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.)
128x128hiphiphan

atmfrank0110 posts
02-15-2021 3:02pm
FYI, a well-respected member of the audiophile community...
More like a "well-known hater of the audiophile community"
I don't disagree with that, but that's another blanket statement. There is no one else who does what he does: independent testing and objective conclusions (mixed with bias). I use the information for what it is, one of many criteria when selecting new gear. 
Amir may have bias, but the data does not lie. People like to convince themselves of their personal hearing superiority, so they will ignore the data, but that does not make it untrue. This isn't the 70's where all we look at it is a single frequency THD value.
This isn’t the 70’s where all we look at it is a single frequency THD value.
How true that is. I grew up with DIN 45500, the HiFi standard. THD of 0.1% and 40-16,000 Hz was phenomenal performance.

We (in W-Germany) also had relatively unbiased consumer report publications. It was completely acceptable and common to disqualify certain products of questionable design.

What happened to the mindset or making informed decisions? 
Being a retired telecommunications digital switch design engineer and Navy electronic technician I find all of this quite funny especially if you are streaming off of the internet.  Twisted pair has its draw backs as do coax and fiber.
What counts is the quality of the source in generating a true square wave, the transmission lines ability to keep that wave form intact and the ability of the receiver to decode that signal.

Do you truly want to hear and see a difference.  GPS satellites have stratum 1 clocks.  We use these in remote situations to clock telecommunications equipment for a reason.  We have IP the inferior transmission method for a reason which I won't go into.  We implemented ATM in 6 switches in the network only to have to pull them out because a bigger authority decided Ethernet was the way the country would go.

https://www.philips.com/a-w/research/technologies/cd/beginning.html