Peter:
Will there be an online manual for the L2 in the near future?
How would one connect the L2 to the Ethernet and the in turn to the L2 making use of fiber optic connections?
What are the best recommendations for equipment to accomplish these connections. Is the website information the current recommendations?
Anyone who is using fiber optic connections I would welcome your views. i.e. single mode vs multimode, specific equipment etc.
Thanks to all for your input,
Mike
Mike,
I can only speak to the Lumin P1 and U2 with respect to using fiber connections, but hopefully can provide some info for added "context of use", as it were, but first I'll add some history by sharing some info and my history with using fiber connections with other products...
I've been using fiber for about 4 years now, since getting the original Sonore OpticalRendu, and subsequently, EtherREGEN. I was using Tripp-Lite 62.5/125 LC/LC multi-mode fiber initally with TP-link optical transceivers, which i had a lot of "connectivity" issues with, specifically, the physical dimensional tolerances of these consistently causing intermittent connections with the SFP cages so the connection would often "drop out". I finally settled on using 10GTek transceivers that were recommended to me by Alex Crespi at UpTone Audio, and those worked consistently.
Here's graphic of my original set-up:
A couple years later, the guys at
Audiophile Style did a lot of comparison testing, and found that the Finisar optical transceivers sounded better than the 10GTek; the best-sounding multi-mode optical transceivers I found were the Finisar FTLF8519P3BNL 850nM multi-mode transceivers, so I switched to those, and they do sound better than the 10GTek I was using.
With Lumin's products that support optical connections, you can use either multi-mode or single-mode fiber and their respective mode-type transceivers with the P1 and U2.
When I got my Lumin P1, Peter recommended using Corning ClearCurve single-mode 9/125 fiber instead of the multi-mode fiber. I got some and sure enough, I've found it sounded better than using multi-mode fiber. As it's single-mode, you must also use a single-mode optical transceiver with it. I initially used 1310 nM single-mode Planet Tech MGB-TLX optical transceivers, and these were clearly better than using the multi-mode Finisars, but then someone recommended the Planet Tech MGB-TL40, and I've found these to sound the best overall.
With respect to your question of how one use optical with Ethernet: in my case, in the remote server room (or network closet, as some use) my Roon Core Akasa NUC connects via Ethernet to EtherREGEN on A-side. I've found connecting the dirty Pace router to ER's B-side sounds the best as John's "moat" keeps crap from the router from getting through to A-side, where ER's SFP cage is also located. I then run out of ER's SFP cage via the Corning fiber out of the remote server room (RSR) into the main listening area and straight into the back of either the Lumin U2 or, in my personal set-up, the P1, as shown here.
Here's pics of the single-mode setup in the RSR:
and to the Lumin P1 in the main rack...
When I got the U2 in for review, I then ran the fiber from EtherREGEN in the remote server room into the U2's SFP cages using same the Planet Tech MGB-TL40s and connected via USB to the P1, where it serves as the DAC and preamp. The U2 then, functions as the "optical interface & streamer", as shown here, and works and sounds superb performing those functions.
Either way, it works flawlessly and I never have any connectivity problems.
Hope this info helps, cheers.
