Most Important, Unloved Cable...

Doug, thanks for the missionary work in this area.  It may the missing link in CPU audio. Puns intended, of course. Best, Dave 

I also find it interesting that when we talk about shielded, grounded, or ground quality or what not which may be associated with grounds, we finally get to the important unrealized meat of the matter.

Herb Reichert touched upon it in this month’s stereophile.

About how the ground, is actually the source. That the ground spike, at your given locale... is the electron source. Herb mentioned fixing bad sound comes from fixing the ground electron source via the spike at the given locale. That’s all he had to say.

The ground is not the sink. Nothing drains from anywhere, to it. It is the electron source point. We ended up with this misconception, as Ben Franklin got it wrong in his 50/50 shot at picking a direction in polarities. Like Einstein’s theories and E=MC^2, where he said ’I could have the sign wrong’, and there might be a minus in front of that equation. What I mean is, concerning the math it makes no difference, the values and results are the same, but the final result has the minus symbol in front of it --- or not. (also where the ’gravity is a push’ scenario arises. Then the errors in all our astronomical observations (which we covered up by pasting fudge factors on equations) go away.

This is why ground shielding works (it’s a blocker, it’s an electron source), and why ground quality and routing of grounds..........is crucial. Thus ground configuration and all complex association with the signal lines and active components... is also crucial. Those who know this in the world of audio don't want to share this basic information that most people miss. Part of the lore of making better gear.

Ken Hotte
Teo Audio

there are definitely some loose minus signs floating around...

Isn’t this thread a thinly disguised and deliberate attempt at trolling?

It starts off with an appeal to authority and then goes on to aggressively attack those who do not hear any differences; "cognitive dissonance" and "hearing for crap" and "should exit the hobby". Basically if you can't see the emperor's fantastic colourful clothes then you are stupid....

Did Doug forget his meds this morning or a little too much coffee?

Shadorne, you are correct; the last sentence was rude and should have not been typed. Apologies to the community. 

My comment regarding cognitive dissonance is sincere. I had serious doubts about the efficacy of the aftermarket Ethernet cables, and frankly, had I not so much experience with cables I likely would not have tried one. I have heard so many wild swings in performance from cables that I have learned through actual use not to discount potential of any wire to change a rig's sound. I hold that someone with good ears (no hearing impairment), good gear and a good room (not noisy) should be able to discern differences between cables typically. 

FYI, my engineer friend now has $2,500 in cables in his rig. He is ecstatic about the changes to the sound and he no longer laughs when I talk about things such as aftermarket Ethernet cables. He will be euphoric to find how economically he can upgrade the system for an outsized performance improvement. I do enjoy him wrestling with the cognitive dissonance, which is something I think most audiophiles who work with cables experience. I have to learn and relearn not to let doubts stop me from exploring, or else I bypass very good things in terms of the system and enjoyment of the hobby. :) 

As far as an appeal to authority, yes the authority is me. I have done both ABX testing and comparisons sighted, so unless someone has done both I think they are weak in challenging myself as an authority. :)