Thread: GigaFoil v4 Inline Ethernet Filter

Originally Posted by Leatherneck

My P3 is in the Chinese mail system. I hope to get it soon. I live in Arizona so it should be fairly quick.

You'll get it pretty soon. Its really a very nice power supply; I was impressed with the execution, build quality, fit and finish and even the packaging.

Need help. Did I kill my gigafoil or was it something else.
I got a used one from a trusted source. I didn't read anything. I plugged in the wall wart. The light came on. I plugged in an output ethernet, unplugged the ethernet from my server, put it in the gig and put the load into my server. After a couple minutes I worry the music is still on due to the buffer. It never stopped playing. I then close and open Qobuz. Accept it wont open. I try a couple times. Nothing. So I pull the erhernets and put them back as rhey were. All is well. I leave rhe gigafoil on my rack plugges in with the jumper just hanging

At this point the gigafoil is pretry hot. Its been on 5 minutes and has to be about 100 degree farenheit.

5 hours later I think about trying it again. Its dead. Stone cold. The PS is dead. 0 volts.

Any thoughts

Sorry that you are having a problem with it. I hate hearing anyone having issues with any gear.

It sounds burnt. Did you smell anything or see any wisps if smoke? Did you use the original power supply or use another one you had?

No smoke. Just surprised one would be very warm in 5 minutes. That must ha e been a hugh load on the PS and cooked it.

Do these things run warm. Around 100 degree Fahrenheit?

It's definitely the PS at this point. My Fluke says the PS is dead.

My real question is, can you dmage the gigafiol plugging cables in and out with it powered on.

I read their website, but thanks for rhe link. It appears its hot swappable so nothing i did should have damages it. For some reason the included PS died. Now I'm trying to find the pin size tk order a Soobuster. Does anyone know the model to get. They don't call out a gigafoil. Just a lot of mini dsp, chord and.other.

The wall wart has no ground. Its 5 volt, 1000 mv as the unit requires. The prior owner had a Keces powering it. Probably never used this PS. My concern is the gigafoil itself may have an issue and fried rhe PS. Its not often a wall wart fails. I have no way to test it.

Originally Posted by TheGiant

Reading with great interest!


Would a FMC like the Gigafoil still be necessary if I have a direct connection, utilizing a good Ethernet cable like the AQ Diamond, from my Google Mesh transmitter to the digital streamer transport?

Thanks

I think you would get better sound quality if you had a ethernet from your router/switch to a quality server. Server connected to dac. I don't know I would bother with a gigafoil if I was wifi to a generic streamer. I don't even see how you could make it work unless your streamer went to a gigafoil that went to a endpoint like a Rendu of some sort.

Originally Posted by Kingsrule

IME the Gigafoil sounds much better than a FMC...

I have 2 GigaFoils V4 .. one right before my NimitraS and the other for my Lumin D2 w/Sbooster power Supply
I agree with you about it sounding better ..than Standard Fiber conversion set up

Same here for me Audioquest Vodka from the output of GigaFoil to Lumin D2 w/Sbooster power Supply

Network Acoustics ENO Ethernet Filter Ag & ENO Streaming Cable Ag | The Ear

Interesting as no power supply

How do you know its turning into heat

Originally Posted by crwilli

Here : this is from the link you posted. At the bottom...

The ENO is filtering RF Interference or 'noise'
Permalink On Mon, 09/11/2020 - 11:56am
The review is a non-technical review based on Chris Kelly's listening experience, in his system, while using the ENO and matching Streaming cable.
As the designer of ENO I can answer your questions. Firstly we must establish what the reason is that a lot of streaming devices don't quite achieve the level of sound quality of Hi-End CD and vinyl. Our research has proved that the digital input circuitry of streaming devices is very sensitive to the effects of RF interference or 'noise' that is present mixed in with the Ethernet signal when it's delivered into the RJ45 socket on the back of the streaming device. The Ethernet signal passes through the ENO filter unaltered, it arrives at its destination untouched, fully intact. The RF interference that's also in the cable is filtered out and absorbed as heat within the ENO Filter. So what arrives at your streaming device is pure unaltered clean data, not noisy mushy data. The difference in sound quality of pure clean data to noisy mushy data is quite astonishing.
The device is made by hand using the best quality components possible, it's labour intensive to produce, and that, combined with the lift in sonic performance you get, makes it very good value for money.

By RichTruss

I have both the ENO and Gigafoil in my possession over the past few weeks been listening to both extensively. There is no doubt that the Gigafoil sounds better, by a large margin in all scenarios (interconnect changes, power cord changes, ethernet cable changes, etc). I would attribute that to one being passive and one having a power supply and the fact Gigafoil uses fiber to decouple everything in the chain behind it.

The thing I was most impressed with was the Ethernet cable from Network Acoustics, but the ENO itself isn't even close to the Gigafoil in terms of sound (that I heard anyway) YMMV, but I trust my ears.

