What am I missing?

I am sure you have all been there, where you might be happy with your HiFi system in the main but there are products on that market that intrigue you just a little bit, but the idea of testing them is lying dormant in the back of your mind with just a touch of “am I missing out” doubt.  I have written before about my basic escapades into HiFi system networking and how I have found benefits using inline filters on my installed at home CAT5e cabling.

It was about this time last year when I reviewed the Network Acoustics muon pro ethernet filter  and thought it improved the sound of my system more so than the SOTM iSO-CAT6 unit I was using before.  These are both inline filters so if noise can make its way into our HiFi system from either the router or just from airborne interference like RFI and EMI that is picked up by the very long network cable surely these filters will eradicate it all.  That is how I left it, however I have had two nagging thoughts.  Firstly are these really getting it all? Secondly would I be better using a network switch between the music server and my router, and if yes, what switch?  Network Acoustics make a very nice looking “HiFi” switch called the Tempus and I have been tempted so many times to reach out and ask to test one but costing £3995 it’s really a lot of money for a product of this type, certainly not a buy on a whim product.  This area of the HiFi market has really grown and many manufacturers offer their version of a HiFi network switch with some now costing well north of £10,000 such as the Melco S1.

Surely there has to be something in having a network switch, there has to be, I have had that nagging feeling of “am I missing out” for some time now.

The Catalyst

I have just finished my review of the HiFi Rose RD160 DAC which in typical Rose fashion is different, a little quirky and forward thinking in its design.  It has an invisible screen technology that when you say those words out loud its quite funny as it sounds impossible but when you see the DAC for yourself that impossible comment is true and makes sense.  One other differentiator with the Rose DAC is it has an SFP digital audio input which can be connected to the HiFi Rose RS130 music server for a fibre optic USB connection between them.

My understanding of the benefits of fibre are there is no electrical connection between the two units, meaning the DAC is fully isolated from any electrical “noise” that could be present in the music server and could make its way to the DAC as power is transferred over USB as well as data.  There is a connection between the server and DAC with USB that is not there with SFP fibre.  On paper then it seems like the “no brainer” connection choice but in reality sound quality is always a human perception with preference, bias and taste involved, so its rarely ever that simple.

I did a huge amount of comparison listening testing between the SFP fibre kit which costs about £100 I believe and consists of two transceivers and a fibre optic cable link of 1 metre and the Tellurium Q Statement II USB that I know is awesome and costs £2098. Bias should push me to say that the Tellurium Q sounds better as its costs a lot more, but that was not the case and the situation is more complex and more simple simultaneously.

In simple terms the SFP connection sounded a little clearer, with better resolution of small details or with better timing and the music was more relaxed all signs of a “lower noise” and better signal. However the complexity comes from the music presentation also being leaner, quite a bit leaner so that effected the overall system tonal balance and how much I enjoyed it or if it now met my preference of system sound.

In some instances I still preferred to listen with the USB connection as it sounded more solid and full, big and bold which is my general preferred sound balance, however I knew more clarity is the “better” sound “technically”.  I later found a way to get nearly all the best of both but that meant using the SFP connection because USB always sounded a little mushier.  I think this is more to do with either the Rose Server USB output or the DAC’s handling of the in coming signals more so than the cables quality as sometimes new technology overrides old great design, we all have experienced this.

But after so much testing between USB and fibre the seed of potential clearer and better sound using SFP fibre was well and truly planted in my brain and I wanted to test this further with networking.

Needing a starting / reference point

I have two digital music server products here that will accept an SFP fibre network input the HiFI Rose RS130 and the Eversolo DMP-A10 so it was the perfect time to do some exploration.

It would be easy to give into temptation and get on the phone to Network Acoustics asking them to send me a Tempus to try, I am sure it would be great but how would I know. Unless I have a reference point or something to compare it to how can I judge its effectiveness and value added at its price? The reality is I could not so I needed to give myself a starting point and I did what everyone does, jump on Amazon to see what I could buy that was affordable and would do the job.

