Best Optical config with router, switch and EtherRegen

[kennyb123]

On 6/21/2020 at 9:50 AM, BigAlMc said:

 

Obviously OM to ER is the other main way to go - but does that isolate the Zenith from the Buffalo's goodness? Guess I need to play around and see what works best.

 

Oh and I ordered two of these SFPs as they are getting praised over on WBF:   

 
Finisar FTLF1324P2BTV-B1

 

I’m late to this but just wanted to confirm that OM to ER is wonderful with those Finisar SFPs.  A Farad Super3 improved the ER bringing maybe as much of an improvement as the ER itself.  The OM improved with better power but I haven’t spent much money at that end.  

 

[kennyb123]

40 minutes ago, BigAlMc said:

 

I have a spare LPS-1 on had that will get me started for the OM. I have an LPS-1.2 currently on the ER but am awaiting a July batch SR4T to challenge it. Assuming it does then the LPS-1.2 moves upstream to the OM.

 

The LPS-1 is a good choice for the OM.  If you don't move the LPS-1.2 over to it, consider getting a DXP regulator. I'm now powering my OM with an "el cheapo" power supply commonly found on eBay along with a single stage DXP.  I'm guessing the OM will scale further with a better supply but to my ears the OM seems to have vanished.  That was not the case with the Startech FMC that it replaced.

 

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However. The Buffalo (with SFP once sorted) needs a 12V supply. I have an SPS-500 on hand which would potentially do the job. But I'm very tempted to order a 12V Farad and go ahead with selling the SPS-500.

 

@Abyss Man just replaced an SPS-500 with a Farad per just a bit of my nudging.  I hope he doesn't mind me quoting him, but in a PM to me he had this to say: "the Farad is really awesomeness personified".  Hopefully he can share more details.  

 

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Been reading great reports, including your own, on the Farad so very tempted. Would also open up a potential playoff of SR4T vs Farad on the ER which I assume will be device closest to my Zenith.

 

Lots to think about and plenty tinkering ahead.

 

I must say these network improvements really surprised me.  I was particularly blown away but the fullness and more organic sound that came from giving the ER a better power supply.  Organic is a good way to describe the OM too.  Any sense of a mechanical signature gets stripped away.  From what others have reported, I'm pretty sure further gains can still be had if I work my way upstream.  I'm not really feeling much of a pull in that direction though - at least not yet.  

 

 

 

[kennyb123]

7 hours ago, BigAlMc said:

Out of interest did you guys opt for the Farad fuse upgrades or IEC inlet upgrade?

 

 

As mentioned above, I skipped the IEC.  Sometimes dissimilar metals for metal-to-metal contact aren't the ideal.  The Furutech inlet is really good though so depending on your power cords it's a good option.

 

I didn't get the Orange fuses at the time of order as I wanted to hear the benefit.  I did install one in the Super3 powering my TT2.  Definitely worth it.  Surprising to me that a fuse can bring out better timbre but that's what I heard.  I will be buying more once I get a few things sold.

[kennyb123]

Question for you @BigAlMc.  Every try running your DAC straight into your amps (bypassing your Hegel pre)?  I was under the impression your DAC had a really good volume control. 

[kennyb123]

3 minutes ago, BigAlMc said:

 

Funnily enough its on the list.

 

I'm putting it off as involves proper climbing behind the rack and dissembling/reassembling everything. But it's planned soon.

 

My guess is that you’ll be kicking yourself for not trying it sooner.  

[kennyb123]

2 hours ago, BigAlMc said:

 

Goddammit! 😏

 

Yup. After AB-ing the Phoenix vs nothing and vs TX-USBUltra yesterday I reconfigured the rack and took the Hegel out. The system was already sounding brilliant but the Directstream direct to the M700s (using Cerious Technologies graphene XLRs) added even more immediacy.

