kennyb123

Why do you say that?

An iPhone is best thought of as a handheld computer that, amongst other things, can also make phone calls. A landline phone isn't really an apples-to-apples comparison (pun intended). It's the capabilities that the handheld computer provide that justify the price (for some).

It's not even certain they will do this. You also have the option not to buy it if they do.

A benefit of removing ports is that the device becomes more water resistant. Apple can determine if an iPhone brought in for repair has suffered water damage. As such they know how often this kind of damage occurs - and that's what lead them to remove the headphone port, for example. Water damage can often lead to a phone needing to be replaced, which is a costly amount to cover if one does't have Apple Care. The Apple Watch ships with a small wireless charger that's smaller than the SMPS that powers it. If Apple does away with the Lightning port, likely they include something like this in the box. I'm sure it's a lot of fun to mock Apple's design choices, but Apple's batting average is pretty good in that area. My hope is that a port is retained on the "Pro" models (and it becomes USB-C instead). Apple might be smart though to seal up the cheaper products - like the SE - as folks who purchase these models are less likely to be in a position to spend the cash to replace a damaged iPhone. One time when I was at an Apple store waiting for a genius, I sat next to a person who had just learned that they'd have to replace their iPhone. It was obvious this individual was distraught over having to shell out that kind of cash. Tough news to have to deliver to a customer.

Great project status report! Would you remind me again of the devices into which you are plugging those SFPs? You indicated that the transceivers you tried are all 10GB/s SFP+. I missed why you went with SFP+ instead of gigabit SFP.

Great points, as usual. You have offered a plausible explanation for why a better power supply so dramatically improved the ER. I should make a better power supply for the OM a higher priority. Does Sonore’s 30-day return policy apply to the power supply you designed as well?

I have no doubt either Barrow’s or Alex’s power supplies will bring goodness from the OM. I just struggle with spending more on the power supply than on the component it’s powering. So at moment it’s a cheap linear supply from China plus a single stage DXP regulator. I’ve been keeping an eye out though for a good supply to turn up used. A better power supply made a tremendous difference with the ER, so I’m guessing the OM would respond well too.

What’s the retail price on the Sablon 2020? That would be my top choice for the extra USB cable I’d need if I purchased a Phoenix.

Nice review @Sonis!

Thanks! The text at the end is repeated in their data sheets. “Finisar’s transceivers feature a microprocessor and diagnostics interface that provides performance information on the data link. Users can remotely monitor—in real-time—received optical power, transmitted optical power, laser bias current, transceiver input voltage and transceiver temperature of any transceiver in the network.” The only way I’ve found to see this is when I use one of their SFPs in one of UniFi switches. Not sure why current is 0, but it could be that it requires UniFi products at both ends.

Whether it's on and off there is electrical activity that brings about whatever the laser is doing. I'm really trying to understand what lasers are doing if not on and off. Any chance you could explain what is actually occurring instead of providing links that don't clearly explain this either? The article from FS that you provided mentions "injecting current". The link mentions this too. If current is being injected, why is it wrong to assume that this could result in a "pulsing load on the power lines"?

The Shunyata Sigma is the best USB cable I've heard. Pricey but it's really in another league compared to cables like the Lush 2 and Starlight 7. The Lush 2 is a great value at that price. I thought it was pretty much equal to a Shunyata Alpha that I used to own. The friend who owned the Lush 2 agreed. He and I both switched to the Sigma after we heard it.

I thought a picture might help. The Finisar SFPs are used in the ER and OM with fiber shown in yellow. The UniFi US-8-150W switch has two SFP ports so I thought I would see if I could further isolate my audio leg from the rest of my network. ST in the case below is a Startech FMC. I tried the Finisar SFPs there too but thought it added some brightness - but think it's more of a case of the Startech FMC causing it since the result was the same with Planet Tech SFPs . Simply because I ran out of regular ports, the NAS is now connected to the Startech FMC. I didn't hear an increase in brightness, but I also don't know if isolating my NAS like this provided any uptick in sound quality. There are other experiments I can try, including using the fiber to isolate UniFi switches from each other. This illustration is out of date as I've been moving stuff around. The eventual goal is to get all the wireless access points onto the US-8-150W and then move all the audio stuff off to an isolated switch that has a better power supply.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but that it was easy to hear differences between SFPs surely came as a surprise. The device doing the media conversion factors into this too. An SFP that sounds good in one device, may not sound as good in another. I'm presently happy with the older Finisar SFPs and will sit tight for the time being. Nice to know there is another good option in the new version. Thanks for sharing.

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.