ETHERNET CABLES

@juanmanuelfangioii  +1

I've used a similar kit by TP Link between my router feed and Node N130.

It's a no brainer for the relative small outlay. It helped my Node no end, noise floor decreased significantly. Much more relaxed, and no longer "grainy" 

My router is in the next room where the TV, Sonos, BRay player, Phillips Hue Bridge, TV Cable box all live and feed from - quite a lot going on/noise. The kit in the above post puts a fire break on all that noise transferring to your streamer via ethernet. 

Granted, the 2nd convertor in the chain introduces its own noise, but this can be reduced by swapping the stock wall wart for the convertor with an ifi low noise power supply, or something similar. 

@dpcoffey Great to see someone who talks some digital sense. I fully concur, never understood how 'audio grade' ethernet cable, or USB cable can make a difference. All other data is transferred error free ... bar audio?

"I did notice a sonic difference when purchasing and switching to an ethernet Audioquest cable"

I won't say you didn't hear a difference, the brain can do funny things. But let's analyze this together. If the sound difference stems from receiving 'better' digital data since you installed the new cable, this means that the old cable introduced errors. Let me ask ... when you browsed the internet, did you ever see spelling errors in the texts? Or pictures or video come in corrupted?  Or when you downloaded apps, or Windows updates, sized many MB or GB, did they work? I bet this all was fine? So, only streamed audio contains errors? Isn't that weird? (OK ... I give you this ... Windows updates can sometimes be weird. :).

Of course their is a sq difference in a better cable, including Ethernet cables.

In the past, I tried the top of the line blue jeans interconnects to see what all the talk was about and to compare them to my reference cables that cost many times more. I gave them a month (I knew in a minute but wanted to see if they would burn in). I sold them. No comparison to my better cables. 

Ethernet cables do not make sonic differences

If only that were true, life would be grand.