Most Important, Unloved Cable...
I don't doubt or question the comments in your post just above, Jinjuku. I have said in many previous threads here that the musical resolution of a component or system, and its sensitivity to and ability to resolve hardware differences, are two different things. And in a reasonably high quality system the correlation between the two, while certainly greater than zero, is also a good deal looser than many audiophiles seem to believe. Regards, -- Al |
As far as I can recall, everything that has been said in this thread by those who deny that the reported sonic differences are real has focused on the robustness and accuracy of ethernet communications. While ignoring or discounting what I would consider, based on my experience, to be the very real possibility of interactions between signals and circuits that are ostensibly unrelated. Designs should not be assumed to behave in a manner that is theoretically ideal, IMO, and signals should not be assumed to only follow their intended pathways. Agreed, but that is going to happen regardless of Audioquest or WireWorld or Nordost. Bottom line is there are only so many ways to engineer an Ethernet Cable and the standards body steers these considerations. When a $340 AudioQuest Vodka was measured it was actually marginal for 6A operation for NeXT. Where as my $12 6A cable was 200% better in this regard. I'm able to show up and terminate UTP CAT5 or STP CAT6 to the same as is whatever they are using. I understand the theory and not in disagreement. All the same I stand by what I have said I would do and that is show up with ~40-50 feet of cabling, terminate on the spot and with a L3MS in LAG let the claimant A/B sighted for 1-3 hours and then we can move through the rounds of testing. |
@almarg +1 I agree it is most likely the faulty poorly designed boutique equipment used by the evangelists here. Knowing what Jinjuku has stated technically about Ethernet (all that buffering of digital bits) then the ONLY conclusion is that "unintended pathways" are interfering with the audio signal for those few audiophiles that have noted audible differences. I recommend that those evangelist audiophiles reporting audible differences where none should exist should sell their boat anchor crap gear asap and get something that actually works reliably with ANY suitable Ethernet cable... Reports of wild and amazing discoveries with audio equipment that is clearly on the fritz is a waste of everyone’s time. |
jinjuku I never said, or didn't say that the method is scientifically rigorousIf you're not interested in a scientifically valid test, then this exercise is really just a waste of time, imo. But it's fine if you're having fun with it - that's no problem. Just please don't assail what you call our lack of "intellectual integrity" because we're interested in a valid, repeatable test. |
