You can call me a Sonore fanboy! I’ve had nothing but great service and dealings with them and still using their (upgraded) original microRendu. Their Sonore Power Supply is also excellent. Looking at upgrading to an opticalRendu at some point soon, at which time I’ll be able to drop one of the opticalModules. I could certainly simplify farther and go 2960 fiber direct to the oR, but imo the opticalModule is much better than the Cisco fiber out, even on the sending end and needing to use an RJ45 patch cable to connect it to the switch.
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Not if you go from FMC to switch.
Theoretically Qobuz’s servers are located in France and audio files make their way across the ocean and through a myriad of servers, switches etc. before they begin their final journey down a fiber cable located on a country street on the East Coast of the US. After hitting the Optical Network Transformer which the ISP has so kindly put in my garage they then travel their final journey down an Ethernet cable which snakes through my walls and ends up at a 2960 switch before exiting again to connect to my dCS Rossini and Linn KDS.
After such a long and arduous journey full of various environmental and network pitfalls along the way can someone please explain how some of the above devices will improve the files which are being delivered to me at the endpoint?
Mine is not to poke holes but rather a serious question.
Best
Gregg
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The diagram appears to show that only one of the generic FMCs has been replaced by a Sonore OM. In this case I would have expected it to be used in the downstream location next in the listening room, but they show it in the upstream position.
Thanks FR, an interesting read.
If you are wondering why I haven’t bought an opticalModule to go into the Cisco switch, well the answer is a simple one. After speaking with Martin Smith, we agreed that an even better solution would be to go etherRegen out via optical to the opticalRendu, so the oM would be redundant.
Best regards, BF
Read some comments elsewhere, in the well known streaming site.
Some observed better results with Sonore OM connected to Etheregen, using Finishar FTLF1324P2BTL-MC fiber cables.
For those it was an uplift vs bare ER.
I am not a scientific, so can’t really explain. But what I know is that a better switch, like EE or ER, can improve Tidal and Qobuz.
It’s what I found.
As for the text you quoted, it was from Absolute sound magazine.
Can’t explain it either and looking at Naim’s white paper of my NDS I fail to see how some electrical noise from an ethernet cable or switch can mess up the master clock of the NDS. Nevertheless,as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so tried several different cables and switches and never noticed any difference. But for those who do hear it,fine,who am I to say otherwise. But for me it is “snakeoil”. A bit like my car seems to run better when I just washed it… 
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So could you definitely hear a significant uplift in SQ between Cisco fibre out to oM vs oM fibre out to your 2nd oM?
Because the noise comes from the router and other last bits of kit plugged into your streamer.
Yes, seems like a sensible expt to try.
Not sure what cables to buy and which Ciscos will work to feed optical to the ER?
I recall that @Darkebear had some trouble getting his Cisco to connect via optical…
Most Catalyst switches have one or two SFP ports. It’s a pretty simple matter to plug in an SFP and connect a fibre cable with LC connectors.
If the switch is set to factory defaults, no configuration is required, it should just work.
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@ChrisSU uses optical from Cisco. But will his cable work with the Etheregen on the other side? A thing to investigate.
You will be using the FMC’s clock to set up the new modulation signalling over the twisted pair.
There are some ‘audiophile’ media converters now with highly stable clocks… , but yes if using a fibre interface on the switch… then you will be likely only using one of the media converters… and the send from the FMC to switch will be using the fibre coding clock.
But if the FMC doesnt have a decent stable clock that will be sorted by the switch provided its up to the job. The audio gear at the end of the switch will see an ehernet signal timed by the switch clock, not the FMC clock.
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Yes in that direction, indeed, that is what I tried to say… to be honest in that direction the clock probably doesn’t matter so much.
I’ve used fibre between Catalyst and non-Catalyst devices before and it worked fine. I think it’s just a case of choosing the correct SFP.
One person’s significant can be another person’s no change at all, so difficult to go there. I would say though it was subtle, but noticeable. I got a bit of a discount on the second oM so I figured why not.
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Yes, I’ve started looking at this.
Yes, the reason of Jimdog question. Which one to connect Cisco catalyst and Etheregen.