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When you know, you just know

Its been over a month since my last update for my journey into the SFP networking rabbit hole in search of digital audio glory.  I use those words tongue in cheek of course, but that is my goal here, to find even better sound quality from areas of a system many overlook. I think the reason I was so motivated to test and try new things was because something was not quite right with the sound of my system, or at least I thought it could be better. That has been the reason for the slow updates recently I added two new products to the system and that nagging feeling of I need to do more mostly went away. This was not a conscious decision I made either, it was very much subconscious and of likely due to attention needing to shift to new products to review all of the time, so maybe I have been distracted. At the same time I know myself better than that, I have OCD tendencies for sure, so would not have been able to be distracted unless things were better. I must have felt settled otherwise I would have still been busy working on it.

So what is new?

The first new product I added to the system was the Network Acoustics tempus network switch in replacement of a cheap network switch I bought from Amazon just to get me started and give me some baseline for comparison. I was powering the switch with a very high quality linear power supply and I wrote about this setup in my SFP Explorations Part I. Network Acoustics told me the tempus will get gradually get better over the first 30 days of usage so it made sense to use it in the system for that time, get used to it but park its review for at least 30 days.  I will be working on the tempus review very soon and I have a great system here to do all the comparison testing for it.

As a quick insight into that review the first thing I tested with the tempus was what would be the best sounding connection from it to the HiFi Rose RS13o digital music transport. Would it be the Network Acoustics muon pro Streaming System that features a very cleverly filtered RJ45 network cable and the muon pro filter or would it be the SFP+ DAC cable (direct attached copper) I previously bought from FS.com and wrote about in my SFP Explorations Part III.

I was expecting this to be a very close comparison where I would find it difficult to separate one from the other. After all, I was now using a very high quality network switch doing the conversion to SFP and I had already found the FS.com SFP DAC cable to be better sounding than an optical cable equivalent. I wrote about this in my SFP Explorations part III too. To my surprise the sound quality between the two network cable solutions was massive with the muon pro streaming system sounding night and day better. The FS.com SFP DAC cable sounded edgy and shouty with not very good timing and was really quite disappointing by comparison. I cannot explain why this was the case but I did the listening test several times and difference was so stark I decided I would use the muon pro streaming system going forward and put it this to bed.

However it never works like that in my mind, this test cast some serious doubt over the quality of the other FS.com DAC cable I was using between the HiFi Rose RS130 source and the RD160 DAC. In the listening tests I had did for the RD160 review connecting to it using SFP sounded slightly clearer and better than USB and testing different SFP cables, I again preferred the FS.com SFP+ DAC cable to an optical equivalent. This pointed my attention squarely at the one and only product designed for HiFi SFP cable usage, the Melco C1

There is only one

The Melco C1-D20 SFP+ networking cable is literally the only one of its kind, the only “high end” or with sound quality in mind SFP+ cable in existence. This does and does not amaze me because Melco’s parent company are Buffalo Technologies a large computer networking manufacturer. I assume its easier for Melco to have custom computer networking components made such as the SFP+ modules used at either ends of the C1. As there are not other HiFi cable manufacturers building them too, I assume buying blank high quality SFP modules is not easy and this has to be the only HiFi cable without competition. Normally there are hundreds to choose from with many options even from the same manufacturer at different price points.

There is not a huge amount of information on the Melco website about the C1’s design other than the basic recipe of it using 24AWG silver plated OFC conductors with an al-mylar tape shield. You do notice straight away how thick and stiff the C1 cable is compared to the FS.com cable which made me questions are the conductors in the C1 solid core? No idea but that would be desirable and also make a cable very stiff like this.  If they are not then I assume it must be the tape shield and how thick that has been applied, that is again a desirable quality in a cable like this I feel. The custom Melco SFP+ modules or connectors seem to be nice quality and very well made, they are gold plated and looks the part. They also have a very secure tight fit into a product and that makes them feel higher quality I think than the slightly looser fit of the FS.com cable. Its not a massive difference but one I noticed straight away.

I do have one complaint with the C1, there are no obvious direction markings, not even a basic arrow marker. I know an arrow is intended as an installation guide for cables that need to be installed a certain way for them to work or work optimally, maybe due to their shielding arrangement. I assume direction of installation is not important here with the C1 and that is fine so maybe we don’t arrow markers. The reason I would want a direction marker is so I can install the cable in the exact same orientation every time, whether this matters or not technically, to me it matters for my own consistency, I like to keep things the same especially when I am doing comparison testing. I have a terrible memory so don’t trust myself to remember how I installed past about 30 seconds, gold fish memory I think they call it.

The Melco C1 is not a cheap cable costing £749 and that is a huge amount of money for any networking cable but its not crazy expensive compared to the many high end RJ45 networking or USB cables on the market, so other digital cables.  But do they make any difference to the sound and especially enough difference to justify the high price compared to the much cheaper FS.com cable.

