Even PS audio claimed about internal Lense I went through 2 media converters via optical cable. It’s sounds better for me than with just copper cable like AQ pearl and wi fi connection (which I put on 3rd place) @Paul am i dreaming?)))
After using fiber for a few years, I’m back to copper.
Feels more natural.
Everything has to do with budget, of course.
But in my opinion, converters from copper to fiber do more harm than good.
My network is fiber, except the PoE that feeds the ap’s and cameras. But I do run ethernet from the local switch to my dac. There are several switches that hang off the core via fiber.
Yes, I used fiber for 2 years with 2 pieces of TPlink media converters first the 100MB version later the 1GB version.
It sounded good and was clean from the beginning.
Later I was irritated by the restless high.
Yet again tried the copper way and this sounded much fuller (analog) but also not perfect.
Then I tried several switches with LPS and SMPS.
Finally ended up with 2 cascade switches from Netgear (cheap 305)
powered with a DIY “hybrid” 5V power supply.
From there an AQ CAT7 utp cable to an LHY SW6.
From the LHY SW6 an FTA metis cable to the streamer.
Each component does something.
When I first started using fiberoptic, I was using Toplink converters then some others that could be found on Amazon. None of them sounded better than good ethernet cables.
It was not until I paired LHY SW-10 and SW-8 with FO that the SQ made a quantum leap! So, the quality of the converter/switch matters more than the cable itself. Another culprit is the transceivers. I was surprised to hear a not-so-subtle improvement from using good transceivers and F.O. cable. These implementations finally gave me the fullness and detail that equaled the best ethernet cables but gave me a darker background.
Otherwise, a good ethernet cable (do not even need to be over $1k) would sound better than FO.
The new LHY Audio EFI could be a great solution for FO noise isolation. I wish it came out two years ago, then I could have saved more spaces and power cords (I am using two topline AQ cords to power the two SW switches)