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
bananas oatmeal in the morning, a salad at lunch, and a granola bar every afternoon does it for me
Sorry, let me clarify. 

I want to use it between my cable modem and my router/switch.  This should give me a 1m gap in case of a surge.

Of course, if I used it right before my streamer, I'd protect the streamer and audio gear as well, but not save my router, the 2 PC's, 2 televisions, or anything else.
ozzy 
Thanks. Learn something here everyday.
I see that the primary purpose of fiber is to extend data transmidsion. Hard to believe that double conversion could improve 1/2 meter.
This one looks interesting also:

https://www.l-com.com/ethernet-converters-l-com-ethernet-media-converter-10-100tx-to-100fx-sm-sc-25k...

I see that the primary purpose of fiber is to extend data transmidsion.

Yep.

Hard to believe that double conversion could improve 1/2 meter.

That's what I'm thinking, unless there's something about the noise Ethernet picks up making the jump across the balanced and isolated receivers.
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