Buying potential

I have long been a strong believer that when we buy HiFi products, yes we are buying design, build quality and features but we are also buying potential.  A HiFi product can only be designed to fulfil its isolated function, but with a HiFi system we are mixing products to create the sound we like and using the system in a room  has its own effect. As a result there will always be a number of things that are the sole responsibility of the HiFi system owner, there is only so much a component designer can do for us.  The owner has to do a number of things very well to maximise what their system can do, in an ideal world of course. I find most owners would love to be doing this, but in practice they are instead “making it work” the very best they can.  So what is the difference between maximising and making it work?.

I don’t think anyone truly knows what the absolute best sound their HiFi system can deliver is. All we know is what we have now and how we have best made it work in our listening space.  I think the concept of making a HiFi system work is something that we all do everyday but probably seldom give much thought to. I think this can be as basic as using a power distribution system to give us enough plug sockets for the full system when we dont have enough outlets at the wall.  Maximising this might be to fully rewire the listening room with a dedicated mains supply just for the HiFi, brilliant as an idea but not easy to do.

I do think we should all be maximising spending time enjoying music on our systems and not worrying about maximising the systems performance. You know as well as I do, there is only so much enjoying an audiophile can do, there is always a desire to maximise the experience because there is a huge amount of fun and gratification to be had in that pursuit. The Pursuit of the Perfect System some might call it.

The SFP maximisation

Back in January I decided I would take a trip down the audiophile networking rabbit hole and do some listening exploration using an SFP fibre connection for two digital source components I was testing, the HiFi Rose RS130 music server and the Eversolo DMP-A10 streaming DAC and preamplifier. Like anything you do for the first time I was like a rabbit in headlights with all the different options available. I knew what I wanted to do and roughly what I needed to do it, but filtering through the many different options to find the best solution was daunting.  I think SFP networking products are worse for this than other pursuits I have taken because everything is advertised and explained for networking geeks, with a lot of technical names that mean nothing to the average person, even one with a reasonable idea of what they are doing. Of course none of it is designed for HiFi either so nothing says “best sounding” which would help.

A much simpler way to go would have been to buy an ADOT kit where all of the working things out has been done for you, however there is no learning curve taking that approach. I also like things to be done a certain way, I am a power supply snob for starters and wanted to use an excellent JCAT Linear power supply I had here doing nothing. It feels good to put a great product like that to use rather than it sitting around being wasted. Its for these reasons I went full DIY and bought a cheap network switch from Amazon that I could power from the JCAT and that would convert a network signal to SFP. I could use and test some DIY cables with single and multi mode fibre and I tried several SFP modules to see what might sound best.  I did all this for less than a few hundred pounds and I have to thank my Patreon supporters, it was their money I used for this.

I wrote an article detailing my first exploration and you can read it here but the result of this first round of testing was I decided that SFP and fibre did not sound better than my current networking solution from Network Acoustics, the Muon Pro streaming system.

Unfinished business

Something I missed during my review research was a section of the Eversolo website that gives users a suggested set of SFP modules that have been tested and confirmed to work with the DMP-A10. I assumed as its networking, so long as I bought the right category of products they would all work together just as with normal networking where everything is interchangeable and backwards compatible.  That was not the case with the Eversolo and I couldn’t get it to work with the SFP modules I had purchased, meaning I had to did all my testing with the HiFi Rose.  The summary of that testing showed to me that with the SFP fibre connection from the switch to the RS130 music sounded clearer or faster maybe but, that came from what I felt was a leaner and more mechanical overall sound. With the Muon Pro system music sounded full and more natural, more pleasing and much better to me in the main.  This was a tough conclusion to swallow and not what I expected, but it also left me with some questions. Was the switch causing an sound degradation in anyway? Were the cheap SFP modules I bought, or the cheap optical cable I selected having a degrading effect? I had no idea. This demotivated me to want to pursue this anymore as I felt I could easily spend a lot of money testing different SFP products to still end with worse sound than I already had.

Roll on several months and I found myself in a position listening to the Eversolo A10 with two Eversolo F10 power amplifiers bridged in a dual mono configuration playing through the Mission 770 speakers. With this system the Missions sounded massive in my room, really big bold, warm and full so great in a lot of ways, but the sound was also a little too dark for my taste. Regardless I was really enjoying listening to the system across a wide variety of music but felt if there was a control that I could adjust to increase the clarity of the sound I would have clicked it at least half, or maybe one full click up for more clarity.  That set me off thinking about is there a way that I could get out of this system with a little bit of tweaking and straight away I thought about my failed SFP test and what I had learned before about the SFP setup sounding a little faster, cleaner and leaner.

