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
So what do you make of this interview, taken from another thread, in the context of the current discussion?

http://www.davidgilmour.com/press/2005/march/TapeOp_March05.pdf

It is a rather long but good read on a number of levels.

Seems the studio manager and engineers are convinced they hear differences related to different signal, digital (even the most important, unloved one) and power cables, different cable orientations and swear by good power conditioning. They apparently determined this through careful listening and experimentation, and it guided decisions on significant investments by the studio owner.

Here is a short video of the same studio space with the owner.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UqP32CeQuUw

Thanks to @maplegrovemusic and @shadorne for bringing these links to my attention.

kn


As a result of all the excellent recommendations for audiophile ethernet cables in this thread, especially those from jinjuku, I have settled on the SOtM dCBL-CAT7.

Here's to having more square and less rounded off 1's and 0's.

Thank you everybody contributions to this thread 😉