Cheers, I am up and running with a well recommended set of Finisar AOCs which sounds terrific with the FMCs I mention.
Re the cable to go with the pretty expensive (NZ landed cost) 1318 SFPs to get the most out of them to make it worthwhile getting them as a step-up alternative to the AOCs, my preference if a little OCD was/is to go with particular cables like the Corning that come highly recommended here or on AS, not just any old cables which are of course super easy to get from AliX. I'll get some of those too.
But I take your point re your experience being there's not much difference between those you've tried.
There are differences in sound on all cables I am saying the use case of Single mode and Multimode....The network industry is laughing at us.
Think of it like this. Your house is Multimode and what connects your house to every other house is Single mode.
On a very short distant like audiophile. I encourage you to try the best multimode up against the best single mode....prices are not so different almost the same.
This community is focused on too much reading than listening. Modal dispersion is going to be a thing that will prevent people from trying the multis. This is completely failing approach, because music should be about music to the ear and not to the eye.
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You do know that AOC still means copper right? - Don´t get me wrong but from my impressions and your OCD and your tweaking journey - I SERIOUSLY thought you would just have bought and optical cable and isolate the power
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But again it is the music that matters, maybe they will sound better to you after trying the optical fibers.
Don´t wait enjoy the music now. While you can just grab a cheap Duplex/OS2 cable....remember stay away from the green/APC and buy the blue/UPC connecters. Very important! match the colors of both ends.
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Ooh I forgot to pick up some FINISAR today... on my way!
https://www.adark.co/products/after...le-for-audiophile?_pos=9&_sid=f5f59f23f&_ss=r
I want to hear how the SFP ports sounds like on my Ciscos. Going to pair with Pink Faun Ethernet cable
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EDIT:
Let me just say that I am not a fan of optical fiber and don´t use it on the LAN side at all. My usecase is only WAN(noise) side as I still don´t like them to be at the same level as a good ethernet connection.