What you are saying is often true, but not for the r26. Even vintage 3.5 works well with the streamer of the r26.
Perhaps for some, I don’t think the op is in agreement on that point presently, I haven’t got a problem with finding out the exact issue if he’s willing to take the plunge further. I’m just saying that personally if the usb port is within a meter I’m going to use it, but salmon like swimming upstream as well. It’s good exercise right?
YMMV Sir , everybody’s got one 
Now that is good news, if you can help improve Studio network performance and fix your issues then a win win. I thought you were locked into 3.5 like I am currently.
He can always use usb, but it would be a pity not to use the streamer of the r26, because it is incredibly good.
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I’m not trying to be naysayer, I believe everyone when they say they have it working, that’s why I tried that route in the first place!
But no one has given me any other recommendations to try to get it to work, apart from going through a router.
I’m just saying in my case, with my router far and my r26 sitting next to my Mac, it just seems to much less of a headache going thru usb and ddc.
The gustard r26 thread has everyone trying fiber media connectors running fiber cable to clean up the Ethernet sound. I even tried that! So I’m not opposed to trying different things!
I completely agree with you on that, I personally prefer my oppo 205 on Ethernet but she just doesn’t make the cut presently unfortunately. With roon it’s a different story though.
If your router is far from your Mac, fiber is good for you. Connect the Mac and the r26 with a switch, and connect the router to the switch with fiber and converters.
If you want a better sound, connect the switch to the r26 with fiber too. For that you need 2 more converters or a switch with double SFP modules ports for fiber.
The present AudioPhil darling must have apparently. I question what needs cleaning up? We’re incessant fiddling and tweaking it’s in our ocd dna obviously 
Fiber for a 3 meter run? I’m not buying it, there’s an application for fiber and this ain’t it.
More than 300 meters perhaps, I know a bit about line losses pushing RF and data and decent copper does a really good job of following the laws of physics and ohms law. AudioPhil just seems to need some busywork constantly……… I get it
You need to try nitrogen cooling on the DAC, sounds really cool 
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It’s not about line loss. Even if the distance is only of 20 m, it’s easier to connect two points with a fine fiber cable than with copper.
Regarding the sound, fiber improves it as it isolates the DAC from the electrical noise of the network.
We’re going way off the op issue, I’m not going to wrestle the pig on this fiber issue.
OP can actually touch the DAC from his listening position if I understand correctly, DAC is very much happy with a basic usb 2.0 connection (yes apparently it’s not rocket science after all) heck it’ll work fine with the USB cable you stole from your Oma’s old printer I bet you.
If op decides he needs to recreate Bell Labs in his room good on him, just to run a DAC play a little music I’m not sure it’s necessary but I might be wrong 
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Have a great day or evening @Cloclo , my regards and respect sir
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He has a DAC with an exceptional streamer.
Why not getting the best sound from it?
@mikeypas , another good option for you is to connect your router to the Mac and the r26 with cpl.
It’s cheap, and it works very well.
In addition to this, you need a switch to connect to it one of the cpl, the Mac and the r26. This way, everything will work well.
If you want to isolate the r26 with fiber to have a better sound, you need two FMC. They are cheap as well. Or a switch with a SFP port + one FMC for the receiver side.
He knows how to connect a USB cable.
He started this thread, because he wants to use the streamer of his DAC.
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Powerline? are you serious? 
What advantage do you believe will be gained by using a short fiber-optic connection that passes through Ethernet to opto-isolators and opt-couplers, then again to Ethernet to the DAC, when the DAC is on his desktop where the components share a common earthing point? Versus a short USB cable with galvanic isolation?… The optical interfaces will need to be powered from the very same power-outlet and this does not insure that the opto-couplers and opto-isolators don’t add a level of inherent jitter… Optical is really useful for long runs and isolating ground differentials, where components are connected to different circuits and earthing/ground potentials…
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You are very skilled in theorizing on subjects on which you have no experience at all.
There is a great advantage in the advice that I gave him.
Prove it…
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This site is not ASR, and I don’t have measurements to post.
But it’s simple, the optical isolation eliminates 100% of the noise, whatever its origin, and the streamer receives a signal with 0% electrical noise.
While the galvanic only reduces its level.
I have the galvanic isolators that you are using, and tried others that you recommended though you don’t have them, and I know the difference.
Do you think opto-couplers and opt-isolators are immune from injecting induced jitter (self-noise)?
Come back when you have quantifiable objective (not subjective observational) proof of your claims that using optical vs USB in the OP scenario will improve the sound-quality…