Straight away I was hit with many confusing choices that all looked pretty much the same, but are not, with hardly any explanation of the differences for someone with only a basic understanding of what the products do. I knew I needed a network switch that could convert a standard network signal coming in to an SFP fibre signal going out and there are so many different options it scrambles your brain.  Being a power supply snob and knowing I have an excellent JCAT Optimo 3 DUO linear power supply sitting here doing nothing it made sense to get some use out of the £1500 supply.  But the snag is its only a 5v output unit and most switches that I looked at require 12volt. Of course they do all come with their own basic smps power supplies but I am a power supply snob remember so I managed to find a 5V powered unit that seemed ideal, small, simple, unmanaged so plug and play and it was cheap at about £43 link to it here 

With the switch taken care of I now needed two transceivers and fibre optic cable and of course the choices on Amazon are confusing. I had read that single mode fibre is better than multi mode fibre but I had no idea why and to be honest I still dont.  I searched for “SFP single mode fibre transceiver” and looked for a cheap pair (you need two one at each end) just so I could get started and do some testing without spending crazy money – I bought a set of two of these for about £15.

Lastly I needed fibre optic cable, Amazon suggested some and I ended up buying 3 metres of single mode from Rambo Cables link here.  I now had “everything” I should need to make this work and I had spent less than £100, minus the cost of the linear power supply.

Testing, challenges and mixed results

It was late by the time Amazon delivered all my new goodies, so all I could do was a basic test – does any of this even work right.  I unboxed the switch and tested it being powered from the JCAT linear power supply and it worked just fine, no surprise there.  The fibre cable needs connecting to the two SFP transceivers and its as simple as plugging them in, they lock secure in place so you know that a connection is good.  The transceivers also seem to lock into place too when inserted into both the switch and the Rose RS130 that was in the system at the time. It was too late to do any listening but the Rose was detected on my network and I could control it fine from the Rose control app on my phone so I knew the SFP fibre connection was working at the very least and that was encouraging.

Typical as is the case in this job, I am always changing things in my system and that evening was also a major hardware change from the HiFi Rose setup to the Eversolo DMP-A10 and the matching F10 power amplifier. I connected the exact same SFP cable and connecter to the SFP input on the rear of the A10 and it went in fine but didn’t seem to click in as I expected.  However it seemed fully installed but the Eversolo would not see the network or make a connection to the internet so something was not working. I went through all the usual typical troubleshooting but I could not get it to work.  The worst bit about this is I had no idea why not or how to solve the issue, a Google search brought up nothing.

The only thing I could think to do is look more closely at what I had bought to try and work out if I bought the wrong products.  I discovered there are two types of SFP transceivers SX and LX, I had bought LX which is designed for up to 10Km distances. SX is designed for shorter distances but still far more than I would ever need.  The second discovery, it seems that to use an SX (short distance) transceiver I would need to use a multi mode fibre optic cable, so I decided to buy some and test them.  I bought a pair of SX SFP transceivers from Amazon for £23.99 link here. I also needed a 3 metre multi mode fibre optic cable and bought it from Amazon too for £8.96 link here.

I was relieved when I connected these cables and connectors together and then into the A10  there was an obvious solid (clunk) to the connection and the Eversolo detected the network signal just fine.  The Eversolo is supposed to support single mode fibre so I can only assume it was the LX transceivers I was using with the single mode fibre cable that was causing some connection issue but I dont know. I did plan to test this by buying the exact same transceivers that had worked but in the LX variety to try the single mode fibre cable, but I didn’t get that far as now things were working I could so some listening testing.

No way its the same

The Eversolo F10 power amplifier is still fairly new so it needs some run in and play time before I can review it.  It made sense to let the system play all day to run everything in and let it all warm up. Do I think fibre optic cables need running in, probably not but who knows, it couldn’t hurt to give them a few hours. That evening I sat down to do some testing and listening and to my shock I was hearing a very similar difference to when I tested SFP fibre between the Rose streamer and Rose DAC.

