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
@almarg

Quote

As an electrical engineer having extensive experience designing high speed digital, analog, A/D converter, and D/A converter circuits (not for audio), I don’t find the reported differences to be either surprising or mysterious. And I consider them to be well within the bounds of established science and engineering.

Most likely what is happening is that differences in the characteristics of the cables, such as bandwidth, shielding, and even how the pairs of conductors that carry the differential signals are twisted, are affecting the amplitude and spectral characteristics of electrical noise and/or RFI that finds its way via unintended pathways to unintended circuit points "downstream" of the ethernet interface in the receiving device. "Unintended circuit points" may include the D/A circuit itself, resulting in jitter, and/or analog circuit points further downstream in the component or system, where audible frequencies may be affected by noise that is at RF frequencies via effects such as intermodulation or AM demodulation.

"Unintended pathways" may include, among other possibilities, grounds within the receiving device, parasitic capacitances, coupling that may occur into AC power wiring, and the air.

What can be expected regarding such effects, however, is that they will be highly system dependent, and will not have a great deal of predictability.


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Yup. Badly designed or faulty equipment will indeed be vulnerable to unintended pathways.

Always better to get good equipment to begin begin with rather than band aid things by finding the least bad sounding Ethernet cable !!!!!

Strange comment or conclusion based on AL's comments? We are talking about a cable that goes into a computer/server etc...

Anyway a better cable with improved shielding will improve most every computer based system .
shadorne, you stated, "Badly designed or faulty equipment will indeed be vulnerable to unintended pathways. Always better to get good equipment to begin begin with rather than band aid things by finding the least bad sounding Ethernet cable !!!!!"

??? The exploration of Ethernet cables has nothing to do with poor equipment or dissatisfaction with the sound. It is simply seeking to explore what avenues remain to further enhance sound.

The equipment being used is as good as any that will be available to audiophiles. The Ethernet is feeding the Salk Audio StreamPlayer Gen III, which I reviewed. This is a superb source and built by Jim Salk who I discussed in my review: His background is engineering, specifically audio engineering. He states, “I started exploring digital audio processing in 1973, long before personal computers came on the market.” Jim was steeped in computers already when IBM introduced the first PC. He has been building his own computers for decades and was on the Internet before the World Wide Web existed! He has his own web servers and has been programming since 1985.

So, at least in my instance it’s not the quality of the component which is in question. You are looking for reasons why the Ethernet cable would not innately be important, but it is.

If you feel you have good gear why not try it and see for yourself? If you hear a distinct difference you would be confronted with two possibilities; that the cables are causing the change, or that your gear is not as good as you thought! :)
.....Or that the "difference" you hear is what you "want/need/paid" to hear.  Even if it is not actually real.
dynaquest14, You're talking to a person who did ABX testing and passed it multiple times. So, don't talk to me about "want/need/paid to hear".