Cable Monkey

Run your Roon computer on the A side. It isn't worth messing about configuring a second Ethernet port in my opinion. You have to assume Roon is relatively noisy (which it is when talking to multiple end points and remotes) and you want it on the other side of the moat. Also if you put Roon's ROCK operating system on the MeLE it can't accommodate a second port that can be configured to feed a streamer. Pretty much any other OS can. What OS did you intend using?

It now appears to be working.

OK, cool. It varies between not doing anything to getting to the download point but not actually downloading anything before it times out. I will try again on Monday evening local.

Not able to download this. It just hangs.

Dropping any item of electronics will be damaging. In essence you don’t need to treat an SFP or the gear it is supposed to plug into with any more deference than your favourite bit of HiFi. The only thing you need to ensure is cleanliness. You don’t want dirt or grease on the fibre ends. Other than that they are fully hot pluggable and should handle safety concerns line stray laser light automatically.

The very first thing I would do is bypass the fibre. Then I’d replace the ER with a normal switch. If either of those changes the situation you have narrowed it down.

Only use the HDPlex to power things on your A side or B side. If it is powering things on both then earth the ER.

The very first requirement is that it is all 1gb capable end to end. If the Cisco port isn’t 1gb nothing works. If the SFP’s aren’t then nothing works. Secondly ensure the SFP’s are fully engaged. They can take a little more force than most people consider normal. Thirdly see what the startup procedure is for the Cisco. It is a commercial product so it is not simply designed to switch on and work. You may need to enable an optical port. Only then start looking at finer detail like compatibility.

100Mbps does not work with the ER via SFP. That is why you won’t find any comment on sound quality with regards to their use with the ER. Quality as far as it goes is associated with operating modes and particular brands of SFP. But that isn’t an area I personally have strayed into.

I can’t answer to the specifics of that company but as a calibration specialist in a former life the answers will be time and expense. Time because it can take days for these devices to reach optimal operating conditions. Expense because you either own very expensive test gear or need to send devices away to accredited measurement labs costing both time and money.

It is 50 ohm square wave so you need 50 ohm clock interfaces. The majority of ER’s out there are 75 ohm. If you have a 50 (I do) it may be interesting to compare but I am happy with the clock I have (Teac).

It was an Elite. I’m not saying it was bad. Something about it just didn’t jive with the ER.

I used one with my ER. It went back due to its performance being inconsistent. It got a solid 200 hours run in time and it displayed the same inconsistency throughout its stay. Soundstage would shrink. Powering down and back up restored soundstage. It was very strange and I made the decision reluctantly to send it back.

The present version works with a sine wave.

An ER is, despite its capabilities, just a dumb switch. It shouldn’t have any problems connecting up or down stream so it would be interesting to know how you have it connected. I’d check/swap out any fancy cables and check if the clock switch is in the right position.

And, as if by magic Superdad gets it spot on again. Roon Build 880:

My local music is on a 2TB drive on the core. There is a NAS but for backups only.

I run Roon core into A side copper, internet access into the A side fibre port. Streamer is on B side. It is the best way to run Roon (fibre optional). If I move my core upstream to the ISP router so everything comes in via the fibre I think it sounds worse although that is a subjective assessment that dates back a while. Having all active elements hanging directly off the ER is optimal. I don’t think I agree with the notion that Roon is at fault when you have high network latency (in my day job I’d fix the latency) but I had issues before I hung everything off a single switch, that switch eventually being replaced with the ER.

Is it bad in a device where that should have been pretty effectively dealt with in the PSU that feeds the ER?

Yes, that is exactly how I use mine. Optical to ISP router, A side to NUC (Roon Core) and B side to streamer. Optical has to be Gigabit.

This device is now on the Teac EU site slated for availability in 2-3 weeks. Full price looks like €3498.98 which would be about right when factoring in costs over the price in ¥en.

The Coax is the more robust. I got drop outs above 96k with a combination of optical and wireless connection. I only used Chromecast together Roon while Roon Ready wasn’t working. I have to say it sounded pretty good.

The DAC is the Airist R-2R from Drop and matches their THX 789 AAA cosmetically. It is a solid sounding DAC with great bass and the updated Roon Ready status works well.

John, I consider the distinction to be no more than the difference between American English and my English but thank you for the clarification.

In a U.K. household the only way to access mains earth is through a three pin mains plug and socket. I don’t know how it works in other territories.