I have my Eversolo T8 connected with ethernet, but just short of the streamer, I have an English Electric Ee1 network noise isolator, then a very short .5 meter high quality cat 6 cable into the streamer. The isolator makes a discernable, but not earth shattering, difference in the sound. I am going to try using the sfp input with an ethernet to fiber converter. Haven’t heard much feedback from anyone who has tried this so I don't know if it will make a difference, either positive or negative. It may be a waste of $100, but I've certainly wasted a lot more on this hobby in the past!!
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+1 on hardwiring. I am also using a (technically) custom Blue-Jeans cable from my modem/router to the opposite end of the room. It actually goes through the walls into the attic area so you're not looking at it in the room. It is an uninterrupted single cable running from the modem/router to an EtherRegen. The "optimized" output of the Regen goes to my Roon server and the optical output to my streamer. The other outputs go to other parts of the system. Then I ran another long cable to a standard TP-Link switch and the outputs of that feed items that only need ethernet for data and updates and so forth. There are a few folks here that feel like having optical in your path reduces musical immersion. I'm not going to tell anyone what sounds best in their own system but as for me, in my system, I cannot detect anything being lost when using optical (I tried it both ways). Some people don't have the option of using ethernet and this thread has shown that folks are getting very satisfactory performance from wifi setups. I am firmly in the camp of using ethernet whenever possible and wifi if not. I will say this in support of wifi though. All but one of the TV's in my house get their signal exclusively through wifi and I get an absolutely fantastic picture on all of them. There's a lot more data involved in a video signal vs a purely audio one, so I think obvious conclusions can be drawn. |
+1 on the fiber media converter and a solid SFP module route. (A pair at each end unless your streamer has a fiber input module.) And, @larseand , if you want to try wired (which I found more reliable with TIDAL and Qobuz than WiFI in my systems), and if you need a long run, using good quality fiber optic cable (like this Corning Fiber) in whatever length you need, is cheaper and visually superior to Cat cable and eliminates risk of RFI and EMI. I use a variety of SFPs, but these Finisar Single Mode work very well and were recommended to be my other members here. (For my Ubiquiti switch chain, I found using Ubiquiti SFPs worked better.) You can experiment with fancy, “audiophile” fiber media converters, but I find these to work very well and the price is easy to swallow: FMC StarTech , with a simple power supply like this iFi Ipower on at least the FMC that is connected to your streamer. (Just make sure your fiber optic cable and the SFPs are compatible — either single mode or multimode; most FMCs can handle either.) If you live in an area prone to lightening or other power surges, this approach also has the advantage of isolating your streamer and other equipment from power surges that might come into your home via the copper coax and Ethernet cabling. |
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