Ethernet cables

wesheadley

Well Put! Just one problem though. They (cable sellers) are not cable manufacturers. Just like us they buy digital/data cables on amazon/ebay under $10/pc and add jacket (and heat shrink tubing) in someone’s garage or warehouse and sell them for hundreds of dollars.

tonywinga

We know digital/data signals are stepping/square waves in the form of discrete values, but you call those signals ANALOG? Furthermore... "the square wave’s weakness is distortion causing timing and phase shifts. And EMI or RFI can get in the line and ride all the way into your DAC"

I actually want to learn more about it. Can you give us reference links or citations or some other source of the information?

Thank you.

" I can’t cite a single source that would explain it all." of course i already knew it.

I know the IEEE very well our team has submitted our research manuscripts to them a few times. I can’t really find "digital signal waves are analog". So could you be more specific about the IEEE specs for data transmission in regards to "it's analog"? I will contact the IEEE tomorrow for details.

Don’t waste money (if you’re not elon musk). Just buy on amazon for less than $10. You won’t find any audible difference at all. Those cable sellers buy them on amazon/ebay just like us and decorate them with fancy jacket or some other snake oil

soix

I'm being truthful and, as an electrical engineer, i know a thing or two about cable/wire electronics and that's how i contribute to this thread.

"It’s really sad and pathetic." so you resort to name calling.

I will give you an example. A USB cable ABC manufactured by this massive cable factory Sinotek in Shenzen, China. Look it up you will get good ideas about cable manufacturing.

1. You can buy this ABC for $10 on Amazon.

2. Or you come up with an idea so you decorate the cable (with fancy jacket logo printed heat shrink tubing, etc.) oh and dip it in snake oil and sell the same cable for $1000... make sure you (or someone you hired) write a post(s) claiming " it makes a startlingly significant improvement!". Why not? what's wrong with making money. On the other hand you can be a sad person to buy one for 1k when you get to live on a small income.

Later

ghasley

Yes for analog interconnect/speaker cables but minor.

No (provided that cables are well made) for data cables and power cables.

soix

A Sinotec data cable can get to you via different routes - comes with device you buy, you can buy one on amazon, or pay crazy amount of money for one that dipped in snake oil. they'll show same performance measurement, good enough that your DAC will be able to recognize 1s and 0s correctly. They can't sell cables if they don't have the data. It's like selling cars without wheels. There's no factory in the USA manufacturing consumer data cables so they all come from Shenzen China. I'm not an industry expert though.

lalitk

"cable manufacturers don’t required to include measurements to sell cables and it will still perform as intended. "

Yes they are required to present measurement data. If you buy a data cable on amazon or a pair speaker cables from some major brand like Cardas Kimber (they'r not manufacturers) typically you won't get the data sheet. But when Cardas buys their audio cables (bulk) from cable manufacturers like National Wire/Cable, one of few good American factories, or buy data cables from Sinotek China their cables must come with data sheets that include Construction Details (conductor/insulation/shield/outer jacket), Electrical Characteristics (impedance/ capacitance/propagation velocity/max. current/voltage rating/temp range, etc..

I agree that the analogy wasn't a good one. Yes cables do make a difference I don't deny that... but don't have to be stupidly expensive to be an excellent one. oh and what about that snake oil lamp sitting on the cable practically doing nothing.

invalid

Thanks for the info. Who are those big name cable manufacturers?