Advice on Optical Ethernet Conversion

@sns "I should also add the Mundorf diy DC cables made a far larger difference than I was expecting"

I can second this observation. I tried both the Sonore DC4 and a Ghent GAC-4/1 star quad and didn't hear much difference over a cheap stock cable. However, when I used the Mundorf, I was extremely pleased with the improvement in speed and resolution with no downside to my ears. Always nice to have a significant improvement from a relatively cheap purchase.

I realize the thread is 4-5 months old now and I am not sure what the OP went with for a FMC, but I can wholeheartedly recommend the latest Opticalmodule from Sonore over the Etherregen. I was using the Etherregen with SFP optical in on one side and then an ethernet cable on the other side to my streaming DAC (Bricasti). I read in another forum that the OM deluxe was better than Etherregen. This is what my ears also told me as well. Surprisingly better.

@jimboman Congrats on the Bricasti M3, that is what I also have and I like it a lot. As I mentioned previously, I run an ethernet cable directly from the OM into the Mdx network card on the M3. Is that how you are also using your OM? For me the OM sounded better than the Etherregen, but it seems like for your system/network, the results were less significant. Yes, checking the boxes seems to be what happens sometimes and at least now you know you have that part sorted.

Hope you enjoy your Bricasti!

Got it. Your OM is on the upstream side of the fiber whereas mine is on the downstream side and feeds directly into my DAC. That probably explains some of the differences we are observing. Your Lumin probably does a very good job of feeding a clean signal to the M3.  

Hi @jimboman. Thanks for the kind words. I have an Audionet Amp heading to me to try replacing the Hegel, but it already sounds pretty great as is.

I am running Roon on a Sonicorbiter i9 optical server and going through fiber to the OM. I can upsample to NDSD and feed that without PCM conversion to the M3. I think native resolution vs DSD upsampling are pretty close in sound quality, but I have a preference for the slight sound improvement with the NDSD signal path on the M3. I know at least one other person here that prefers native with no upsampling so it is best to try it for yourself and decide. I do think bass is a little more prominent/full without upsampling, so it depends on whether that is something you prioritize.

Many times I have tried something in my system hoping for an improvement and end up disappointed by the change or lack of change. As for the Mundorf, I wasn't expecting too much from this cable. I was pleasantly surprised to hear a small but clearly noticeable improvement in ease (lower noise?), resolution and dynamics with this cable. Importantly, this is with the LPS and OM just ahead of my DAC so I think clean power here is critical. You may see less of an improvement given your network configuration where the Lumin is directly ahead of the M3.