GigaFOIL ethernet optical isolation

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Before finding "a or THE" solution, shouldn't it be important to correctly identify the problem(s).

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10 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

 

You are killing the Audiophool Dream

 

I spent the past few months looking at this area and meticulously experimenting with lots of devices (10) and cables (30+) and testing out the various assumptions that people seem to have and what is already established. Some things worked as expected, and results were in favour with the established knowledge. In other cases, I found why some people might even like some things are not good, especially in short-term listening. In some cases, my own results went against what most audiophiles think, but does agree with networking specialists.

 

It's good to systematically experiment and see if you are actually affecting the variable that you THINK you are affecting.

 

Noise is often discussed as a 'problem'...it's either noise that's coming IN, or noise going OUT, or noise already on the cable. You can make up logical experiments at home to test for this.

 

Other things like signal integrity and cable reflections becomes hard to experiment on like with noise above, aside from blind testing. You need measurements to really test these things.

 

After all this time, some things make sense, while others still don't. I know how things sound in my rig and what patterns emerged.

 

So when I see any devices or solutions being offered by manufacturers, I do question the merits and whether they are actually correctly tackling a problem, or are even aware of what the problem might be. I wonder if they might be actually making things worse or just making things different and just taking a shot in the dark.

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10 hours ago, davide256 said:

 

 

In the FWIW column I experienced that UPNP/DLNA play was sensitive to Ethernet cables whereas Roon with its RAAT protocol was not. YMMV

 

 

Interesting. I tried to use some of the UPNP/DLNA on Mac, but found it troublesome. I gave Minimserver and Linsky a shot, but it was problematic for me. Audirvana Plus worked better for me, but it wasn't perfect either. I didn't get much time with DLNA. On the other hand, Roon is a lot more stable. It just works so well. No hiccups.

 

I did find Roon in my setup with my endpoint to be sensitive to the cabling, power supplies, and/or routers vs. switch vs. bridged connections.

 

Although, I don't think the cables themselves are creating any problems, aside from any shielded cables that are grounded which is another issue. But as far as any double floating shielded cables or any Fluke tested and passed UTP cable from any manufacturer sounding different from another, I don't think it's the cable itself influencing the sound by picking up more noise or letting more noise out. Rather, I think the cable and it's electrical properties (impedance, return loss), while especially focusing on length, may be influencing the behaviour in the PHY (which may be sub par) in some of these devices. Varying the cable might result in a different or better sound as it can perhaps make it easier for the PHY.

 

I seriously think length should be more looked at among people who hear differences due to ethernet cables. Aside from a host of Fluke tested Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a S/STP from many manufacturers, I had a lot of Belden bonded cables that were terminated and tested by Belden. These cables remain very uniform throughout it's length. I had the Belden at varying lengths, and I had multiple versions at each length. This way it could eliminate possibility that there was some fault within one cable vs. the rest. The results with the Belden matched the results from the non Belden as well. I had lengths as short as 1 feet and lengths as long as 60 feet.

 

Based on my own experience, I am not surprised that some people may hear difference between cables, especially at short lengths with particular networking components.