Most Important, Unloved 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". 

@douglas_schroeder

I don’t agree.

I prefer to buy audio equipment that maximizes the source signal and minimizes errors from unintended pathways like Ethernet or power supply, humidity, temperature etc.

I am sorry but I don’t care what expensive name is on a product - if the product is badly designed such that you have to baby it with special cables this is just all too ridiculous to me - more so the more costly (and supposedly robustly performant) the product. For me it is best to move on when a product is as finicky as worrying about an Ethernet cable.