Optimal fiber optical cable length?

[Mike Rubin]

This might be a dumb question, but that never stopped me before....  

 

I previously used a 6 meter fiber optical cable to connect two FMC's.  One was located near the wall and the other was located in my equipment cabinet along an adjacent wall, so I needed the long run.

 

I recently both had ethernet ports installed behind my cabinet and ordered an optical upgrade from Sonore.  The simplest connection method now would be to run an ethernet cable into an FMC that will sit right next to where the optical rendu will be. 

 

I easily could get by with a half meter or shorter optical cable, so I don't need a cable that is as long as what I now have.  On the other hand, I could coil that cable and tie up the coil so that the cable spans the short distance between FMC and streamer without hanging off the back edge of the shelf.

 

Is there any connectivity or sound quality reason not to repurpose the existing long cable in the new application or would it be smarter just to buy a new half meter cable?   

[AudioDoctor]

3000 mm

 

Also, don't listen to anything I say about this matter. I am sure any cable that can reach without putting unnecessary strain on the connectors or cable would work fine.

[barrows]

In a given Network interfacing scenario, I would make the general recommendation that the longest run of cable should be handled by the optical cable.  Fiber optic Network cabling has lower losses than copper wire based Network cable, so run the fiber optic cable for whatever your longest run is, to the Rendu with optical input.  This approach also places the noisy commercial computer gear (FMC, Router, Switch, Server, etc) at more of a distance from the audio system, which can only be an advantage.

[Mike Rubin]

Thanks, gents.

 

Barrows, due to the rewiring of my home (and concurrent addition of wired ethernet), I no longer have the option of keeping the FMC on the adjacent wall, but it sounds from your post as though there isn't any significant harm from using the longer cable between an FMC and an optical rendu on the same shelf.

 

If only I had realized that I would be using optical again BEFORE I had all that electrical work done!