Most Important, Unloved Cable...

There’s the problem! Buy declaring it "data cabling" you’re completely ignoring the fact that the actual signal is the same as any other signal through wire or cable. It’s an electromagnetic wave that obeys the same laws of physics as any other signal, whether the signal contains data or music or doodlebugs. This is all starting to look like the same old bits is bits argument we’ve heard so much about over the past what, 35 years?

Not ignoring it at all. Since you brought it up: How is one cable with 4 pair of copper going into the Ethernet port of a device going to deviate from the laws of physics vs another cable with 4 pair of copper? 

We are talking multiple copy stack. Two buffers on the NIC, Then PCIe Bus, then RAM set aside by OS, then RAM set aside by the player application, Then more RAM set aside by the USB bus, then buffer in the DAC itself. 

These are all Clock Domain boundaries because the timing is different for each of these sub systems. The data has most likely been copied 6-8 times in transit and it's not real time.

How come no one will answer this simple question:

When playing back audio and you pull the Ethernet cable, and of course it will still play back (with most systems) for a few seconds, DOES THE SOUND IMPROVE? It's really a simple question and yet for some reason...

If the cables are copper they are directional. All bets are off. 

If the cables are copper they are directional. All bets are off.

How come no one will answer this simple question:

When playing back audio and you pull the Ethernet cable, and of course it will still play back (with most systems) for a few seconds, DOES THE SOUND IMPROVE? It's really a simple question and yet for some reason...

When playing back audio and you pull the Ethernet cable, and of course it will still play back (with most systems) for a few seconds, DOES THE SOUND IMPROVE? It’s really a simple question and yet for some reason...

I don’t have an ethernet connection in my audio system, so I can’t answer that based on experience. However, assuming (as I do) that the several highly experienced and widely respected audiophiles who have reported realizing significant sonic benefits by changing from one inexpensive ethernet cable to a different inexpensive ethernet cable are correct, and if the explanation of those benefits that I hypothesized in my post in this thread dated 3-27-2017 is correct, the sound may or may not improve depending on the specific system.

As you will realize in reading that post, and if my hypothesis is correct, whether or not the sound improves would depend on the path(s) by which, and the degree to which, electrical noise and/or RFI from the signals in the cable reach and affect downstream circuit points that are ostensibly unrelated to the ethernet interface. It would also depend on how the content of the signal sent into the cable by the source component changes when the cable is disconnected, as a result of that component having nothing to talk to at the other end.

While what I stated in my 3-27-2017 post is only a hypothesis, as an EE experienced in the design of high speed digital circuits that operate in close proximity to sensitive analog circuits and D/A converter circuits it is the only means I can envision that would account for the reported differences. And I don’t think that most of those who have similar circuit design experience and are also reasonably open minded would rule out the possibility I have stated.

Regards,
-- Al

I don’t have an ethernet connection in my audio system, so I can’t answer that based on experience. However, assuming (as I do) that the several highly experienced and widely respected audiophiles who have reported realizing significant sonic benefits by changing from one inexpensive ethernet cable to a different inexpensive ethernet cable are correct, and if the explanation of those benefits that I hypothesized in my post in this thread dated 3-27-2017 is correct, the sound may or may not improve depending on the specific system. 

As you will realize in reading that post, and **if** my hypothesis is correct, whether or not the sound improves would depend on the path(s) by which, and the degree to which, the signals in the cable reach and affect downstream circuit points that are ostensibly unrelated to the ethernet interface. It would also depend on how the content of the signal sent into the cable by the source component changes when the cable is disconnected, as a result of that component having nothing to talk to at the other end.

So flipping this on it's head: It's not the cable, it's the device. 

I'm able to show via FFT that an $18 Intel NIC allows for 3 separate DACs to have un-altered output regardless of if I'm maxing out the driving voltage with a 315 foot generic cable or a 12 foot boutique cable.

Ethernet spec has 328 ft / 100m single segment length. We are talking lengths that are, I would guess, that are typically 10 foot or less in in 95% of the consumer  installations. 

So if really expensive equipment is actually susceptible to this then the EE's that are designing it don't know what they are actually doing. They may want to re-read Ott.