I would look on HifiShark to find some bulk AQ cable. You never know if you'll get lucky unless you try.
I scored a partial roll of Carbon at a great price. It goes from the Verizon box to the router, and then to the streamer.
B
Value of a premium Ethernet cable
In my current setup, digital music from a Roon ROCK NUC server travels through an Uptone Audio EtherRegen and a short link of fiber, thence to a long stretch of ordinary contractor-grade Cat 5a cable, and finally to a dCS Bartók streaming DAC.
At substantial effort and expense, I could rearrange things so the final length of Ethernet would be replaced by a single run of something like an Audioquest Vodka Ethernet cable. I'm wondering if anyone has experience of whether this is worth the trouble and expense. Well mostly the expense; the "trouble" is the hobby part of it.
+2 on the LinkUp cable recommendation. I wouldn’t hesitate to run it from the router to switch, with the short run after the switch using a better cable or even LinkUp into streamer. Should be an improvement over the cheap cable. Buy with a solid return policy though. If you don’t hear any improvement (unlikely) or don’t like the change in sound, you should be able to return. |
Thanks to all who responded. soix: We have a (Google) mesh network in the house but most places I've read say Ethernet is preferable. antigrunge2: I've ordered one of those cables for the short run between the EtherRegen and ROCK server. Certainly worth a try!gdnrbob Excellent idea; I'll check out HiFiShark. Didn't know about that site.jerrybj: Running fiber to the streamer presents the same logistics problems as the long ethernet run, which I can handle, but would also necessitate an FMC near the streamer, with either a wall wart power supply or another linear power supply. audphile1: I'll check out Network Acoustics Eno; that's a new one on me. If anyone's interested, here's the setup in the hallway outside my listening room.
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