Audiophile Ethernet cables are 100% snake oil. Here is why and how I tested and also a proof of concept
video here (YouTube).
In the video I test out into my ADC a 315 foot generic cable CAT5e that I made and a $330 12 foot WireWorld CAT8. Player is Jriver, server is a Windows 7 machine, playback computer is Windows 8 with an Intel CT GBit PCIe adapter. The switch is a Cisco SG 200-8 with ports 7/8 in a LAG and port 1 going back to the file server.
During capture into the ADC I’m able to swap the 315 foot generic CAT5e and the 12 foot WireWorld.
Here are the tracks for you to download and evaluate:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/5NUQOsUEqZKVgon85pYhxnlNYlAhoHhT3FF9cP0NKfr?ref_=cd_ph_share...https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/bD0Z87vfscWzA3PhyE42JuVGagNXmvcKTxqWhQpLIKO?_encoding=UTF8&a...Here is the question I would like to pose:
You can pull the Ethernet cable and playback will still continue. If my options are fancy cable, generic cable, no cable and play back continues:
1. Does my SQ increase with no cable?
2. Does my SQ decrease with fancy cable
3. Does my SQ decrease even more with 315 foot of generic CAT5e
Some other quick information:
Ping rates (*out of 500 pings) were neck and neck. Transfer rate direct connect (bypassing the switch since it slowed things down for both cables due to the LAG) was averaged at 107MBps for both cables on a 3.57GB folder transfer.
Switch stats for both cables in the 3.57 GB transfer showed 0 errors.