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Dedicated NUC/Nucleaus vs shared PC (w Fiber Media Converter connected to Endpoint)

A Roon system of 2 devices includes:

- Music Server (NUC/Nucleaus/PC, etc...)

- Endpoint (SOtM, Sonore, etc..)

with Fiber Media Converter in between.

I think we all agree that a dedicated machine of NUC/Nucleaus will be better than a shared PC as a music server. But is there a big difference of sound quality if we have optical isolation between the shared PC and an endpoint ?

Here is the idea:

A shared PC creates 2 problems:

- Analog noises (from power, fan..). But most of them can be eliminated by optical isolation like Fiber Media Converter (according to Small Green Computer).

- Latency, jitter (because PC run many other tasks). But the endpoint and DAC have buffers. So all jitters before DAC can be ignored. Besides, if we don’t listen to too fast music, the issue (if happen) will not impact much.

So does a NUC really brings a difference, compared with a shared Pc connected with endpoint through FIber media converter ????

truongv0ky
sns
3,322 posts
 

@sgreg1 You can only control what you can control. Just as the electrical grid is not something I can control, so is ISP. Doesn't mean I can't realize full potential of what is offered via equipment upgrades within the home or audio system.

 

For those who believe a general service computer delivers sound quality on par with dedicated streaming components I'd suggest  doing direct comparisons in home. Both noise and jitter in digital components are easily heard. Contemporary digital far superior to early digital, due largely to massive efforts in reducing both. We are not at end game in these efforts, further reductions now has digital playing at or near level playing field with the best of best vinyl rigs. Lowering of noise floors and reducing jitter to ever more vanishing levels is totally responsible for providing digital with more analog like sound qualities.

 

For some, general service computers may be sufficient, but to state no better sound quality possible is total nonsense.

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truongv0ky OP
8 posts
 

@sns I think in term of data preservation, there is no loss from music server to DAC. But the problem is that each component will add noise. Do you think the optical isolator and DAC buffer can help to remove most noises from a shared PC.

sns
3,322 posts
 

@truongv0ky The only optical conversion I've done post server included Sonore OpticalRendu which is optical streamer This replaced SOTM SMS 200 Neo ethernet streamer. Was it the streamer alone or combo of streamer and optical conversion that was responsible for improvement?  Presume mostly due to OpticalRendu as it has better clock than SOTM, lower noise floor of optical vs ethernet didn't hurt.

 

I did try optical conversion in front of server, prefer ethernet here.

 

Optical does provide 100% isolation, ethernet something less than total isolation. Issue is second fiber media converter injects it's own noise, cheap FMC have noisy power supply and pretty poor clocks. So, bottom line, implementation most important in optical vs ethernet solution.

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