Best upgrade for SGC servers; LPS vs network switch

optical

Optical FMC package from SGC made a pretty significant impact for me and my Roon end point. Wish I had done this years ago had I known.

Is the optical package dry or thin sounding?  I have seen some posts suggesting such.

Not sure about their setups that claim thin sound, or what optical they are using. 

I am using this setup based on feedback here and at WBF. I have Innuos Zenith Mk3 with LessLoss Echo's End Dac with LL Fire Wire 640X. No this sound here also has a LPS for the Optical Converters. 

Hello @mdrone,  I was concerned with the thin or lean comments on the fibre conversions, as well as adding two more power supplies.

I went with a M12 switch and Optimo 3 power supply, both from JCAT.

Stunning improvement.  The switch can be placed just in front of the streamer, or for me I needed it between my modem, Nucleus, and Supra cat 8 runs to each audio room.

optical in my system does not sound lean at all, very rich relaxed sound, detail presented very well, not forced - cleaning up digital nasties improves midbass and bass in my experience

I hadn’t heard that about the optical package being dry or thin - I would’ve been hesitant as well. Agree with the above - relaxed and rich sounding. My experience as well in addition to much less noise which was plaguing my system. 

For those experiencing thin or dry SQ from optical I too have experienced this. The issue may arise in some systems due to incompatibility with generic FMC and/or SMPS or lesser quality LPS. Upgrading to Sonore OpticalModules with nice LPS will solve this issue.

And then we have optimizing of these modules or any optical converter or device, this https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/62352-finisar-sfp-modules-for-audio-grade-network-switch-group-buy-for-audiophilestylecom/#comments

I just purchased the two reference grade Constellation cables with the Finisar enterprise grade optical transceivers.  These will install into Sonore OM and OR, I'll soon discover the efficacy of these!

Yep, the JCAT items all top flight products, using Optimo S ATX LPS on my custom build streamer, $6k, provides three rails all with 30amp capability, major, major contributor to awesome streaming.

Also, see Michael Lavorgna of Twittering Machines review of Sonore Signature Rendu   Quite the opposite of thin and dry. 

I'm of a view we are still in discovery phase of network optimization, new products coming out all the time.

@sns you seem to be really high on these guys from Hong Kong at After Dark. ??

@jerryg123  Not really, never owned or tried prior to this purchase. By the way Finisar is US company out of Sunnyvale California.

@sns well their products are made in Mylasia at least that is what the picture from the guys in Hong Kong are showing. I do not really care where it is made as long as it works... 

What electronic product isn't manufactured and/or doesn't use Asian manufactured parts these days.

I love to experiment and streaming gives me the greatest opportunity these days, AfterDark looks to be on cutting edge of that. Small Green computer/Sonore also offers Finisar optical transceiver as upgrade for their products, in speaking to Andrew discovered it was not the enterprise grade Finisar, which is mostly out of stock and/or selling for over $300 at some rip off sites. Supply chain issues and great demand for this particular module, also some clones out there, not same quality as Finisar. I gather Finisar US specs the modules, outsources manufacturing to Asia, whats new.

Clearly many different routes to try.

Has anyone tried the Farad LPS with the SGC?

@mdrone  Not heard Farad PS, but based on reports from various forums these are first class LPS. If their ATX LPS had been available I may have chosen it over the JCAT Optimo ATX LPS I ended up purchasing.

Also chassis grounding the FMC into a Entreq or similar device and grounding the switch also improves the SQ.

any thoughts of isolating the server and modem from the other components?  And more importantly, if that is not an option whats the most effective work around?