"Audiophile Grade" Ethernet Switches - The new generation

[ssfas]

I'm not certain that it's a better option than the TP Link converters if you want galvanic isolation.

I'm using an ETHERRegen and like it, and don't notice any coloration, but I won't dispute your statements about what you hear. What I will talk about is galvanic isolation.

My audio system is connected to a dedicated circuit. My router, in a different room, is on one of my household circuits. The dedicated circuit provides a good degree of galvanic isolation for the audio system but I lose that if I connect a copper ethernet connection all the way from the router to my Roon Nucleus+ and 140 Pro. The ETHERRegen helped a bit by providing isolation when the signal crossed its moat but I wondered whether it was possible to do better.

Instead of connecting the ETHERRegen directly to the ethernet wall point which provides a connection to my router, I connected a TP Link converter to the wall point and connected its power supply to a power output on the same circuit as my router. I used a fibre optic connection from the converter to the ETHERRegen which gets its power from the dedicated circuit for the audio system so there is now no copper wired connection between the audio system on the dedicated circuit and the router and other household devices on other circuits,. The fibre optic run makes the connection between the audio system on the dedicated circuit and all devices not on the dedicated circuit. That made a very noticeable difference.

The problem I see with the Fibrebox II is that it powers the converters at both ends of the fibre optic link from the same power input so it can't provide complete galvanic isolation, the output is connected to the same power circuit in your house as the input is connected and that means that both input and output are susceptible to the same noise components from your household power.

If you want to get the most galvanic isolation possible you need to have the input and output ends of the fibre optic link getting their power from different circuits  so that means using 2 separate conversion devices, not combining the two in a single box with a single power supply.

There may well be better ethernet to fibre converters than the TP Link devices, and I find myself wondering about whether or not I would benefit from something like the Sonore optical module instead, but I know from my experience to date that I get better results when the switch and audio system are on a different power circuit to my router and other household devices and the router end of the fibre optic link is not connected in any way to the same power circuit as the switch and audio system. It's not possible to do that with the Fibre Box device.

I don't use switching. I have a 1m ethernet cable (Blue Jeans) from my modem into my server (Innuos Zen Mk3) and that connects directly by ethernet to the Devialet Expert Pro ethernet input. The modem/Innuos are in my office and the connection requires a 25m cable under the floor and down a wall.

I ran parallel ethernet (AQ Pearl CAT 6a) and fibre optic. The fibre optic uses TPLink converters, an iFi 9v supply at the sending end and a 9v battery (SoTM) at the receiving end, so galvanic isolation. The last connection uses Blue Jeans ethernet.

I can honestly say that I cannot hear any difference between the fibre optic and copper ethernet connections.