Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème

[jeremya]

Purposely introducing jitter is an absolutely valid sound tuning tool which I have used myself in the past. Although maybe even currently as 80km SFP modules used on short ranges can definitely introduce some of that

I’m curious how long your fiber run is and what SFP modules you’ve evaluated so far?
I did a quick web search and was surprised to discover there are modules ranging from 1m, 2m, 5m, 7m, 10m... on up to the many kilometer ranges.

 

[Abyss Man]

A Termina

A Terminator PLUS coming !? I hope there will be an "upgrade" possibility for actual Terminator owners like me ;-)

I hope so too.

 

[Esotar]

I hope so too.

I checked your hope.

Alvin said it is possible.

Denafrips Zhao is very shy guy, so his only distributor president Alvin said this instead of him. Ha Ha

 

[wil]

The single and most impressive improvement to my overall quality in streaming was placing an Sbooster mkII that had upgraded by one of the US Sbooster dealers Paul Hovenga at ManyMoons Audio on my internet modem.

That's quite a statement! I'm curious to try replacing the switch mode with linear on my Att supplied modem (fiber in- ethernet out).

Did you listen-test with and without the LPS un-sighted? My personal experience has been, that with any change short of the dramatic, that ear/brain expectation bias can be very misleading.

 

[Abyss Man]

I checked your hope.

Alvin said it is possible.

Denafrips Zhao is very shy guy, so his only distributor president Alvin said this instead of him. Ha Ha

And the wait begins

 

[Taiko Audio]

I’m curious how long your fiber run is and what SFP modules you’ve evaluated so far?
I did a quick web search and was surprised to discover there are modules ranging from 1m, 2m, 5m, 7m, 10m... on up to the many kilometer ranges.

Hi Jeremya,

I have evaluated dozens by now. Up to this date the earlier recommended Startech 80km modules are still my preferred ones. I do have more modules here for testing in due time.

 

[jeremya]

Hi Jeremya,

I have evaluated dozens by now. Up to this date the earlier recommended Startech 80km modules are still my preferred ones. I do have more modules here for testing in due time.

Thanks, that sounds like a real labor of love! Did you test different distances of those Startech models, perhaps differences closer to your actual fiber length? Or have you found that “over-powering” the line generally sounds better than closely matching the transmission strength to the actual length of the fiber?

 

[Taiko Audio]

Well the jury is out on the why, which is a bit mysterious. I did not try fiber lengths over 100ft.

 

[Kingsrule]

I have a 1m fiber from the switch to Extreme and it was working fine. Then I tried the 5db fiber attenuators and they sounded pretty bad, flat and no dynamics. But, I always felt there was something with the short run that was sometimes a bit hard sounding. Reading all the thoughts on length got me thinking....so I put a 15m fiber run inplace of the 1m.......very substantial improvement. Gone is the hardness. Might have lost a bit of layering but its only been a day. Next is a 6m run to see what that brings......

 

[wil]

Should we assume that using 80km sfp's with much shorter fiber lengths (like 15m) is going to eventually fry the sfp's unless attenuated?

 

[Rhapsody]

I run a 15M Fiber from the Startech to the Extreme. Sounds holographic, lot's of layering, dimensional, air around instruments in the layered soundstage.

 

[Taiko Audio]

Should we assume that using 80km sfp's with much shorter fiber lengths (like 15m) is going to eventually fry the sfp's unless attenuated?

The Startech 80km sfp modules do not come with a warning that they require attenuation on short cable lengths. But yes we are using them out of “spec”. Mine are still “alive and kicking” after a year or so of 24/7 usage though. Fwiw I don’t like using attenuators either, causing a reduction of ultimate stagesize and dynamic reach in my system.

 

[microstrip]

I run a 15M Fiber from the Startech to the Extreme. Sounds holographic, lot's of layering, dimensional, air around instruments in the layered soundstage.

Can you gives us complete references of the fiber and the Startech? Sometimes I get lost in the diversity of the Extreme data systems!

Am I wrong when I think that Emile preferred configuration uses copper cable to connect to the Extreme?

 

[Taiko Audio]

Can you gives us complete references of the fiber and the Startech? Sometimes I get lost in the diversity of the Extreme data systems!

Am I wrong when I think that Emile preferred configuration uses copper cable to connect to the Extreme?

I am just about to finish up my switch shootout, will post results soon. There is a degree of voicing involved, you can balance copper for "warmth and dimensionality" with fiber for "clarity and dynamic expression".

 

[steve williams]

I am just about to finish up my switch shootout, will post results soon. There is a degree of voicing involved, you can balance copper for "warmth and dimensionality" with fiber for "clarity and dynamic expression".

Or IMO a good set of footers will suffice

 

[jturbo]

Should we assume that using 80km sfp's with much shorter fiber lengths (like 15m) is going to eventually fry the sfp's unless attenuated?

its likely that will happen at some point unless you add attenuators.

 

[jturbo]

Can you gives us complete references of the fiber and the Startech? Sometimes I get lost in the diversity of the Extreme data systems!

Am I wrong when I think that Emile preferred configuration uses copper cable to connect to the Extreme?

Based on the 15m fiber canle. It sounds like the copper cable is on the router end then startech converter then fiber into the extreme.

 

[kennyb123]

The Startech 80km sfp modules do not come with a warning that they require attenuation on short cable lengths. But yes we are using them out of “spec”. Mine are still “alive and kicking” after a year or so of 24/7 usage though. Fwiw I don’t like using attenuators either, causing a reduction of ultimate stagesize and dynamic reach in my system.

I'd like to thank you for your recommendation of the Startech SFPs, etc. I'm delighted with the sound quality improvement I got from these products.

I did find out that I was initially using attenuators incorrectly - and it made a difference. They are supposed to be used on only the receive side only, as pictured below. I thought I had to use a pair per side since the duplex connector was a single piece. Thanks to assistance I received on the AS forum, I learned the legs could be split out of the duplex connector.

Using too many attenuators or too much attenuation seemed to detract from the music. Using too little attenuation was problematic in my system though - but primarily with lesser recordings. I could happily live with what I'm hearing from 10 dB per side, but will likely revisit this over time as I improve my digital source.

 

[wil]

This is pretty confusing. How does one know which side of the fiber duplex is the receiving and which the transmitting? Your picture show it to the right side when looking down. So, are you saying the attenuators should only be on the right side (if that is the receiver side) at both ends of the cable?

Further confusion from Startech, they seem to refer to "transmitting" and "receiving" to mean transmitting at the switch end and receiving at the server end, which has nothing to do with the duplex...

"So in this case one would be the transmitter on the network switch and the other would be acting as a receiver in the network card on the server."

 

[kennyb123]

This is pretty confusing. How does one know which side of the fiber duplex is the receiving and which the transmitting?

I’m pretty sure that SFPs adhere to standards that govern physical layout so that one manufacturer’s products can interoperate with another’s that meet the same standard. I found this on Cisco’s site, but assume it applies to Startech as well. This was consistent with an illustration on Wikipedia as well.