect much as this was not the "dirty" side. 

Wrong yet again. Another significant bump in performance with a more profound background, great separation, and a tonally rich depth I did not know was possible.

My tube monoblocks are quite sensitive to any change but this is such a nice surprise once again. Here is the LPS I'm using to power both FMC boxes:
 

That's the model rebadged LPS by many others. @tksteingraber did you get the one for a little more with the Talema power supply? 

Second day running this LPS unit for both FMCs and it's easily produced the best I've heard out of my system. I thought the FMCs by themselves were a noticeable jump but the LPS is really significant and wouldn't want to be without it.  

Yes, I looked up the Talema data sheet, and their transformers for this size, 25W and up look different. Among those resellers, I see the same transformer with the only difference I can find is the color. Otherwise, they look exactly alike. 

Still marveling at the improvement in my tube monoblocks system with the additionof the LPS into the second FMC. Once again, I did not expect that.