 

I feel like I'm only now hearing what my Salks are capable of. A free upgrade indeed and it was under my nose the whole time... 🤔

 

I guess this is kinda off topic but as the Op I'll allow it 😉

 

Told you so 😀

 

I had a partial excuse for it being under my nose a long time - I had two sources so the preamp made sense.  Hearing the improvement from my DAC run directly into my amp is one of the things that lead me to narrowing down to a single source.  I didn’t listen to analog often enough to justify a preamp upgrade.

[kennyb123]

4 hours ago, kzs70 said:

Hello,

 

I remeber reading in a different thread that you have tried other SFPs with the ER, Planar too.

Eventually which one did you like the most?

I am looking for a new pair to connect my Lumin x1 to the ER....Thanks!

 

My current favorite is the Finisar FTLF1324P2BTL-MC, which is now end of life (but can be found on eBay).  There's a newer version, but I've not tried it.  I am very happy with the way things sound now as far as my network, so I'm going to try to stay put with these SFPs.

[kennyb123]

24 minutes ago, lxgreen said:

I’m currently using an EtherRegen powered by an uptone 1.2. I added an unused trendnet FMC prior to the EtherRegen but was unable to detect any improvements in SQ. I am using another 1.2 in another system so will see if that is any better. Interesting to hear improvements in different configurations.

 

 

I replaced a Startech FMC that was used upstream of the ER with the opticalModule.  This was a very important move as it reduced a hard edge.  Highly recommended.

[kennyb123]

On 1/25/2021 at 5:19 AM, FrankMA said:

Saying that I have been looking at my network. You can see from the attached drawing.

Very nice diagram!  I can’t answer your specific questions, but wanted to mention that I have a network that’s about the same level of complexity as yours, and I found that a switch to UniFi by Ubiquity has helped me gain better visibility into the health of my network.  
 

UniFi provides a demo environment that allows you to test drive their Controller.  It’s far more complex than what we would have in our homes as far as the number of devices, but it will give you a sense of how a network control plane application can benefit.   https://demo.ui.com

 

Of course this is just the foundational stuff - and not audio specific.  But the foundational stuff can cause some real headaches as you’ve seen.

[kennyb123]

On 2/1/2021 at 7:38 AM, FrankMA said:

Pretty impressive control software. They look like nice units that would definitely be an upgrade over what I am using as the backbone of my home network. Are you using their wi-fi access points as well? Will definitely investigate

 

Here's a list of my UniFi devices.  The top devices is a Security Gateway.  This not needed separately if you get the Dream Machine.

 

The Switch 8 has a single POE output.  It provides power to the NanoHD access point.  The Switch 8 POE-150 powers everything else in that list via POE.  

 

The two access points listed at the bottom are from their early adopter program.  Easy to sign up and once you do you can purchase pre-release versions when they are in stock.  These require beta firmware so a bit more effort is required.

 

 

 

 

On 2/1/2021 at 7:38 AM, FrankMA said:

 

I know you are a fiber proponent.  For me to get the max benefit do I have to convert to fiber close to the cable modem/router or can it be farther downstream?

 

 

A fiber leg can perform some isolation. You can see in the diagram below that I have two fiber legs.  The leg in my listening room was an important contribution.  The leg in the wiring closet brought a very subtle improvement.   Not sure I would have spent the money to get there but I had extra stuff that allowed me to do this.

 

 

 

[kennyb123]

On 2/15/2021 at 4:34 AM, FrankMA said:

 

Are you going Ethernet out of that ONT or the traditional RG6 to a FIOS cable modem?

 

The wiring from ONT to my wiring closet was done by the provider.  The net result is a short ethernet cable in the closet that I am able to just connect to my internet gateway. 

 

On 2/15/2021 at 4:34 AM, FrankMA said:

 

I am interested in your OM>ER fiber run.  The OM is a Sonore? Probably with a Farad Super 3 powering it right? I have an Uptone LPS 1.2 lying around.

I didn't think there would be much benefit on a short run of fiber like this. I had read there could be issues with too much signal strength on shorter runs. Did you use some sort of attenuator?  This is certainly something I could add to my setup. What fiber optic cable are you using?