Also have the GigaFoil connected to my EMM Labs NS1 > EMM Labs DV2.
Powered by my Uptone JS-2 Linear Power Supply.

Originally Posted by jadedavid

Has anyone auditioned and made a comparison between the Gigafoil and an Uptone audio etherREGEN?

I haven't compared them through listening, but I did in terms of the tech used. The uptone is a switching power supply that converts to LPS via super capacitors. Supposed to be good, but I decided to stick with a true LPS that uses a toroid. I am sure it sounds great, no idea how it sounds with the GF since people seem to have mixed reports on how it responds to power supplies, this could also be a result of the system itself. I ordered the Keces, sticking with that based on all the positive feedback here on it and I have a friend who has the combo with a P8 and he swears by it.

Originally Posted by jadedavid

Has anyone auditioned and made a comparison between the Gigafoil and an Uptone audio etherREGEN?

I don't know of any direct comparison that's been done, but bear in mind that the GigaFoil is effectively a specialized filter (IIRC, its fiber media convertor) to remove EMI/RFI from copper Ethernet, and the EtherREGEN is an Ethernet switch.

If you want to do a comparison, a better comparison would be between the Gigafoil and the Sonore OpticalModule.

Originally Posted by jadedavid

Thanks for the distinction. I thought that the ER was also a filter of sorts.

The ER is an Ethernet switch. If you use it in conjunction with a an SFP optical transceiver, it will support receiving upstream data via optical fiber rather than copper Ethernet. If send you data from your music server via an upstream FMC downstream to the SFP optical transceiver in ER, then it will function in the same manner as a GigaFoil because RFI/EMI cannot pass down fiber. The key is you need an "upstream" FMC to convert signals on copper Ethernet used by your upstream networking devices and music server to optical signals. This is why I specifically recommended the Sonore OpticalModule.

So a path might look like this: Music Server ->copper Ethernet->Router->copper Ethernet->Sonore OpticalModule->FIBER->SFP transceiver in ER-> copper Ethernet -> Endpoint/streamer/Network bridge->USB or S/PDIF to DAC.

Originally Posted by jadedavid

OMG, thanks for the detailed response.
I think I will just stay in the shallow end of the pool and let my Lumin do all of the heavy lifting.
I'm so grateful that the Lumin is so easy and un-complicated. It just works and sounds good.

There’s a possibility Lumin could also benefit from GF and/or ER. People use GF or ER to reduce noise on Ethernet streams. Lumin is a network streamer. They are not mutually exclusive.

IME, using ER and GF in series yields the most benefit.

I added the Keces P3 power supply to my Gigafoil...I can say absolutely unequivocally that I heard absolutely ZERO difference between the Keces and stock power supply. I was thinking it was maybe I have rung every last drop out of my system, but the Gigafoil made a remarkable difference and I recently added a Revelation Audio Labs Ethernet cable which also made a difference so I don't believe that is the case. I also wasn't really impressed with the build quality of the Keces. Just a bunch of stamped aluminum screwed together.

My opinion is, don't waste money on the Keces, stock supply is fine. Spend your money elsewhere.

Originally Posted by Billt1

as the old saying goes " your experience may vary"

After buying my first MSB DAC their national sales manager recommended I try the Gigafoil. I thought it won't offer much in the way of improvement but he had never steered me wrong .The results were so obvious I bought another one for my second system. Vince also recommend that even just stepping up to the $49 Ifi power supply for it would pay dividends. The Gigafoil being in place for weeks I put the Ifi in. My wife not knowing that I made any changes walked into the room and immediately asked me if I had done something. She would not believe me when I said the improvement only cost us $50. I bought a second Ifi power supply

Thats great! I have the IFI power supplies on my Switches I will give them a try and report back. Could it be what she was hearing was the Gigafoil or a new recording? Honestly I listened for a while with the new power supply and heard zip, nothing at all, sounded the same, and I always make my changes one at a time and spend time with each so I understand what it is doing, or not doing.

I also have an MSB DAC on my primary reference system, Vince is great with recommendations. I use the PROUSB there not the renderer. My second system where the gigafoil is located is almost as revealing, VTL Tube amp, Rockna DAC, Bricasti renderer. I can honestly say Keces made almost zero difference, like I said maybe it's my system, but I highly doubt the IFI would better the Keces just given the size of the Toroid in the Keces.

Originally Posted by Billt1

Everything but the power supply was the same., the Gigafoil had been in place weeks. My wife was a music major at " The King's University" Thailand. Part of the entrance exam was a hearing test. I trust hers more than mine. It would make sense if the Keces was better given the price differential but I've never tried it. Conversely I've tried a few different ethernet cables and haven't heard a difference. Not saying at some point I won't find the one that does.

Which ethernet cables have you tried?

