The Ethernet cables, Switches and Network related sound thread. Share your listening experience only.

[Jake2]

Jackpot! Fiber Cables Direct - a reputable supplier with its own website as well - has a bunch of available lengths in single quantities that ship to NZ from Amazon.

Some random lengths won't ship here (actually I found less than 10% of their termination/length combos will ship here, super arbitrary) but thankfully a few suitable LC/LC ones do, not sure why I didn't find em last time. Maybe the arbitrary shipping logic and/or availability changed. Ah well. Pulled trigger before they become unobtainium once more.

FCD - 1M OS2 LC LC Fiber Patch Cable | Duplex 9/125 LC to LC Singlemode Jumper 1 Meter (3.28ft) | 1g 10g sfp 10gbase dplx Yellow Zip-Cord PVC https://a.co/d/asXNB73

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

Bought a pair of USB to Ethernet extenders to be paired with FMCs. Will see how will this play out:

Source -> (USB to RJ45 extender) -> FMC -> FMC -> (USB to RJ45 extender) -> DAC

If it plays well, I might go this route.

 

[Jake2]

Bought a pair of USB to Ethernet extenders to be paired with FMCs. Will see how will this play out:

Source -> (USB to RJ45 extender) -> FMC -> FMC -> (USB to RJ45 extender) -> DAC

If it plays well, I might go this route.

Interested to hear how you get on. Here’s a purpose-built two box USB - fibre - USB isolation solution, one version of which (there’s several sellers with slight variants) came highly recommended by a few posters last year, over on the Aliexpress cables thread IIRC. The ultimate in galvanic isolation for USB. Would be interesting to try these ahead of my new LHY UIP, see if they can improve it even further.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006008670218.html

 

[Deleeh]

Hello,
Question in the round Gustard N18/pro or Lhy Audio Fmc for the R26?
Would only be intended for use with the R26.
My current Fmc setup are the Fmc speakers from Amazon.
I would use one of the two for the clean side of course, the Fmc box from Amazon for the dirty side.
I absolutely can't decide between the 2 devices.
Insights would be great and a decision to make.
N18 pro could possibly make sense as I still have a Singxer Su 2 which can use a 10mhz as input and the R26 of course.
Is of course a cost question for a how to do at the end.
The latter would not be a must for me, just another option.
Use the R26 with Roon, no HQ player or similar.
Oh well, a Holo Red would be interesting but more the DDC function of the Red's. The internal K2 chip of the R26 is better than that of the Singxer Su2.
The Red would also not be a must, as there are also some problems with it in terms of setup and software, also because of the Roon certification.

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

Would be interesting to try these ahead of my new LHY UIP, see if they can improve it even further.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006008670218.html

That will be the idea. Using LHY UIP at the end point.. Saw that product on AX month ago. Found too a 5V version (for my LPS). Still looking other products. Lindy has an interesting product:

So as Transwan:

But thinking of using extenders w/ RJ45 instead of FC so I could swap FMCs for double duty for LAN input on my streamer.
Will see how it will turn out. Will experiment with low cost alternatives first, if it works or improvement is there....

 

[Jake2]

Hello,
Question in the round Gustard N18/pro or Lhy Audio Fmc for the R26?
Would only be intended for use with the R26.
My current Fmc setup are the Fmc speakers from Amazon.
I would use one of the two for the clean side of course, the Fmc box from Amazon for the dirty side.
I absolutely can't decide between the 2 devices.
Insights would be great and a decision to make.
N18 pro could possibly make sense as I still have a Singxer Su 2 which can use a 10mhz as input and the R26 of course.
Is of course a cost question for a how to do at the end.
The latter would not be a must for me, just another option.
Use the R26 with Roon, no HQ player or similar.
Oh well, a Holo Red would be interesting but more the DDC function of the Red's. The internal K2 chip of the R26 is better than that of the Singxer Su2.
The Red would also not be a must, as there are also some problems with it in terms of setup and software, also because of the Roon certification.

Not sure anyone has directly compared those two models. The closest I know of would be the comparison by Srbo of Is it Worth It (IIWI) Reviews on YouTube of the N18 Pro to the LHY SW-8 which he owned for some months so was pretty familiar with. The SW-8 has a lot of common design aspects with the LHY FMC (cast alloy case, Talema LPS, DC filtering, OCXO which could be a different grade but presumably from a similar source etc).

His impressions re differences in sound presentation here: May give you an idea of the LHY house sound vs Gustard. But a closer equivalent to the N18 Pro than the LHY FMC would be the SW-6, also with SFP ports and 10mhz clock input, if more expensive.

Edit - make sure you watch to the end as he concludes that with a few tweaks he overcame the slight leanness/edginess to the Gustard’s sound to be more balanced sounding alongside its higher resolution so he ended up keeping it in his system.

Edit 2 @Deleeh On reflection if it was me, and I had a budget of around USD500 max, I reckon I’d go with the N18 Pro, more versatile/upgradeable than the LHY FMC and clearly a quality built and good sounding unit. If I had a slightly higher budget I’d probably favour the SW-6 based on reviews that it is quite a step up from the SW-8 which I have had for over a year, if the EtherRegen 2 was available well that’d be a different story again…

 

[matthia]

Current chain below including my arrived-this-week LHY UIP USB regenerator, which is simply superb btw. Previously I'd used the R26's internal HQP renderer, but USB input via the UIP alone is a level up, let alone with the upstream other two USB isolators each of which make a satisfying difference. System has never sounded nearly this good.

What do you think about starting a thread about the LHY UIP? You have some experience with this device.
Thx

 

[Jake2]

What do you think about starting a thread about the LHY UIP? You have some experience with this device.
Thx

Probably a good idea. I also have another somewhat fancier USB reclocker I've just been very kindly loaned I could compare it to.

 

[Jake2]

Ok.. spoiler alert. The Innuous Phoenix USB... goddamn.

 

[OCC7N]

Ok.. spoiler alert. The Innuous Phoenix USB... goddamn.

Please no masterclock in the comparison 1:1

Awaiting your impressions

…. How new is the UIP? Please let the clock burn for 1000hours atleast.

 

[Jake2]

Please no masterclock in the comparison 1:1

Awaiting your impressions

…. How new is the UIP? Please let the clock burn for 1000hours atleast.

Request acknowledged . UIP is a couple of weeks old. 1000 hours is 6 weeks of 24/7.

 

[OCC7N]

Request acknowledged . UIP is a couple of weeks old. 1000 hours is 6 weeks of 24/7.

Everything I have tried pcie bridges, USB…600hours to start shining…..OCK-2 - 3months

 

[matthia]

@Jake2
...and please post your impressions about the USB devices in the "Computer Audio" section since these devices are not network related.
Thanks

 

[OCC7N]

The more exciting one is if you could put the Innous up against DI20HE.

1. Innous - Usb to Gustard
2. DI20HE - i2s to Gustard

…then add UIP to DI20HE USB input

 

[Jake2]

@Jake2
...and please post your impressions about the USB devices in the "Computer Audio" section since these devices are not network related.
Thanks

Will do, now if you could just arrange for @OCC7N to stop asking me questions or making interesting comments that provoke a response on this thread that would make it easier for me…

PS: I’m listening to a lush, richly dynamic sound as I type this.

PPS: my confirmed genuine Corning cables with measured minimum return loss specs just arrived from Amazon in record time so I can use em with these guys...