It was time to tick the missing test box so I ordered two of the suggested SFP modules on the Eversolo website, the top one suggested, with these being far more expensive than what I bought previously. Two of them cost me around £100 from Amazon.

Low expectations

I went into the listening testing with an element of hope that this would be a good thing to do, however if I am being really honest, I had very low expectations for the SFP setup sound quality.  There was a high probability I would be returning the SFP modules after given their higher price and the fact that the modules are still here might be a sign of what I am about to say.

At first I wasn’t sure, however after a day of listening to the exact same system with the SFP connection from the switch to the A10 I though I preferred how the system sounded. Yes the system sounded leaner, however that was not too bad here because the sound was very big and full and warm to begin with and some “tightening up” of the music helped to create a little more space in the sound stage.  Music was now more see through the Missions on to the musicians and there was seemingly more clarity too.  The biggest difference I noticed was in the treble, it was less obviously dark and soft, the treble was now very clear and more present and the music seemed snappier, slightly more nimble and light on its feet as a result. Over an extended listen I was convinced this was the way to go and this was me making it work with this system. I had found what seemed missing that extra level of sonic clarity from seemingly an inexpensive simple tweak and had this been the only sound from this system I knew I would have been very happy with it.

But the truth is it wasn’t, because when I put the Muon streaming system back in that overall boldness and fullness came back and as did the seemingly more natural less mechanical way to present music, with a less hyper detailed for a HiFi system sound.  But it was darker again in the treble, a little slower and thicker with less overall sound stage space and clarity so my preference was not as clear cut as it was before, I liked them both.

This testing was intersting and useful but leaves me with more questions.  Was the better result from the SFP setup just circumstantial and in way just luck or could it be a general thing where this is just better setup than my others? I thought possibly yes but couldn’t test it to know for sure. It could also have been totally the result of the newer design of the Eversolo A10 making better use of the SFP connection, that seemed very possible to me but again I cannot say for sure. It could also have been the new SFP modules being better quality and that gave a better sound some how? Of course that seems unlikely but that is something I would be able to test which is why they are still here, because I am not done.

Do we need more speed?

In conclusion to round two of my SFP testing I now optimistic about the potential of an SFP network connection as I have experienced some of the distinct positives. Even if it would only be in specific use cases, ones where you want a faster clearer sound from the system and prefer that “flavour” to the more tonally full sound we can get from the Muon Pro system, I can see some people preferring or wanting this.

I will admit, it feels a little crazy to write about these kind of sound differences from different networking connections between the same switch and HiFi product.  This article is really meant to be about the greater context of making it work and if these ramblings can be helpful to some one who is making it work for them, I am glad to be the guinea pig doing the testing that is hopefully of some help.

This second round of testing has made me think about speed. The SFP connection sounded “faster” for sure. That is not the correct terminology as of course the music was played at the same speed, I am referring to the sense or feeling of how the music is presented. I think Naim called this P.R.A.T back in the day. This made me think of a conversation I had recently with Network Acoustics and their Tempus network switch that uses a hybrid designed power supply. This has a dual goal of keeping noise down as with any good supply but they told me its also for more “speed”.  Being the power supply snob I am I have turned my nose up at the idea of this a few times behind the scenes thinking “give me a great linear”, however I am now looking at the potential of this differently.  If I could have all the fullness and tone and natural timbre of the Muon Pro system with more speed that could really be something.

Final Thoughts

I have been waiting patiently to get my hands on a Network Acoustics Tempus to try it out. They offered to send me a black review sample a couple of months ago but I said no to black. With the new Solid Steel racks, video here, and how they have transformed my listening room look and feel it has by chance created the perfect rack space for a network switch like the Tempus.  As it it will be surrounded by some very silver Iso-Tek mains conditioning products I didn’t want black there, even for a review period of time, I am that much of a review diva these days.

I think Network Acoustics have a silver one about ready for me now and I am very keen to test it with the both the Muon Pro and SFP systems as the Tempus does both. My hope is I can bring all this network testing to a positive conclusion with some very clear results that I can share with you.