Buddy can you spare a dime for a $12,000 Ethernet cable?


I just read TAS’s coverage of the second Florida audio show.

While I absolutely love the results I’m getting from the $650 EtherRegen switch, and hear differences in Ethernet cables, I had to gulp at the prices one company is charging. Maybe I should start a Gofundme for contributions.

From TAS

“Ansuz Acoustics’ introduction of an entire line of Ethernet-related products. Of course, there were cables, and the A2 (approx. $1800 for one meter) and D-TC (approx. $12,600 for one meter) delivered a much wider soundstage and more palpable vocals than generic Ethernet cable. The D-TC model added noticeably crisper transients and even more spatial expansion. But the most eye-opening demo was of a line of Ethernet switches priced from $2200 to a whopping $14,000. Generic Ethernet switches are about $100 at Best Buy, but even the entry-level PowerSwitch proved to be a huge upgrade in terms of noise reduction, and the flagship PowerSwitch Supreme ($14k) made an incredible difference in clarity and dynamics. Dang! Yet another seemingly innocuous element (like power cords) that makes a difference.”




emailists
Speaker and RCA cables are analog. Its the same audio signal that is sent to your speakers. I can see where differences between their construction can effect the sound coming from the speakers.

But Ethernet cables send high frequency 0’s ans 1’s so rapidly that a human can not comprehend it and that is fed into a DAC microprocessor that decodes it. It is less clear how you can "flavor" that digital stream of zeros and ones and effect the sound. I will agree that a quality cable can sound better if it is not dropping some of the signal..........But what makes me a skeptic is that by changing the conductors digital cables are supposed to have the same tone / flavor changes as an analog wire. I mean copper sounds neutral, silver sounds bright, Gold sounds warm. Its too much of a coincidence that the wires will flavor an artificial digital stream the same way as analog.


YMMV.......And if you think anything makes your system sound better who am I to judge. But personally I am going to pass on a $12,000 digital anything cable.
+1 delkal
Once the the information gets to any competent DAC it is isolated, noise filtered which would remove (noise/flavor) a cable might have had, reclocked converted and sent on.
This is the part about this hobby that annoys the f@@@ out of me. 
High-end speaker cables that promise the moon. High-speed ethernet cables that simply deliver higher data rates, not sound quality. And cable blocks. Really?

There is a fine line between what can be delivered and the promise of what can be delivered. Much of this promised esoterica is snake-oil. The human ear is a finite instrument. Granted you can detect spatial imaging, but to make the statement that some of these vendors make is unverifiable nonsense. But then again, like a Nigerian Prince, it only takes one out of 100 to bite.
On the other hand, people would be much better off if they believed too much rather than too little.