Listening to the fibre optic cable network from the switch to the Eversolo A10 the system noise floor seemed a touch lower or the music background was a little blacker, subtle stuff but I could hear it in the “3D” imaging of the music and that was promising. There was also a noticeable uptick in clarity or the small details of the music seemed more pronounced but I think that was because the music presentation was leaner, so again a cleaner but leaner sound.  I compared this to the same network cable that would feed the switch that is connected directly to router, going through the Network Acoustics muon pro filter and this presentation was bigger in the bass, more full sounding, so warmer, bolder and more pleasing but some of the musics timing didn’t seem quite a crisp.  So a very similar difference to with the Rose setup testing but this time I wasn’t hearing more detail or resolution in the same way but the rest was similar or the difference familiar.

Analysing this difference my technical audiophile mind says the cleaner but leaner sound must be the “correct” one, its the exact same digital signal so there can only be any difference as a result of more or less “noise” getting through to the Eversolo from the network, as really there should be no difference, the sound should be exactly the same. I wish it was, because I would not be fighting things in my own mind because I preferred the sound in the main with the direct network connection through and muon pro filter, its was just that bit nicer to listen to, but I couldn’t shake my technical mindset that in some ways the fibre has to be the better option and I would be a fool to ignore that.

I was also left with nagging questions, about why the fibre connection was not every bit as good as the direct network connection and better again, there must be some reason for it.  Is the switch not powering the fibre conversion well enough? Is there something being “lost” in that data conversion to and from light to be sent across the fibre cable? Could the SFP transceivers I am using or the fibre cable itself not be up the necessary quality?  Without chucking lots of money and time into trying many different options I have no way to know, and frustratingly without going down the SFP transceiver “rolling” rabbit hole I have no way to find the best of both even it even exists. As much as I want to do it I dont think I have the patience and motivation, or time right not and that is doubling frustrating.

However I knew I could at least test the switch to see if that was causing some loss or sound “change” less to my liking.  When Network Acoustics sent me the muon pro they sent me the muon pro streaming system that includes an additional network cable in the same design for this exact situation, for the link from a swicth to the muon pro filter that as a cable built into it.  Its a strange looking cable that is wide and thick and quite spongey to touch which gives me some idea of what might be used as the filtering and shielding materials. This additional cable allowed to not only test the switch in the system with the muon pro but also extend its “filtering effect” that little bit more and this setup was the best sounding of them all.  All the bass and fullness I expected from using direct connection and muon pro filter was all there but now with a small amount of better clarity from the sense of better timing, with a little more sound stage space and some extra clarity to backing layers in some music. I wouldn’t say this was giving me the “best of everything” but its the best I could get with this setup while still keeping the overall presentation balance to my taste.

This was encouraging, proved the switch was ok at least for normal use, there is no fibre optical conversion happening with this setup of course.  This was great but still left me some unanswered questions.

Final Thoughts

This has been an intersting but frustrating look into the extended ways that we can tweak / change / improve the sound of our HiFi system with networking products. I had hoped it was going to be easy and clear cut, not only for getting things working but for the sound differences too.  I expected the fibre connection to sound the same just with a little bit more clarity from a lower noise floor meaning a little more dynamics in the music.  I was not expecting there to be such perceived tonal shifts from a cleaner, leaner sound to a bigger in bass more full and warmer sound. I am still making sense of this now.

I know more “fullness” in the music can be a bad thing technically, it can be a distortion however when a systems sound balance goes too far the other way, ultra clean and lean I find music hard to enjoy like that and I don’t care if that is technical perfection or not.  That is why for now I am sticking to the final setup of the Network Acoustics muon pro streaming system and the switch with the JCAT linear power supply, it wasn’t night and day better but it was better enough and gives me more networking flexibility in my listening room.

I do still have that nagging sense of “what am I missing” by not using a fibre connection and I am still motivated to test this more to better understand it. I am also setup for any testing or reviewing of “better” or more “dedicated HiFi” network switches such as the Tempus as I will have some reference to compare it to. Maybe my view will change in the future but for now I cannot recommend to you to take the fibre route for your HiFi network, I definitely cannot say with any confidence that it is “the one” or “the way to go” but it may still well be.

As I said there are many frustrating questions that still need to be answered.