network streaming tweaks

vtpcnk posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuu0gjWEORg

thanks vpcnk, i believe you now, and certainly Mike-B too.   So, for me, the unique usefulness of this is that you don’t need 2 fmc converters but one.   If streamers had optical fiber output, it would be more useful.....

Just bit the bullet and purchased a refurbished Cisco 2960 8 tc to replace a Netgear gs108. Have to say it has opened up the sound and made the sound more vibrant, sort of comes to life. As I daisy chain from a Netgear gs108 to the Cisco, I now wonder if another Cisco would be a good idea?

Gazza posted:

Just bit the bullet and purchased a refurbished Cisco 2960 8 tc to replace a Netgear gs108. Have to say it has opened up the sound and made the sound more vibrant, sort of comes to life. As I daisy chain from a Netgear gs108 to the Cisco, I now wonder if another Cisco would be a good idea?

 

Gazza

Did you get yours from Germany? The U.K. people seemed to charge more without being clear about the refurbishment.

Phil

I looked on eBay and to be frank I have never bought anything from it, I am risk averse or stupid. I bought from eccentric professionals, it was refurbished, set to factory default, and immaculate. I like the idea of buying from a reputable company to sort out problems as I am computer illiterate. So for £90 delivered, it was worth it for me....but I realise I did pay over the odds, but still very happy.

Second Hand is very good but if you can push and find a brand new sealed 2960 it is far superior.

Hmm there was a guy on eBay selling new, unboxed ones for £20 for charity.........my risk averse, too good to be true scepticism kicked in.

>thanks vpcnk, i believe you now, and certainly Mike-B too.   So, for me, the unique usefulness of this is that you don’t >need 2 fmc converters but one.   If streamers had optical fiber output, it would be more useful.....

beyond that, it first does the conversion within the switch itself. also within cisco which is a quality product.

also i think it should be possible to feed the output of the optic fiber into another cisco 2960 and get the conversion done to ethernet and output to the streamer.

but be careful of the sfp modules for cisco. apparently not all of them work with cisco 2960 and you need to find a compatible one.

btw it looks like most 2960s have the dual purpose port and so u should check yours for that too.

but i think a good techie guy should be able to open up and wire the 2960 in such a way that it first converts ethernet to optic fiber and also reconverts it back to ethernet as final output - all within the switch itself. maybe it can be configured so with specific ports on the unit.

vtpcnk posted:

but i think a good techie guy should be able to open up and wire the 2960 in such a way that it first converts ethernet to optic fiber and also reconverts it back to ethernet as final output - all within the switch itself. maybe it can be configured so with specific ports on the unit.

it seems to be a good idea. But we don’t know yet if it will work. I am curious to know.

Gazza posted:

Just bit the bullet and purchased a refurbished Cisco 2960 8 tc to replace a Netgear gs108. Have to say it has opened up the sound and made the sound more vibrant, sort of comes to life. As I daisy chain from a Netgear gs108 to the Cisco, I now wonder if another Cisco would be a good idea?

 

Curious if you were using the John Swenson ground shunt adapter tweak with the GS108 and using ports 1,3, or 5 only? 

I may have to pick up a 2960 at some point just to compare, though I have a fanless 24 port Trendnet with internal power supply coming to use as a main switch ($49 refurb from the factory) to cut down on some daisy chaining. For audio I currently go to a Netgear FS105 with the ground shunt and using ports 1 and 3 for streamer and server and powered by a small LPS. Sounds fine to me. 

Sorry never heard of the John Swenson shunt, and used the ports randomly. I did have ifi dc purifier on the gs108, though it did not make much difference.

if u are planning to experiment with cisco sfp this is an important document :

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/...900aecd80322c37.html

actually if people are not interested in optic/sfp, then cisco sg200 seems to be the ideal switch for audio.

Cisco SG110D is all you need

Obsydian posted:

Second Hand is very good but if you can push and find a brand new sealed 2960 it is far superior.

hey obsydian, have you compared cisco 2960 second hand to a brand new 2960?  why new sealed is far superior ?

French Rooster posted:

Obsydian posted:

Second Hand is very good but if you can push and find a brand new sealed 2960 it is far superior.

hey obsydian, have you compared cisco 2960 second hand to a brand new 2960?  why new sealed is far superior ?

Yes.

You guys got my into the first second hand 2960. I was very happy with that upgrade, but do get a bit new OFF (if you know what I mean).

So I kept looking for the exact model brand new, managed to find one, was fully sealed Cisco box.

