Niche but some may be interested .

Well I listen to music mainly from a HD store on a server then Ethernet to players in all my systems . I like this but have found that there are things that can get in the way . One of these is the connection from your router to your player . Routers are not really designed with low noise in mind and the direct connection can add digital hash via the earth wire . One solution which I adopted was to add a switch in between and this worked . Then I found adding an optical converter between router and switch worked even better . I also found that which optical cable you used made a difference and Cisco all in cables were best . Then recently I found out about DAC ago cables these connect optical over ago but use copper wire instead . As they are cheap (£20 for two delivered ) I have given them a try . Result is very positive my Cisco optical was easily the best I heard but even straight out the packet the copper DAC cables are better . Even more reduced background noise and sound improvement in the sound stage both in size and solidity and just more natural and believable . All other areas seem the same but this is a copper cable so there is a strong chance that burn in will happen and it will improve . Now the cheap ones are great just to prove the set up works and they sound better than the optical . If you want to save time then look for Amphenol sfp+ DAC cable as this is the best sounding this used Skewclear 2 wire and this seems to make a difference . Can more expensive (£48 for 1 M ) but worth it . The other advantage is that being good old copper the shorter the better ( I found optical needs to be a minimum of 2 M to work best) so I picked up two short Amphenol cables for less than £40 . As I say probably not of interest to many but worth looking at it you can use them .