The AOC which has been popularized on this thread must have been by now purchased in the hundreds, if not in the thousands (at very affordable prices of less than US$200).
But please be mindful that AOCs were designed for “higher” bandwidth at a LOWER COST, utilizing LEDs/VCSELs (instead of lasers), and thicker optical glass fiber cores. IMO, this introduces risks of lower waveform fidelity, higher photon dispersion, leading to higher jitter and hence more noise as the hardware engages error-correction computation more often.
How these specifications translate into the most important criteria of all, the SOUND of MSB’s digital directors and analog converters, is still debatable. In my Cascade DAC based system the AOC module seems to have deleterious effects when used between two SOtM sNH-10G switches. Most notable was the reduction in both bass quality/quantity and imaging specificity.
I’m overseas right now, so I’m unable to report on my listening notes post-restoration of the Cascade DAC’s modules from the “upgraded” Multimode SFP+ aqua AOC back to the “original/stock” Single mode SFP.
But in February, I’ll be able to do so. Please stay tuned!