Antoine's system

[Antoine]

The Romaz tweak is highly recommended! Things become spookily real with it. Surprised not many other mR/sMS-200 owners have tried (or shared they did). They don't know what they're missing.

In my set up the PC is over 6 metres away from the Devialet.  Without going into too much detail, the room is perfectly set up (with hard wired Ethernet) for running a mR in the traditional way, that is computer/router/switch/mR.  OK, I could try this, but it would cause compromises elsewhere.  Also, I have to be honest here, and whilst I fully understood Romaz's original suggestion re direct connection, I did not fully understand your subsequent posts regarding FMC's, I think I'd need a diagram and an explanation of what an FMC is! 

Back to the direct connection approach, this did make me think of the Sonic Transporter.  Maybe they could make a derivative of this suitable for direct connection?  As things stand the Sonic Transporter only has a single Ethernet port, so is not suitable.  Just a thought!

Hi Confused,

I know exactly what you mean, all my networking stuff here is invisible as well but now I have the direct connection I have a fiber cable that's running over the floor and down the stairs until I find a way to hide it from sight.  It requires a new path since I can't make sharp corners with such a cable (for CAT cables this is less of an issue) so need to drill some new holes here and there etc.

A FMC is a 'fiber media converter'. It's a small networking device which converts fiber optic based ethernet to regular copper based ethernet. It allows one to cross much greater distances than coppper ethernet cables can. Of course we crazy audiophiles use them to get full galvanic isolation. A FMC connects to any standard ethernet port so if one uses a pair you can effectively replace a single ethernet cable run with it. It's not required for this tweak to work so you can forget about it if you want.

Once I get my Visio software up&running again I'll update the diagram I posted a few pages back to reflect the new situation.

Personally I don't like the Sonic Transporter appliances, I want full control of the hard- and software of my PC's but I can imagine they fit the bill for many who don't want to configure and maintain a computer. I did read on CA that some have already asked the manufacturer to consider adding this dual network interface functionality.

The Romaz tweak is highly recommended! Things become spookily real with it. Surprised not many other mR/sMS-200 owners have tried (or shared they did). They don't know what they're missing.

How would this aproach work if you run AIR? I know this is with Roon endpoint but it got me thinking och adding a extra network card to my computer and run my 440 on one this card and the other connection to my Router. Then Roon core, AIR3 would talk directly to the amp without going through the router I suppose, computers is not my strongest thing here in life

There are some caveats but it works just fine. I've run things like that right up to the moment I switched over to USB in 2014. See page 2 of this topic, post #15. There are multiple topics about this setup on this forum. If you search for 'direct ethernet' you'll find some of them like these two:

http://devialetchat.com/showthread.php?tid=22
http://devialetchat.com/showthread.php?tid=38

The Romaz tweak is highly recommended! Things become spookily real with it. Surprised not many other mR/sMS-200 owners have tried (or shared they did). They don't know what they're missing.

+1. I can only only confirm your findings.

After some extended testing, I am also surprised as to the enhanced stability this has brought to my setup.  I have always suspected that my Cisco SG-200 switch (or its settings) has been a source of issues regarding drops/stuttering when streaming high res files. With my music PC now directly connected to the mR, all of these problems have disappeared.  

Also strongly recommend this relatively easy modification if your setup allows.

Great to read! That Cisco SG-200 is quite the problematic switch for many, I've seen it being mentioned in many multicast related issues on CA. Sometimes a 'dumb' and unmanaged switch is the best in our home situations though these not always provide all the options one might need in a more complex network of course. I work with many Cisco devices at work up to and including the big Nexus 9000 stuff and their ASA firewall range but for me at home it would be serious overkill, even their smallest offerings.