2. cables
  3. 128927-305

Most Important, Unloved Cable...

Ethernet. I used to say the power cord was the most unloved, but important cable. Now, I update that assessment to the Ethernet cable. Review work forthcoming. 

I can't wait to invite my newer friend who is an engineer who was involved with the construction of Fermilab, the National Accelerator Lab, to hear this! Previously he was an overt mocker; no longer. He decided to try comparing cables and had his mind changed. That's not uncommon, as many of you former skeptics know. :)

I had my biggest doubts about the Ethernet cable. But, I was wrong - SO wrong! I'm so happy I made the decision years ago that I would try things rather than simply flip a coin mentally and decide without experience. It has made all the difference in quality of systems and my enjoyment of them. Reminder; I settled the matter of efficacy of cables years before becoming a reviewer and with my own money, so my enthusiasm for them does not spring from reviewing. Reviewing has allowed me to more fully explore their potential.  

I find fascinating the cognitive dissonance that exists between the skeptical mind in regard to cables and the real world results which can be obtained with them. I'm still shaking my head at this result... profoundly unexpected results way beyond expectation. Anyone who would need an ABX for this should exit the hobby and take up gun shooting, because your hearing would be for crap.  
douglas_schroeder
azbrd
102 posts
 
I just upgraded my home ethernet service from 20Mb to 40Mb and had an interesting talk with the installer.  As he was testing the new connections he mentioned all the splices & switches that exist between my home and the CO and the effect they have on the overall performance I will see.  I mentioned the fact the some people believe that spending big $ on fancy CAT 6/7 cables for their audio systems and he laughed & could not figure out how those cables could possibly have any impact on anything.  The real fact is there is so many switches & splices upstream from your home that no single cable could compensate for it, TCP and its built in error corrections and retries is what does that.
Ag insider logo xs@2x
knownothing
1,584 posts
 
@azbrd I am going to guess that the OP is not using the high quality Ethernet cable to deliver the last few feet of Internet service, but rather to transfer data locally stored on a server to a DAC or some other limited local data transfer.

The same argument has been leveled against power coming in off the grid and how could a high quality power cable in the last couple of feet “rescue” an already polluted AC source.

All that said, I think this logic misses the mark.  A quality Ethernet cable, or analog interconnect, or power cable keep signals intact and in their appropriate lanes in a cluttered environment around your gear, so you deliver as close to the initial output at the other end of the cable as you can get without picking up or transfering interference from or to other cables or gear in the vicinity.  I have found that the better I tame possible problems related to non conservative signal delivery between equipment, the better and bigger difference I notice in the next upgrade in another part of my system cabling.  YMMV.
jinjuku's avatar
jinjuku
226 posts
 
The same argument has been leveled against power coming in off the grid and how could a high quality power cable in the last couple of feet “rescue” an already polluted AC source.
While I agree the same argument has been leveled, the people the level the same points about a power vs Ethernet don’t know what they are talking about.

Unlike power, every port that data passes through is a reconstruction. 
dynaquest4's avatar
dynaquest4
445 posts
 
knownothing sez: "A quality Ethernet cable, or analog interconnect, or power cable keep signals intact and in their appropriate lanes in a cluttered environment around your gear, so you deliver as close to the initial output at the other end of the cable as you can get without picking up or transferring interference from or to other cables or gear in the vicinity."

Exactly!  And a "quality cable" needs not cost more that a few dollars a foot.  Spending more makes them look prettier and more impressive but does nothing to improve, enhance or increase the quality of the sound.
Ag insider logo xs@2x
knownothing
1,584 posts
 
jinjuku, yes, of course a digital signal is handled completely differently by the sending and receiving device compared to AC power supplies. The analogy is very broadly drawn here. My point is regardless of the type of signal or how the signal is handled at either end, if something bad happens to it in the wire, or it does something bad to a signal in adjacent wire in your system, it can affect the overall sound coming out of your speakers or headphones.

Your point does argue for better implementation of devices and error correction in data reconstruction - and perhaps why optical toslink should not be the first choice for digital data transfer - but I don’t think your point obviates the need for good cabling. Maybe we agree on that.
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