If you stream music from the internet, I can't recommend this more highly


I had been using a Roon Nucleus to stream Qobuz, with my Chord Qutest directly connected to the Nucleus. I thought I was getting pretty decent sound quality. And then I got a marketing email from Small Green Computer touting some of their optical gear. The basic idea is that normal cables and connections used to stream from the internet pick up noise of one kind or another (radio frequencies and electromagnetic something or other). But fiber optic cables and their connections/interfaces do not. I don’t know anything about anything, but it made theoretical sense to me, it wasn’t a huge amount of money ($1,400), and with a 30 day return policy I figured I could always return it if I didn’t hear any improvement. Well, I didn’t just hear a slight improvement; it was like turning on the lights in a dark room. Much greater clarity and detail, much better micro and macro dynamics, better timbre to acoustic instruments -- overall just more lifelike. Two quick examples: I’ve listened to some of Steely Dan’s top songs 100s of times over the course of my life, and this is the first time I’d ever noticed a particular and very subtle sound characteristic of Fagen’s keyboard in Babylon Sister. It’s hard to describe, but it’s like there’s a slight sound of air being exhaled by it. The other example: the specific timbre of whatever percussive instrument is used at the beginning of Copeland’s "Fanfare for the Common Man" (a recording by the Minnesota Orchestra). There’s more of a metallic sound than a drum skin sound to it that I didn’t know was there before. The metallic sound starts in the center and then projects out and to the sides, like a wave washing over you. Anyway, I’m just thrilled about having stumbled upon the whole "optical" thing and felt obligated to let others know about it. If you stream music over the internet, I highly recommend giving it a try. (The product I got was the opticalRendu, with the linear power supply option, and the Fiber Ethernet Converter Bundle option.)
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When I added the optical gear, it dramatically improved the sound. The difference is not subtle. I can hear your rebuttal already: it's all in my head, it's confirmation bias, etc.

It's not in your head! Many of our customers have an experiences like this. Also many product reviewers.

DACs have filters that can filter out noise from the USB bus or Ethernet input but they can't filter ALL the noise. If you reduce the noise coming into them you get better sound.

Several people in this thread asked if you can just use cheap $50 fiber converters to "clean up" the sound on existing network players or a DAC with a built in network streamer. You can! And it does improve the sound. The problem is these have many noisy switching power regulators in them and it adds noise back into the ethernet cable on the "clean" end of the fiber.

If you used a cheap ethernet to fiber converter or switch with an SFP on the "dirty" end of the fiber (network side) and an opticalModule on the "clean" (network player side) end you get very good results.

Of coerce the best option is to do what the OP did and use a network streamer with a fiber Ethernet input (like the opticalRendu). That way you don't have to convert back to wired Ethernet before you go into the other player.


Just went with SMG i5 and opticalrendu package.  Andrew is easy to work with and very responsive to inquiries.  I'm simply waiting on the opticalrendu package to arrive so I can fire this whole thing up.
volumizer: yeah, someone mentioned that already. I replied above. I have no association with SGC whatsoever. I’m just very happy with my purchase and they happened to be the first place I stumbled across the optical thing. Someone above said that SOtM has some good products that work similarly, so I would encourage people to check that out -- or any other company that has similar optical gear.
@agillis, to enjoy the benefits of fiber optic isolation, it looks like you need both an opticalModule and fiber ethernet converter. But in some of the other threads I've read about your product (Roon community), people suggest using two opticalModules. Can you explain which configuration is correct and why anyone would need two opticalModules? Thanks.


In my testing here using an opticalModule on both ends didn't make much of a difference. Using on the "clean" end of the fiber gave a noticeable improvement in sound.

But the Roon community members are not the only ones who heard a difference with an opticalModule on the "dirty" end.  Hans Beekhuyzen a youtube reviewer also says his opticalRendu sounds best with an opticalModule on the "dirty" end. You can watch his video here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0A0l6keKTg

I have noticed that any time you eliminate switching power supplies from the area around your audio system the sound can improve. That may be what is happening here.

Count me in as another happy OpticalRendu owner. I’m using a pair of very high efficient horns which magnify every bit of noise in the system. Using optical ethernet definitely brought a level of blackness to the background that I didn’t have before