Fibre optic networking for audio using POF
Posted by: ChrisSU on 18 April 2016
After much procrastination, I’ve finally got round to installing a fully wired network in my house. It was always going to be messy, with two half-metre thick internal stone walls to get through, but it’s done. I was also put off by the idea of linking my streamer and server/NAS through the network back to the phone line, as my house is in an exposed location, and I’ve already had a Unitiserve, amongst other things, destroyed by a direct lightning strike via the phone cable, not to mention the possibility of linking numerous SMPS-fed devices more-or-less directly to my streamer.
My interest in using fibre started when Andrew Everard posted here, and on his blog, about very positive results of using TP Link media converters, but I wanted to go further and network my whole house too. With a bit of online research I discovered some rather expensive commercial fibre devices, switches etc., but then I stumbled across Plastic Optical Fibre (POF) which is a little different to regular (Glass) Fibre Optic. I now have a 4-port POF switch, and Media Converters linking my router, streamer, Unitiserve etc and it all works nicely. It seems to have cleaned up the sound a little, but I really need to do some more listening to evaluate this.
Rather than rambling on too much about this, here’s a list of the pros and cons of using POF vs regular Ethernet cabling:
+ optical isolation to help keep RFI etc out of your sensitive audio gear.
+ optical isolation prevents a lightning strike to your phone line from frying your HiFi.
+ very thin 2.2 x 4.4mm cable is much easier to instal and conceal than Cat5/6/7.
+ low ‘minimum bend radius’ makes it easier to route around corners (MBR is 20mm, as opposed to 50mm for Chord C-Stream Ethernet cable.)
+ cable terminations are a very simple DIY job - so you only need to drill very small holes in your wall to accommodate the cable, there is no bulky RJ45 style plug.
- the system I chose runs at 100meg speeds, which is plenty for my needs, but hardly cutting edge, if you need GB network speeds, products are in the pipeline for this, but maybe not available yet.
- each media converter introduces another SMPS, so care might be needed in choosing and siting these.
I would certainly recommend POF to anyone who is considering a fully wired network. I’ll leave it at that for now, but can post further info if anyone is interested.