Hi all
Are there any ethernet/fiber converters that have linear regulators inside and take DC voltage?
The TP-Link ones all have a switching regulator inside, which may inject more noise into the final ethernet signal, than was originally there in the straight ethernet connection.
Cheers
None of the FMC’s on the market are designed for audio applications. There’s ultra low noise transceivers out there, but to do things right requires custom designs. We power our fiber transceivers with Belleson SPZ discrete regulators.
You haven’t been reading the ‘Ethernet treatment’ post, have you? Now, you’re going to get those guys are worked up, again.
Haha no that’s all good. I asked some questions there already. I think everything that could be said about ethernet and sound quality has already been covered by everyone in that thread.
Anyway I’m thinking of using fiber and just keep the last 1 foot as ethernet to my DAC’s ethernet input, with these FMC’s.
They’re quite cheap to try anyway and have a 30 day return period, so risk free to try.
That was/is my plan. In case you didn’t see one of my posts, I bought, on EBay, a fiber PCIe card for $20.
Nice. I have a Surface Pro 4 so I’m excluded from the PCIe world 
If I can’t hear a difference I’ll return it - I don’t need 2 additional power supplies in my system if they don’t improve anything to my ears.
I’ll get a pair of these: http://www.tp-link.com/us/products/details/cat-43_MC110CS.html
I’ll power the DAC side unit with an Uptone UltraCap LPS-1 that I have here not doing anything. Even though the TP-Link FMC has switching regulators inside, the LPS-1 is ‘off the grid’ so that may / may not have benefits.
I don’t expect it has worse components than my router anyway, so I don’t expect it to worsen sound quality than the current straight ethernet connection I’m using but some people haven’t had a good sonic experience and went back to the straight ethernet connection.
I’ll find out soon enough.
Oh, man! It’s as if a veil has been lifted.
LOL should have seen this coming.
How to wipe a thread completely 
Not my intention, I assure you. Just having some fun after a tough week. Carry on.
Yeah, we’re gonna need to go ahead and move this thread downstairs into storage B. We have some new threads coming in, and we need all the space we can get. So if you could just go ahead and pack up this thread and move it down there, that would be terrific, OK?
AJ
lol let’s keep the Roon community positive and pleasant. We don’t want to turn into the CA forum 
MC110CS is for 100Mbps Fast Ethernet only. I read a few reports that the correct TP-Link FMC model needs to be chosen to match the 100Mbps or 1000Mbps port otherwise it would not work.
Hi Peter, the Directstream DAC’s network card supports only 10/100. But definitely worth checking, always.
Are you a fan of using these TP-Link FMC’s? Can you recommend a well made one that performs well?
We have not tested it but we do have a number of our Lumin users who feel that MC110CS improved the SQ of their setup. In addition to be careful about 100Mbps vs 1000Mbps models, it is important that the DAC-side FMC needs to have a LPS (which you’ve already planned for). Most, if not all, reports about it I’ve read are positive.
In case this isn’t already posted:
Thanks Peter. Perhaps another pointer is to keep the DAC-side ethernet cable as short as possible.
Have your Lumin users powered the MC110CS (DAC side especially) with 5V or 7V or 9V?
The TP-Link page says both 5V (at 1amp) and 9V (at 0.6amp) are supported.
I don’t know, but I guess it’s the quality of the LPS that matters most.
Whether the supply is an LPS or SMPS is irrelevant. What matters is how clean the power it produces is. Our hybrid SMPS outputs 0.8uV ripple noise, and 30uA leakage current. It also rejects mains noise 1000x better than any LPS. On the downside it costs about 4x in BOM of the typical LPS you’ll find in $10000-$20000 streamers.
The TP-Link FMC’s uses a switching regulator at the DC input (probably why it accepts an input range of 5Vdc to 9Vdc) which may or may not produce high ripple noise. So even if you use a linear PSU, the weakest link may be the switching regulator?
I did read that after the switching regulator there is an LDO or two, which should help, depending on the ripple noise of those of course.
