As @vicweast says, fiber is inexpensive and noise-free, it’s also slim and easy to route. However, the back conversion from optical to electrical (in the SFP transceiver) generates its own noise, so it’s not exactly ideal to do this inside the streamer. A lot of people who have a streamer with SFP port find they prefer the sound when they do this conversion outside the streamer ina separate FMC and have a short (ideally 2ft/0.5m) run of unshielded cable like Cat 6 to the RJ45 port on the same streamer. It doesn’t cost a fortune to buy a separate FMC and try this.
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The literature and other content on this topic is probably in its infancy. The basic problem is that few audiophiles actually understand the network layer and the electrical properties of the media and the analog transmission of digital bits. Surely we all grasp that what is being transmitted are "1"s and "0"s, but it the "HOW" that is the key when it comes to minimizing or eliminating co-transmitted analog noise with that digital content. Good luck getting a coherent and through understanding of that. First, the network guys (unless they are national security) don't care as long as the connection passes testing/verification. The data is good, the error rate is low, the retransmits are low, ...All is good they would say. But we are audio guys and we are hardly ever electrical engineers who understand the analog noise co-transmitted with the digital content. And who does? As I said, probably in the early days of understanding the limits of removing that analog noise... The last leg conversion to fiber demonstrably improves the situation remarkably -- but does it get everything? DO these devices themselves need "innovation"? I think yes...
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Repost with edits: @vicweast You’re usually right on the point that most network guys don’t understand analog noise. And, I believe, that in most cases, many audio guys who work with studios don't understand networks and network noise. I, on the other hand, am an audio guy who is also a network guy, like yourself. Honestly, I’ve never really analyzed analog noise from an SFP. I think it’s because we simply buy what we need (mm, LC, SC, etc.) and go with it. There’s just too many suppliers providing SFPs in almost any price range. Also, where do you find the equipment or the published processes to do this? I think that we’d have to start with popping open SFPs and spec’ing the various optical converters. And even if you do build a list of the various chips, and find those that truly give you low analog noise from the DAC, there’s no way to create a master listing of what SFP uses what chip that’d be consistent. Also, I’m sure, the problem would also be exacerbated by the SFP receptacles and supporting circuitry. So we simply punt. On the flip side, isn’t analog noise transmitted digitally something that’s encoded at the transmitting end? |
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