Oh nice. I am still unclear about the connections.
Hi Renjith,
Here is post by an audiophile using Roon nucleus plus , Lumin 1 and Dutch & Dutch active speakers with built in DAC. He also converted his LAN connections to Optical using SFP modules and optical cables. And he finds a huge improvement.
Read what he has to say :—
Now that I've switched to the
Dutch & Dutch 8c speakers, I need three ethernet cable connections in my audio room. Thus the need for an ethernet switch in this room. One ethernet cable is needed for my Lumin X1 streamer and one for each of the D&D speakers.
It also occurred to me that now that I had ethernet in this this room, I could also move my Roon Nucleus+ and the Keces P8 linear power supply for it to my audio room. Until now, they had been in my dining room immediately below my audio room, where the Nucleus+ could be attached via a short ethernet cable to my Xfinity Advanced Gateway modem/router. That router is in a great spot for supplying strong Wi-Fi signal throughout my old plaster-walled two-story house. I had tucked the Nucleus+ and its power supply under a hutch where they were out of the way of foot traffic. The router sits on the floor under a stationary stool right next to the hutch--I'm not sure why that location works so well for Wi-Fi in my home, but so it does.
I did not want to also move the router to the audio room for three reasons. First, the router has a fan which operates most of the time and thus would be audible during quiet passages of music. Second, I would have to route a cable connection to the audio room in addition to the ethernet connection and didn't want to incur the expense for that, given the $1,000 I just spent to get the ethernet connection to this room. Third, putting the router in this room probably would not give me the great Wi-Fi coverage I currently have in the house, necessitating some sort of mesh router system. Most of those (if not all) do not have the Wi-Fi bandwidth I currently get from my Xfinity router with Gigabit service. Even with Wi-Fi I regularly clock speeds of 600 mbps and above in my audio room. Most mesh systems are only rated for 100 to 200 mbps.
The advantage of moving the Roon Nucleus+ and its Keces P8 power supply to the audio room is that I could take advantage of the vibration isolation and purer powerlines available in the audio room, courtesy of my Salmander Archetype rack, A/V Room Service EVP isolation feet, the dedicated power lines, and P.I. Audio Group outlets and UberBusses in this room.
I also thought I'd take this opportunity to try out the fiber optical connection my Lumin X1 offers in place of the copper ethernet connection I'd been using. This type of wired connection is explained on the Lumin website at
this fibre networking page. This required swapping out my TP Link gigabit switch for a switch with an SFP slot. Since I know little about fibre networking and did not want to have to learn how to troubleshoot such network connections, I followed Lumin's instructions to the letter, figuring that they know what fibre networking equipment works with their Lumin X1.
Thus, going by the recommendations on the Lumin Fibre Networking page I purchased the recommended
Cisco switch (about $170 through Amazon), plus two of the
10GTek single-mode 1310nm SFP modules (about $40 from Amazon), plus a one-meter fibre optic cable from FS (about $10), for a total investment of about $220 to move from a copper ethernet connection between the Cisco switch and the Lumin X1 to a fibre optic ethernet connection between those two components.
I moved the outboard Lumin X1 linear power supply up to the top shelf of my three-shelf Salamander rack alongside the main chassis. I mounted the Roon Nucleus+ and its Keces P8 outboard linear power supply side by side on the middle shelf. I mounted the Cisco switch atop the two P.I. Audio Group UberBusses on the lower shelf. Each piece of equipment is mounted atop four A/V Room Service EVP (Equipment Vibration Protectors) of the proper weight rating for each component. All equipment, including the D&D 8c speakers, is plugged into the UburBusses.
Here's a picture of this new set up:
Note that if you want to try the fibre optic connection with the Lumin X1, I recommend that under options in the Lumin App you first select that the Network LED be on. I had it off before. While I don't know for sure, I think this is necessary for the fibre optic network connection. I did not call Lumin about this and can't find any online discussion about that option, but it makes sense that the option refers to enabling the fibre optic networking option. It does not refer to anything visible on the Lumin X1's screen display since the display stays the same with that option on or off.
Also note that the instructions for installing the SFP modules stress that these are static sensitive devices. In other words, you are advised to wear a wrist strap grounding device when working with these. I attached the grounding cable of mine to the ground screw on the back of my Lumin X1 and had no mishaps. There were no instructions supplied as to how to attach the two "wires" of the fibre optic cable to the modules or which side is "up" when you insert the modules. I saw what I thought was color coding (white and yellow) on both the cable and modules, but when I tried to match up these color codings the cable would not fit into the modules. I went with the way everything physically went together easily and got a reassuring click when the fibre cables mated with the modules. Similarly, the modules would only physically insert into the ports in one orientation, so that was decided for me. I "got sound" immediately the first time I hooked up the new connections with no "network error" messages.
So, how does it sound compared to the previous ethernet connections? More marvelous!
This system was already marvelous in sound, the best by far I've had in this room. But the combination of better vibration protection, purer powerlines, and the fibre optic connection between the switch and the Lumin moves the performance up to a level of naturalness and a freedom from distortion which I had to hear to believe. There is simultaneously an increased smoothness and transparency to the sound without any real detail being lost. What is lost is distortion which was adding just a bit of edge that was not really noticed until I heard its absence.
I did A/B the Lumin with a copper ethernet link, then with the optical link. That change in itself is a significant part of the transformation I'm hearing.
Changing from copper ethernet to the fibre optic connection between the switch and the Lumin X1 meant even less "grunge" in the background, blacker backgrounds, even less high frequency digital nasties, and a generally more open sound. This is true regardless of the quality of the program--it applies from low-bit-rate internet radio up through high-res programs from Tidal or Qobuz. Lumin and the reviewers who have commented on this type of connection's performance are correct. This is better yet than an ethernet connection, which itself was better than a single Wi-Fi link in the streaming connection.
I can heartily recommend that those of you who have a Lumin X1 (or another streamer with a fibre connection potential built in--are there any others?) try this right away. The money spent, at least in my system, was way out of proportion to the audible improvement. What was obviously already a top streamer before in terms of sound quality is now at another level entirely, qualitatively superior to anything I've previously heard in network streaming.
. Let me know if need help on setting up.
