Hi are you now finding optical far superior to a wired connection. I did a quick scan through and cannot find your views…or are you in a situation where you need optical due to distance…
My fibre lines are short, only a few meters. Fibre may be isolateting any electical, RF noise from the network and from the NUC? It appears to improve the sound, it falls in the category of tinkering for fun to see what happens, with the components costing very little it’s an interesting experiment. Especially as there are a few high end streams appearing with fibre connection like the Lumin X1.
I suspect that the real benefit of an optical connection, if there is one, will be from streamers that support it. Even then, I don’t know if the internal conversion back to electrical might generate noise too. As far as I know, Naim have no plans to do this in their streamers.
Yes, I suspect it is swings and roundabouts but that is what this thread is all about. You can do 2 SFPs and a 2m of fibre from ebay for about the same price as 3m BJ ethernet, so it is worth a try compaired to 75cm of AQ Diamond at c £680 for 75cm, if you already have the ports for SFP.
Naim take time to listen before adopting which is a good thing, the fact that they do not make switch or Ethernet cables, may be that they do not consider it improved the sound and we should not be even considering tinkering. But the length of this tread suggest we enjoy doing so. It’s the equivalent of the posh air filter I put on my first Escort, did nothing but looked nice when the bonnet was open. 
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Peter, I had before 2 tp link converters on linear ps with 3 m fiber optic.
The last chain with audioquest diamond to my nds.
I replaced that with a Cisco switch alone and 2 Audioquest diamond. The sound was better balanced for me, more natural too.
With the fiber optic, the prat was also a bit diminished and the bass not well controlled.
But perhaps with better media converters than cheap tp link, the results could be better.
Today I use cascade Ciscos.
I started with the TPlinks a few years ago after we used one at work to solve a problem. I doubt that fibre itself changes the 1s0s let’s face it your streamed HiRes Qobuz, Tidal MQA has probably travelled down some to get to you and maybes even a couple of commercial SFPs, I know mine is having been in the Virgin part of the BT exchange recently. The SFPs are getting their power from the Melco S100 at the critical end and from the Cisco switch and the Sonore OM at the other (it retails at £220 without powersupply, it appears to have had a degree thought put into it like the etheregen) and is used with their OpticalRendus and the up and coming SmallgreenPC Sonictransporter i9. Fibre is becoming popular, not necessarily better, just different a bit like Ethernet cables.
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I switched to PoE three weeks ago. I was lucky to find two unused 2960PDs which are silent and work as they should. To be able to use PoE I got a Cisco C3560 8PC-S which is also silent and works very well.
A few months ago I had no idea what PoE was but I thought it was an interesting concept and it would enable me to get all of my “switch n’ network rig” powered separately from the Naim components.
I think it made a decent improvement vs my former “rig” but I have also recently upgraded from 300DR to 500 (non DR) so it is hard to compare or at least report with any certainty. In any case it freed up a few cables I could use elsewhere and I now have some spare Cisco switches that I will use in my office and coffee shop (which also has a Naim system).
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The first oM is powered by the 5V rail from an HDPLEX 100, and the second receiving oM by an Uptone LPS 1.2. And here’s the latest madness concerning FMC’s, as tipped off by a couple of people over at the AS forum - using attenuators to ‘calm’ down the fiber signal to the transceivers. I’m going to cut and paste this as I need to get ready to go skiing. But more thoughts and observations to come:
Installed the -10db attenuators on the receiving opticalModule. Thoughts so far - this is yet another rabbit hole to go down! Might actually be worth starting a separate thread. Sound was a bit disconcerting at first - there’s so much more detail, and the instruments have so much separation, I think it’s taking my brain/ears awhile to adjust (burn-in so to speak). Bass doesn’t seem as prominent, but on careful listening one can really hear the full tone of the bass, and really discern the instrument in space, and pick it out even when it’s pushed back in the mix. In fact the same can be said for every instrument/sound. Closing my eyes and listening to “Cluster & Eno” and Harrison/Shankar’s “Chants of India” last night was near psychedelic sounding, for lack of abetter descriptor.
With all of that extra clarity, it did seem to lose some mids weight and musicality (toe tapping) but I’m thinking that’s mostly a case, like I said, of getting used to all of the new detail. The big question is: how do different db attenuators sound, and would a better quality attenuator (say a Belkin) sound any better? Also, both ends vs just the receiving one?
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BTW, the opticalModule from Sonore is the same electrical designer, John Swenson, as the etherRegen from Uptone.
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…and I previously asked if I needed Optical Attenuators and was told not to bother - I perhaps should have followed-up that thought-chain. Perhaps I will.
I like conceptually Optical and it will tidy-up my installation - but it gas to sound better than the electrical Ethernet connection and presently it does not here.
I’ll continue along both paths - electrical and another Optical test in future.
It is fun - to be clear my ND555 is so far ahead in musical replay now as my 18 months ago upgrade that this is just pushing further the envelope. I’m still surprised how far it can be improved by these tweak-improvements.
DB.
When I was at the naim factory… I asked the team…about what switch they used … they confirmed that a std gigabit switch is their recommendation like netgear…std 8 port model. This surprised me … as they were driving a Statement Via this … and I know that there are substantive gains to be had using something better.
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Indeed, the popularity of the Netgear GS105 here started when someone from Naim recommended it. (Might have been Phil Harris, I can’t remember.) It was only when Simon introduced the idea of the Catalyst switches that the GS105 fell out of favour.
Just reading about the netgear above, I use a white 2960 so is it worth hanging the netgear off that to feed the tv etc and keep the Cisco purely for music? It’s easier to ask first rather than try it as it’s not easy to get to without tv unit chaos!
… and not to mention the odds & sods Cat-5’s
Jason did say they were getting some Shawline’s
Yes when I was talking to our ICT chap he suggested attenuators they use Jeirdus, BlackBox, Microconnect and Hypertec. The long distance lines at work have variable attenuations that are controlled on feedback but they are expensive and out of my ability to set up. He suggested that they are best used on sort fibre and the ‘doped’ type rather than ‘air gap’ to match but he thought I was out of my mind when I suggested changes in sound, but that’s what the electrician said when I told him what I wanted the dedicated spurs for. I feel I’m amongst friends here. 
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Yes know the feeling…even the Naim guys looked at me in an odd way when I suggested the switch can make a significant difference…
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There is no reason not to but all it will give you is more inputs at the TV, useful if you have a satalite box, blueray that also need connecting in the TV stack
And this troubles me. As you and many of us have established, leaving things to Netgear or any old tat is simply not on. If “Naim ears” don’t get this, how can we possibly be expected to rely on their opinion on anything.
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Well the CatSnake 6a full loom cables arrived–using cascaded Cisco and ER. Sounds pretty good. Just burning in the cables at this point–or letting my ears accomodate. I will be gone for a few days, and will let them plan. I will see what it sounds like when I get back. Cheers.
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