@soix If a cable is useful in mitigating noise, then the issue in the noisy component, not the passive cable. If a cable with a telescoping ground (grounded at the input, but not the output is necessary to minimize hum, then the problem is a ground loop elsewhere, and the cable only a mitigation. In either case the perception of the cable improving matters is incorrect. It is only covering up the real, and typically worse problem elsewhere, whether it's 3 semis of sound gear for a show that night, a 20 megawatt data center that's blowing PDUs, or a hifi, the fundamental issues are unchanged. If a cable makes an audible difference, or changes increase packet drops, the root problem lies elsewhere.
@atthyname Actually, it does qualify me as an expert,, seeing as how AT&T invented the opamp, the venerated 300B tube, the transistor, and yes, digital audio: Digital Pulse-Code Modulation was invented at Bell Labs in the 1930s and first used as a telephony technology. In World War 11, the military phone line between London and the Pentagon was compromised and the Germans were able to break the non-digital security system. Engineers at Bell Labs developed a PCM-based encrypted-transmission system called SIGSALY, which was deployed in 1943.' The system eventually grew to 12 terminals before being retired in 1946. Patents on the 12-channel encryption system were classified until 1976. SIGSALY represented the first digital quantization of speech and the first PCM transmission of speech.
But, jumping forward a few decades, who exactly carries the data from your digital music provider to your local ISP? Most of the time it's AT&T. On a massively scaled global IP network, carrying ... Zeroes and Ones. They don't discriminate between voice, text messages, a spreadsheet, e-commerce, streaming video, and our topic here, music. By the very nature of their architecture, at Layer One they do not care, they are not even aware of the nature of their content. It's all, it is only Zeroes and Ones. Coming from an analog background, it took me awhile to realize the implications of such a democratic technology. But is is an inarguable truth. The physical layer has no construct that would allow it to discriminate between data types. Or have any impact on the data quality whatsoever. All those decisions are in the multiple software layers above. One last example. Does it matter if your groceries are delivered to you local supermarket in a Kenworth or a Freightliner? No, of course not. The quality of your food is determined by a myriad of other relevant factors. If it arrives spoiled, do you blame Peterbilt? If a truck carries the best steak you ever had do you credit Volvo? They picked it up at the source, transported it to the destination as fast as the law and the traffic allows, and it was offloaded for additional processing, delivery, and your enjoyment.
So it might do you both well to get your facts straight, avoid the ad hominem attacks and actually learn a thing or two about digital communications.
