The indisputable benefit of fiber for music


I've read a lot about fiber's audible superiority to Ethernet, and most of it I have taken with a grain of salt.  1GigE is plenty fast for just about anything, and it is balanced and galvanically isolated. The one area where fiber is clearly a better choice for music systems is lightning protection.

It is not uncommon for lightning to enter a home via the cable TV's coaxial cable. This can easily jump the millimeters from coax to Ethernet to Ethernet. So if you are like me, and rely on Ethernet cabling to stream to avoid any Wifi issues you are also creating a possible lightning path from the external Internet provider's connection all the way to your fancy audio gear.

In this one situation I have to say, the use of a 1m or longer fiber cable is the superior solution. I'm considering using this at the junction between the cable TV modem and my router, therefore isolating all of my streaming devices at once.

Best,

Erik
erik_squires

Showing 1 response by grannyring

I have tried optical and gone down the Uptone EtherRegen route. Not a bad solution and definitely improved sound quality. However with the introduction of the Network Acoustics ENO filter and silver ethernet cable I found the best sounding streaming solution these ears have ever heard. I placed an English Audio 8Switch ahead of the ENO filter and Ethernet cable and the results are a revelation.

Innovation is changing this space pretty quickly folks.