Optical fiber cable doesn’t carry noise like a metallic core Ethernet cable. I switched from Ethernet cable connection between router and my Weiss 501 to dual FMC converter boxes, optical fiber connected and immediately heard more details in the music so I’m guessing the noise floor was lowered. This was a sub $200 experiment that I liked and kept.
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.