Did Melco smash it out of the park with the C1? It seems so

I think its important to clarify I don’t think Melco would have designed the C1 cable for linking between a music source and a DAC like how I was about to test it. I think its likely been designed to link a Melco switch to one of their music libraries, so for networking duties. I was testing it not for its intended use but I already knew how sensitive the HiFi Rose RD160 DAC is for the linking SFP+ cable feeding it so I thought this would be a great way to test if the Melco can make a difference.

I had been using the C1 in my system for a couple of weeks by now, again connecting the HiFi Rose RS130 digital music transport to the HiFi Rose RD160 DAC. The Melco C1’s addition to the system was other reasons I lost the desire for further exploration, it seemed to help me feel settled too, with everything just seemed to be right or at least better than it was. This was just another “gut feeling” I had done any testing at this stage but I think when you know something sounds right it can just be a subconscious thing.

This week I installed some outstandingly good speakers, the Revival Audio Atalante 7 évo, that feature a 15″ bass driver with a large soft dome mid range driver and a fantastically resolving soft dome tweeter.  They are a huge speaker for my smaller room but they are some the fastest, clearest and most detailed sounding speakers from top to bottom I have listened to in my own room, so that is really something.  I thought they would be perfect to do the SFP+ DAC cable comparison between the cheap FS.com and Melco C1.  I readied and braced myself for a day of listening for what I thought would be small changes but the difference was massive. The difference was easily as notable as when comparing the FS.com cable to the muon pro streaming system, it might have been even bigger difference actually so that was not what I expected at all.

There is a possibility some would prefer the sound of the FS.com cable, using it there was a thicker sound with a more perceived bass and initially it seemed like music had better separation or more silence between the instruments, so there was more of a focus on them individually or they stood out more. I naturally thought this might be the better sounding cable however I also noticed quite quickly music sounded more shouty in places and there was a sense of imbalance to how the system sounded now. I want to say it sounded a lot “cheaper” which is a weird description to use I appreciate, but its the right one. I had been so super happy with the sound of the system since installing the big Revival speakers in pretty much every way but now I felt unsettled again, like there was more that needed to be done with the system to make it sound better.  That familiar feeling was back, but I questioned my hearing of this as being nothing more than the placebo from making a change.

With the Melco C1 back in the system the system’s sound went back to how it was before which was reaffirming of my impressions but to be sure I did the listening comparison several times more to make sure what I was hearing was correct to be able to explain it properly.  With the Melco C1 the system sound better balanced from top to bottom, yes there was less perceived bass but the bass quality was massively notably better, it was not thick anymore and messy, it was tight and balanced and controlled.  The whole presentation with the Melco seemed to soften just a little or really relax would probably be a better description so it was not shouting at me now at louder volumes. I could hear more of the music’s subtle details and recording character that was a big surprise. With the track Sadness and Sorrow by Ray Chen from the album Player One streamed from Qobuz, his violin solo, that is presented right in the sound stage behind the speakers did stand out more with the FS.com cable, like it had been sharpened with some extra clarity.  That was initially impressive but with the Melco C1 I could hear additional harmonics and overtones to the violin and a lot of them, this made the violin sound a little softer but more 3D in space and realistic I feel, but much more interesting and dare I say it more “musical”. I would call it a night and day difference like I was listening to a different preamplifier maybe, a shocking amount of difference.

A better music example I think would be with a very old track Jimmie Davis, You are my sunshine (alternative take) again streamed from Qobuz with the FS.com cable the main singing sounded quite modern and digital and sharp and very centred between the speakers, in the middle of the sound stage only.  With the Melco C1 there was a very old fashioned character to this track, that made it sound like was made in the 1950’s or even older, it didn’t sound bad for the character, it was quite the opposite. With the old recording character I again noticed more harmonics in the music that helps to expand the sound from the centre only to wider again making the music sound more 3D in the room, so more realistic and or more interesting.  This was again a shocking amount of difference, a night and day amount of difference and this kind of difference was apparent for all music of course.  From pretty good to really very good.

My take away from this testing was I would never to listen to the HiFi Rose pairing with the FS.com ever again, I would have to use a Melco C1 instead, once you have heard the difference there is no going back, but that created another big problem for me, I needed another one – oh no!

Summing up 

The Melco C1 has made quite the impression on me as you can likely tell by now and I am really glad I had the chance to test one because I don’t think I would have just bought one without this experience.  I think I would have been too sceptical to have made such a financial commitment as there is no middle ground priced cable to test in between. I assume that reading this article you will likely also have some scepticism regardless of what I say and I think you are right to.  With any product like this its in the testing of it that shows us the true value, not our prejudiced, prejudgement, but its hard to get past that sometimes I know. So it might be a leap of faith for you but if your using an SFP or SFP+ cable in your system now and its not the Melco C1 you might be leaving a LOT of sound quality on the table is all I will say.

The reason I mentioned needing two of them is for the Network Acoustics tempus review and for more testing still.  I of course need to compare the muon pro streaming system, a filtered RJ45 connection against the Melco C1 SFP to SFP connection, but I cannot do that with the current HiFi Rose setup as I need a C1 connecting the source to the DAC, that is an essential.  The review or HiFi dilemmas never end 🙂