jabbr

I have managed switches but don't need to prioritize. Consider this: a good switch will maintain full bandwidth between port pairs. In a good switch you get full bandwidth between the audio server and audio client. What you can do is use a VLAN, so that broadcasts from your web connected fridge doesn't hit the audio device, or transition to IPV6 to reduce broadcast chatter on the network. or just use a different subnet Probably none in practical terms. but for large chattery networks there are ways to mitigate.

Ive gotten most everything on eBay, including my Mellanox SN2700 switch and ConnectX-5 NICs, Solarflare NICS, QSFP28 modules etc etc. If you think $100 for a module is a lot, I have done that retail for $5K. Do you need that exact model number?

Just be patient

Good arrack is tasty. Please do not endlessly repeat that I refuse to listen to your files because I have and do not hear a difference. Do not accuse my equipment of being inadequate to hear the differences because that is simple offensive. I agree that it’s best for you to avoid having objective discussions, but if you do please try not to be offensive.

Alex, I did listen awhile ago and couldn’t tell a difference. I’m not going to listen to each incantation nor look at each file. Regardless, this is the Objective subforum and we should be talking about objective measurable differences, not subjective impressions. If you can’t produce objective data, that’s ok, just don’t discuss here.

These are compatible with 1000base-LX and as @plissken says don't need attenuators, for some reason some folks have used 1000base-EX modules (40km) and these do benefit from attenuation over short distances. FWIW I see no reason why EX modules might be better, indeed they use more power, so would avoid unless some additional info.

First and foremost, there is ZERO evidence that the differences in pits between two copies of the same (checksum identical) files somehow makes its way onto a hard drive or across a network. I understand that you hear differences but here on the Objecti-Fi subforum, we would ask for a measurable difference, and there has been ZERO demonstration of objective measured differences. For the sake of this discussion, I would accept an oscilloscope measurement or another piece of actual test equipment and am not interested in listening based experiences i.e. subjective. Second, sure there are easily measurable differences in pits even though the pits encode a "0" or "1".

Look this is a perma discussion. I am saying that the same checksum identical file on two different CDs will have objectively measurable differences in the pits. This shouldn’t be controversial. There must be a Law of Audiophile discussions that eventually “jitter” is introduced into any discussion of given enough time.

I have no idea which clock you are talking about. Do you mean the 4 GHz CPU clock that runs your software? Are you internally modeling a clock? You may call it a clock, but it’s not an actual clock, rather software. Right? Please explain.

Software can introduce all sorts of distortion if it wants to but calling this “jitter” confuses the issue. I mean I guess you could call anything jitter at this point.

Often software processing is not being played in real time. In those cases why would I care how long it takes to process a time sample because it’s just written to a file. When the file is played out, and the playback software properly buffers, the “jitter” should only be an effect if the hardware. Unless you are using another definition of “jitter”. Perhaps try not to explain using prose such as “violent”. Suppose a pure tone input, are you saying there is peak widening on output, such as occurs with random jitter? It’s still not what I call jitter, rather frequency blurring.

Could you define exactly what you mean by jitter here? There are different types of jitter eg correlates and random ... and then people take all sorts of liberties with so called jitter in software. Are you introducing time domain fluctuations? How can software introduce jitter exactly?

Right, we all know about digital circuits. You are repeating the digital dogma. Let’s not talk about bits because that’s just not helpful in understanding what noise may or may not be transmitted in a digital circuit. You need to look at the circuit from an electrical point of view. Are all pits identical (no) — how is a pit converted to a voltage. Are all the voltages either exactly 0V or 3.3V or 5V? Its easy to accept the dogma with absolute certainty. It’s much harder to prove the dogma with equal certainty. If @alfe were still here, he could give much more clarity from an electrical POV.

The only network cables I have been using for over 5 years are glass fiber. They sound absolutely transparent.

No need to stop posting. I haven’t done as systematic listening comparison as you. I selected Finisar because major brand name vendors use them and everything is very well documented, so I know what I am getting eg laser type, specs etc. I am curious, the SFP module effect is DAC dependent? Are you using an SFP enabled DAC?