... baby steps in digital setup

[NigelB]

I think this looks really interesting, @tedwoods. At first glance I thought it was a 2-port switch but it purports to be effectively 2 FMCs in one case. Great price too! For audio, the LEDs aren’t ideal and don’t really add any value; but it would be interesting to hear feedback from anyone using one.

 

[tedwoods]

I think this looks really interesting, @tedwoods. At first glance I thought it was a 2-port switch but it purports to be effectively 2 FMCs in one case. Great price too! For audio, the LEDs aren’t ideal and don’t really add any value; but it would be interesting to hear feedback from anyone using one.

It seems the LEDs can be turned off (there is a switch for that), but I'm not sure if that includes the port LEDs as well...

 

[NigelB]

It seems the LEDs can be turned off (there is a switch for that), but I'm not sure if that includes the port LEDs as well...

That would be a bonus. Obviously there are compromises here - shared power supply across upstream and downstream sides, adjacent circuitry allowing for noise leakage from upstream to downstream etc but for the price, that’s a heck of a lot of tech.

 

[Ian B]

It is generally considered far better to store files on the network, especially if you are using a fibre rather than a copper connection, than connecting a noisy USB device connected with a wire that carries 5 V power. USB is easy, but it’s really not recommended. There are plenty of companies making high-quality streamers who have always refused to enable USB data input connections, this was the case with my first streamer from Linn and the Innuos streamers that I’ve been using since 2016.

This is the kind of device. Dead easy to set up.

WD 8TB My Cloud Home Personal Cloud​

I want to say that I've found network connections considerably more noisy than an external USB drive. I have an 2TB drive connected to the back of my EMM Labs NS1 streamer (which I use the optilink optical output). With the USB, a Shunyata Omega USB cable and a couple iFi purifier dongles (iGalvanic 3.0, iSilencer) are able to get most, if not all the noise. With an ethernet connection, the rabbit hole to clean that up is endless and eventually you work up into Taiko Audio stuff which gets really expensive. I've personally not ever come to a point where network streamed stuff didn't have some overly of noise. FWIW.