That's the beginning of the product description for the opticalRendu on SGC's site.
If that's not clear...<snarky comment of choice here>.
Is optical mostly a waste of time versus Ethernet?
The only value I see with a fiber optical cable is if you have a long long run.
All the noise coming into an optical fiber is preserved and comes out the other side. I guess there is a value in not creating more noise while it is traveling through the optical cable. But if it's a short run of two Feet then is it really worth it. Seems a well shielded Ethernet cable would do just as fine without all the hassle of converting to optical which is a pain in the ass.
I always thought there was value with optical but it seems they're really may not be. Maybe I'm wrong. It seems a switch likely produces a lot of noise and inserting an audio grade switch is very prudent and going optical really doesn't solve switch noise problem. The benefit of re-clocking offered by a decent switch to clean up the signal is worthwhile.
Showing 2 responses by sbank
@jumia happy to try to help with that....
micro & ultra were earlier model streamers that take ethernet as input and output USB to your DAC. opticalRendu came later and added conversion of ethernet-to-optical, followed by conversion from optical-to-USB output to your DAC.
Rendus all follow the high end principle of simpler circuits and better ,quieter parts. Many, including me, find that regular computers with big operating systems(e.g. Windows, Mac) run many tasks unrelated to audio and those add noise. By using a simple Linux OS focused only on doing audio, these(and many other good streamers) eliminate lots of this noise.
A good quality linear power supply is highly recommended. Costs vary widely.
Just plug a standard RJ45 ethernet cable coming from your internet router, switch or wifi extender into the Rendu as your input. Standard USB A-B type goes from Rendu output to your DAC input.
It uses a small number of good parts to sound good.
Years ago, USB sucked pretty bad, now it doesn't, if care is taken. Some users used to add converters to instead connect a different digital cable type to their DAC. Since they put lots of effort into making their USB output sound good, you shouldn't bother with any of those converters and instead just connect a USB to your DAC.
You use your web browser on any device to adjust settings. It's pretty easy. When they do software updates every couple of years, you can buy it for ~$30. They mail you a little micro-SD card, and you just pop it in to replace the old one. Takes 2minutes. Does that help? Cheers, Spencer |