Appreciate it. I was just making sure the issue was a mechanical one, not one of some property of networking.
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Iām going Cisco 2960 > multimode fiber > opticalModule > short BJC Cat 6a > opticalModule > single mode fiber > opticalRendu. Lots of isolation with three fiber bridges and it sounds great!
Curious as to back to back OMās as well as MM and then SM fiber - Is this by choice / experiments? Why not go direct from switch SFP MM > oRendu?
Seems like a lot of additional steps, but Iām assuming it must be doing something good in your setup
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Itās mostly due to accumulation over time - I already had a pair of oMās before I got an oR so I figured why not. It is a matter of diminishing returns though - one oM (powered by an LPS 1.2) sounds just that much better than straight out of the switch to the oR; and a second oM into the mix (before that one, powered by an Uptone SMPS charger) is even that little bit more relaxing in the upper end. Crazy hobby this, but theyāre all nicely ensconced in a basement closet with the NUC, modem, etc. so once in place out of sight, out of mind.
Totally get it, thanks
Wrt noise on data cables is it not better to use wi-fi then?
I ask as I am unclear what is preferred solution if I am using a raspberry Pi 4 as roon bridge (with ropiee) to a dac over USB?
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Thatās a bit generic and oversimplified, donāt you think? 
That would depend on definition of noise and inclusion of the effects of conversion between different media.
There is no free lunch in digital audio! 
If I already have a streamer that I am ok with for now, would it make sense to have two Fiber Ethernet Converters so I go from house ethernet to fiber to ethernet in the back of the streamer, thus removing the analog noise caused by the rest of my network without having to buy a new streamer that has a fiber in?
Or is that just silly.
Yes that works very well but you need to make sure the Fiber to Ethernet converter doesnāt add noise back into the Ethernet connection.
You can use a cheap Ethernet Media converter on the ādirtyā (switch) end of the fiber but use a good one like the Sonore opticalModule on the ācleanā end connected to your streamer.
Also use a short Ethernet cable on the streamer end. This will pick up less noise.
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My current set up is cisco 2970 switch to sotm to Topping D90.
Any recommendations on my upgrade path? Budget up to Ā£1,000.
The DAC everyone is talking aboutā¦
RME ADI-2 DAC & Headphone amp. 
Dave
If you want an all in one streamer (and decent headphone amplifier) then try the Matrix Audio Mini I-Pro 3.
It fits in your budget and does everything besides Chromecast Audio (I have one plugged into the toslink port).
Other than that the RME is excellent and itās what I was going to buy before the MA was Roon certified, but was won over to the single box to rule them all.
Very happy with my decision, but I miss all the fun I would have had with the toggles on the RME 
How does the Mini I-pro sound compared to RME? Sound signature?
Yes Iām another happy microrendu owner and also watched the video.
It would have been interesting to learn how the microrendu compares to the other sub-Ā£1000 streamers.
Dave
I never had the RME on my set-up but the people I know who have them tend to really like them and the same for the MA as well.
The MA seems to have a very neutral sound. Very few tweaking options on the MA to play with, whereas the RME has all of them and then some more, so depends where you are with wanting that. I may at some point still buy an RME for another room, but I have more Piās and Dac Amps than rooms already 
.
Strangely the MA has received good points for looking nice in the living room as well and the Google home Max sits nicely on top of it, not part of the buying decision but a nice bonus 
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optical suffer of refraction problems , on cheap hw this is not uncommon
itās unclear how the ethernet noise is and if you have listened it please feel free to explain it
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This is an issue with Toslink. This in not an issue with fiber Ethernet.
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Really , your dac receive the analog ethernet noise of lvds electrical signal on , how?
yeah you cant do them allā¦ thanks for watching though
I did that video too. Called it a Qutest Killer. I have both and the RME is the better product - sound, connections and features and price. Iād have the DAVE and TT2 and I like lots of Chord products, but Iād have the RME over the Qutest quite easily. Plus less money!
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