 

It's the original Sonore opticalModule.  I'm powering it with an "el cheapo" Chinese linear power supply - though the output of this is sent to a DXP that provides a single stage of regulation.  I went cheap on this with the plan to maybe upgrade at some future time.  

 

My run of fiber between ER and OM is 8m and I'm using this cable.  

 

One nice thing about my K30 music server is that I can install my own SSDs.  I have installed a 4TB drive and it's currently about a quarter of the way full of music.  Lately for my later-in-the-evening focused listening sessions, I have been powering down my network.  The "el cheapo" is plugged into a Kasa smart plug so I can power it on/off using my iPhone.  In addition, I shutdown Roon and just let HQPlayer do the playback.  Shutting down Roon does improve the sound quality and despite my network optimizations, powering down the network does remove a very slight edge.  For my later-in-the-evening focused listening I also set aside my iPad and listen with the lights turned off - and it's been just freaking wonderful since the K30 landed here.  During my less focused sessions, my network stays up and I run Roon and it's freaking wonderful as well - but that's when I'm mostly doing musical exploration with Roon Radio taking over.  

 

On 2/15/2021 at 4:34 AM, FrankMA said:

 

I have 3 flex mini's, a 16 port POE lite switch and an UniFi 6 access point due in soon.  Of course Roon recommends only unmanaged switches which I noticed after I bough all this (although I doubt it will be that much of an issue).

 

Can you prioritize traffic on a port on one of these switches? My Zenith will be on that 16 port switch

 

Managed switches can be problematic when just thrown in as if they were unmanaged switches.  That's likely what Roon was concerned with.

 

I'm sure that traffic can be prioritized, but I've not done it.  

 

[kennyb123]

9 minutes ago, RikkiPoo said:

How does that work with Roon shut down?  Can HQPlayer access the library on the server?  I have an Antipodes Core that has some form of HQPlayer embedded.  I think I need to purchase another form of it to use for DSP.  I use the Core to run Roon core although I do have a library on it;  I use an Innous Statement as my server as it sounds better than playing from the Antipodes Core.  Would I be able to listen to the Statement?

 

Antipodes does something really smart in that they create a virtual storage that is shared across all server apps.   This can contain local folders and folders shared from a NAS.  Roon, Squeeze and HQPlayer are all set to scan /storage/music so they all see the same music (though I have to manually sync both Squeeze and HQPlayer).

 

There is a simple setting in the UI to stop Roon.   When I do that I just play music in HQPlayer using HQPDconrol v4 app.  

 

Can you clarify how you are running things?  Is your Statement configured as a Roon player only with Roon Core running on the Antipodes?

[kennyb123]

On 2/16/2021 at 9:15 PM, RikkiPoo said:

Kenny,  you are correct I have the Statement as a Roon endpoint/player and the Roon core is on the Antipodes Core.  Is the Virtual Storage something new from Antipodes?

 

They actually refer to it as a "Logical Volume".  I used an incorrect term in my post.   It's first mentioned in the AMSv3 user guide found here under Library Tools.  Also if you scroll forward to the section on their File Manager you will see how NAS volumes can be included in this.  Really smart approach.  

 

As far as using your Statement as the endpoint/player, you really can't make use of HQPlayer since the innuOS 1.0 doesn't provide HQPlayer NAA support.  Hopefully that will appear in their upcoming innuOS 2.0 but I've not heard one way or the other.

[kennyb123]

13 hours ago, FrankMA said:

 

The last piece needed for me to try a fiber connection are those FMC's. Getting a bit confused on which one would be best (especially considering availability.  From what I can gather below are the 3 best options:

 

 

 

 

 

The data sheet provides some insight into the model numbers.

 

The difference between FTLF1324P2BTV and  FTLF1324P2BTV is that V means the rate is selectable while L means that it is not.  L was what was recommended to me.  I have no idea what the characters after the hyphen mean.
 

https://www.integrated-circuit.com/pdf/183/282/4.pdf

 

These will come up often on eBay.  I would be happy to let you borrow my 1318 SFPs to hold you over until you find the 1324 at a good price.