My general experience with Power Supplies is they make all the difference, in this case I heard nothing which was hard for me to believe.

Originally Posted by soundORK

I added the Keces P3 power supply to my Gigafoil...I can say absolutely unequivocally that I heard absolutely ZERO difference between the Keces and stock power supply. I was thinking it was maybe I have rung every last drop out of my system, but the Gigafoil made a remarkable difference and I recently added a Revelation Audio Labs Ethernet cable which also made a difference so I don't believe that is the case. I also wasn't really impressed with the build quality of the Keces. Just a bunch of stamped aluminum screwed together.

My opinion is, don't waste money on the Keces, stock supply is fine. Spend your money elsewhere.

I tried the stock power supply into a noisy wall outlet. It was awful. I wouldn't recommend anyone use it that way.

But once I powered the Gigafoil with a good power supply and made sure I wasn't injecting noise into via the power line, it was an astounding upgrade.

Has anyone tired the JCAT M12 Gold Switch? If so please let me know your thoughts.

I use Gigafoil with Uptone JS-2 with upgraded DC and ethernet cables, and I view it as a bonafide audiophile bargain for streaming.

It does need to be plugged into good power conditioning. And it will scale to how good the power supply and power conditioning is.

Audiophile switches and ethernet filters have come and gone over the years, and Gigafoil is still here.

Ok, so I am curious, it’s June 2023. Has there been another *powered* product like the Gigafoil released by any other manufacturer?

My understanding of the Gigafoil, perhaps wrong, is that the Gigafoil is essentially 2 FMCs in 1 box, and by converting from Ethernet to fiber back to Ethernet, assuming a quality LPS, there is little or no electrical noise conveyed to the destination device.

Originally Posted by jaynyc

Ok, so I am curious, it’s June 2023. Has there been another *powered* product like the Gigafoil released by any other manufacturer?

Sure. Sonore Optical Module Deluxe.
Sonore - opticalModule Deluxe

Originally Posted by jaynyc

My understanding of the Gigafoil, perhaps wrong, is that the Gigafoil is essentially 2 FMCs in 1 box, and by converting from Ethernet to fiber back to Ethernet, assuming a quality LPS, there is little or no electrical noise conveyed to the destination device.

Yep! That is all it is doing. There's nothing "magical" going on here.

What it's "isolating", in addition to EMI/RFI, is low- and high-source impedance leakage current (which a type of AC). Leakage current causes threshold jitter. Threshold jitter impacts...timing. We hear the impact on timing, just as we do when we install a really good Master Clock.

Read this white paper by Sonore and UpTone Audio and former professional Ethernet engineer, John Swenson. He discusses threshold jitter and the imact on timing. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/06...f?v=1583429386

TBH, I don't know understand how it would be better than using a couple Sonore OpticalModule Deluxes or say, an OpticalModule Deluxe at the upstream end and say, an EtherREGEN, SOtM switch or Lumin U2, P1, L2, or X1 that supports optical input at the destination end.

From what I gather, FOIL is an acyronym for Fiber Optic Isolation Link

Oh, you don't need to buy those just to audition the benefits of fiber.

You can buy a couple TP-link LC/LC FMCs (fiber media convertors), two 850nM SFP multi-mode optical tranceivers (SFPs), a run of fiber, and a couple Jameco wall-wart LPSs, and give it a try for yourself.

Here's a BOM (Bill of Materials) for you: 😎
2 x TP-link MC220L Gigabit FMC, 9 volt: TP-Link MC220L - fiber media converter - GigE - MC220L - Transceiver Modules - CDW.com $23/ea
2 x 10Gtek Multi-mode SFP: For Ubiquiti UniFi UF-MM-1G SFP Transceiver 1000Base-SX 850nm MMF 500m | eBay $11/ea
2 x Jameco Reliapro Linear Wall Adapter 9 Volt, 1200mA: Jameco $10.75/ea
10M* of Tripp-Lite Multimode 62.5/125 LC/LC fiber: 10m, LC to LC, Duplex, Multimode 62.5 Fiber Optic Patch Cable | Fibertronics, Inc. $13.99

Total cost: $113.49.

This set-up will work surprisingly well, and you can hear first-hand the benefits of a run of fiber from the music server computer to the network bridge or streamer.

Here's an example set-up diagram using the "generic" TP-link type FMCs:


If you like that set-up, you can upgrade the downstream FMC with a Sonore OpticalModule Deluxe, which has a much better parts, RJ45 port, and clocks.





*-length can be whatever you want; for example, you can go with a simple 1M run between FMCs...

Originally Posted by Ctsooner

think8 g strongly of getting this one and calling it a day. I have an LPS I can use already. I have spoke. To a few who had the gigafoil and swear by it.

That’s the simplicity of it. Single box, and you can choose your own linear power supply.

I wouldn’t stream music without it.