Anyone tried fiber into EtherRegen SFP?


Putting a 2nd-hand EtherRegen before my Innuos Zenith Mk3 has probably been the single best upgrade I've made.  Like most others' experiences, the shift away from a digital sound has been palpable.

I'm feeding the ER directly from my Netgear Orbi mesh satellite through a Wireworld Starlight ethernet cable.  I was wondering, however, if anyone has experienced significant gains from feeding the ER with fiber into its SFP port? 

I did assume initially that as the ER is a regenerator the quality of the input shouldn't matter that much.  But as I saw another jump when upgrading the ER's input cable it's set me to wondering about optical.

 

128x128lollipopguild

Supposed to remove the RF buildup in a long Ethernet run.

Even as little a a foot of it.

@wsrrsw You mention Ethernet in and SFP out.  Unless we're using different terms to describe the same thing, I'm wondering about SFP in (A side) and ethernet out (B side) to streamer

I have a Lumin X1 which has a optical/fiber network input.  So I have a very short run of Ethernet cable from the source to a Sonos Ethernet to Optical converter and then run the fiber optic network cable directly into the Lumin X1 (need an inexpensive plug in adapter).  I can say that this helps the sound … not jaw dropping but cleaner and quieter.  I am not sure what other steamers have optical/fiber network as part of their standard inputs.  For those that don’t, converting from Ethernet to optical then converting back to Ethernet again on the input side seems a bit daft to me.

@chilli42 EtherRegen in reverse order like I use with my X1. The Sonore OpticalModule Deluxe, and a lot of other lower cost FMC’s. But these are not streamers.

I tend to think that the Ethernet input on a DAC is not good as USB. I have not bothered even to listen to the Ethernet on the X1, when fibre is available.

However, the easiest way of getting the Ethernet converted to fibre is getting a network switch which has both Ethernet and Fibre SPF. Such as this one that I have. I paid $125-$150 for this one, It has been jacked up to $400. I have another similar switch in the Livingroom that cost $75.

Amazon.com: Ubiquiti Networks Networks UniFi Switch 8-Port 150 Watts, White : Electronics

 

 

There is a long thread on another site with a lot of talk about using fiber media conversions into streamer. The upgrade results are saying it is one of the biggest bang for the buck improvement you can do. You need two fmc’s run by a linear power supply and the shortest cate8 cable that will work for the final run into streamer. All in it is a little over $100. I am waiting for one more shipment to hook mine up. Secondary benefit if it does nothing for sound improvement it gives you lightning protection for your streamer as a surge can’t go through fiber.