Yesterday was my wife's birthday but she let me, in her words, "play with the stereo" for an hour or so which was very nice of her. I did after all cook dinner and waited on her hand and foot all day!
Interesting experience switching back to copper ethernet after having listened to music for over a year via fiber. I need to listen more but so far I like what I heard last night. I was expecting something rather subtle but what I heard was quite easy to differentiate. I hear more body and weight and more 3-dimensionality with the copper connection. And with the body I think I also hear a bit more subtle detail and texture to instrumental sounds and voices. I haven't detected much if any loss of dynamics, leading edge or HF information relative to fiber.
Now, fiber didn't sound thin or lack weight before but it could sound a tad bit too energetic at times and less favored recorded material that have a tendency toward edginess with fiber sound more relaxed while not being slowed down or softened via copper ethernet.
These differences hold true whether listening to local content stored on the Extreme or streamed from Qobuz or Tidal, perhaps being a bit more pronounced when comparing streamed music.
I did run into one self-generated temporary frustration when doing the change to copper. It took me a few tries before realizing that I had to first click on the TAS player icon to discover all Extremes on my network after making the switch from fiber to copper ethernet. I thought I had reserved a static IP address for the Extreme in my modem/router but evidently I had not. So after the swap the address had changed and the TAS player needed to re-discover my Extreme before it would play.
I do note something interesting that I can't explain. I wrote in an earlier post that looking at ethernet settings in Windows with fiber connected, my three interfaces were:
"In this window on the right panel you will see a list of ethernet inputs. Mine are, from top to bottom -- Standard Ethernet (not connected), Tweaked Ethernet (not connected), and Network 3 (connected). Network 3 is my current fiber input to the Extreme. An SFP is active in the Extreme's SFP cage and my fiber goes directly to it."
Looking at ethernet settings now with a copper ethernet cable plugged into the port labeled "LAN 2" on the back of the Extreme, they show the same as before -- that is, Standard Ethernet and Tweaked Ethernet still show "not connected" and Network 3 continues to show "connected", but with the new IP address. I've restarted the Extreme since making the switch to copper ethernet, but Windows doesn't show anything other than my connection IP address changed.
Any ideas? Later today I'll pull the SFP and see if that makes a difference. I would like to verify that I actually have my copper cable plugged into the "Tweaked Ethernet" port, though it certainly sounds lovely at present.
I reserve the right to change my mind after more listening, but for now going back to copper ethernet is the favorite here at Rancho De Luxe.
Steve Z
triodewirelabs.com
