With regular multi mode fibre it is usually best to avoid very short runs, say less than 50cms. Clearly it is best to avoid long range single mode fibre unless you have very long runs of 100s of metres. With twisted pair it is sometimes best with Hi-Fi streamers to have long runs, say 10 metres or higher between switch and streamer using Cat5e … reason being the losses are higher so the switching power received at the streamer is less and so marginally less coupled electrical noise. Higher spec Ethernet leads have larger conductors and so losses are less. In this regard for connected Hi-Fi more losses are better.
BTW not entirely sure what you mean by ‘cages’. I assume you mean transceivers, otherwise known as SFPs which you connect different fibre or twisted pair cables to depending on SFP type.
Hi Gregg – Good news on your forthcoming Organik upgrade. I’ll be interested in what you find once it’s done and settled back in.
Yes, there is a fibre port on the NG KDSM and I was hoping that I could use this and simplify a few things.
Unfortunately, I didn’t really get on with the fibre connection. I’ve tried a few different modules, different lengths of OM3 fibre, different media converters (ADOT / Cisco 2960) and found similar results. It sounds a lot different to the copper connection and ultimately copper is what I still prefer so the PhoenixNET still stays as the final switch.
As Simon mentions, having a mains earthed switch in the final run to the streamer is beneficial, in my case this is powered via the lounge mains ring, rather than connected to the dedicated radial the Hi-Fi is powered from. It’s certainly worth experimenting.
Simon, or anyone who may know…is it ok to mount a Cisco 2960 8tc switch to a wall, or have it in a vertical position? Right now mine sits on my TV stand on its feet that it comes with…which is kind of ugly.
I want to hide it behind the stand, possibly attaching it to a vertical post. Would this affect performance?
One of mine has been wall mounted for years and it’s fine. The official guidance is that if you do this the ports should face downwards, but that wouldn’t work for me so they face up. I assume that this is to prevent anything from falling into any unused ports.
I can’t think it would be a problem to vertically mount. To be accurate you can look the model up on Cisco and get its original installation guide to see whether that is officially supported… it will about cooling etc internally.
It’s dependent on the sfp - either singlemode or multi-mode. I’m using singlemode at the moment but am waiting for delivery of multi-mode sfp and fiber optic cable. Just curious if there’s any marked sq differences
Dunc - if you can’t find genuine Cisco SFP modules then these will work fine without needing to delve into the Cisco config menus to override non Cisco modules. Available via Amazon.
It’s actually very easy to do the Cisco configuration. FS (dot) com modules are recommended in various Hi-Fi forums beside Finisar etc at more than 10x the price. They have a “Cisco GLC-SX-MMD Compatible” module for instance. I use them and they are great. The also have optic patch cables in varios length.
Always good to work around am’zon though.