For sure it was more open and dynamic.

Maybe the older ones may have had a hard life :  

The way I read the spec of the Cisco 2960 8 tc is that it has a fibre port which requires a relatively cheap module inserted. This means that one fmc and power supply is saved. 

I have not investigated which fmc would be compatible with the Cisco. Is it determined by the cable that the Cisco module supports?

I can see no justification for a better ifi iPower ps at the hub end. 

It also seems to me that the Cisco 2960 might benefit from being plugged into a less noisy circuit or is it likely to have a internal SMPS of its own? Mine plugs into the bar used by the TV, DVD, Apple TV, NAS and Humax Sat box. However, I just use the TV as a media player for when I can’t be bothered to use the CDX2 into nDAC+XPSDR.

What about the NAS? Mine has quite a big wall wart.

Phil

is a 10/100 switch enough or do we need 10/100/1000?

the average size of a flac file is only some 50 mb or so.

Obsydian posted:

French Rooster posted:

Obsydian posted:

Second Hand is very good but if you can push and find a brand new sealed 2960 it is far superior.

hey obsydian, have you compared cisco 2960 second hand to a brand new 2960?  why new sealed is far superior ?

Yes.

You guys got my into the first second hand 2960. I was very happy with that upgrade, but do get a bit new OFF (if you know what I mean).

So I kept looking for the exact model brand new, managed to find one, was fully sealed Cisco box.

For sure it was more open and dynamic.

Maybe the older ones may have had a hard life : &nbsp

just a question Obsydian, not related to this topic :   you are only streaming from tidal.  Why not also try to hear some high rez and just buy a nas . You have elegant nas like the qnap hs251.  Some good sounding high rez are a good step in sound quality vs tidal streaming.  

You have tweaked now your network and enjoy the sound.  The star can stream downloads high rez stocked on a nas. The qnap hs251 is around 300GBP.  

Just a suggestion....

Personally I'd go for gigabit, but apparently they can be noisier.

The new Uniti series do not have gigabit ethernet I was surprised to find.

vtpcnk posted:

is a 10/100 switch enough or do we need 10/100/1000?

the average size of a flac file is only some 50 mb or so.

All Naim streamers use 100MB Ethernet, as it is more than enough for audio streams, including 24/192 etc. 

vtpcnk posted:

is a 10/100 switch enough or do we need 10/100/1000?

the average size of a flac file is only some 50 mb or so.

are you going to try two cisco 2960 with fiber optic ?  if it works i presume it will sound better than the cheap fmc converters.  You would be the inventor of the best network bridge possible !

i think i am going to go for the 10/100/1000 2960 which costs like double of a standard 2960. so fiber optic will have to wait.

did u check your own 2960 for the fiber optic port? 

this is the single mode sfp module for 2960 : GLC-LH-SM. for 20 dollars or so, u can try if u are able to output a fiber optic signal from the 2960 to the tp-link fmr. if that works everybody is on an upgrade path to fiber optic link to another cisco 2960.

btw there are some 2960 switches with two sfp ports. a technical project manager who works with me said that there is a concept called loopback in networking where you can turn the signal inward. so u take the fiber optic signal from one sfp port  and loop it back into the other sfp port. but whether you can take it out again out of the ethernet port is a question. maybe somebody who is good at networking can answer this. S-in-S?

vtpcnk posted:

i think i am going to go for the 10/100/1000 2960 which costs like double of a standard 2960. so fiber optic will have to wait.

did u check your own 2960 for the fiber optic port? 

this is the single mode sfp module for 2960 : GLC-LH-SM. for 20 dollars or so, u can try if u are able to output a fiber optic signal from the 2960 to the tp-link fmr. if that works everybody is on an upgrade path to fiber optic link to another cisco 2960.

sorry but i am a bit tired with all these tweaks.  I would have to try the good sfp module, then find a compatible fiber optic, then configure the cisco certainly ( i don’t know how)....and finally it is not sure that sound quality will change vs the tp link....

You have launched the idea, i thought you were interested by it.  What is the cisco model you want to buy?   what is the difference ?    For Simon in the Suffolk, all 2960 switch are nearly the same, he has tested a lot ( 8tc, 8tl....).    And does it really matters with a uniqute?

I have an nds/555 dr and before used a simple netgear gs105 switch. The cisco gave a bit more edge and involvement vs the netgear, but it was not night and day.  I guess that with an uniqute, the effect must be minimal.   But perhaps i am wrong....i have not tried with an uniqute or atom...