Value of a premium Ethernet cable

@macg19

I don’t think flaming you is appropriate.

‘However, like scientist; observe.

Try a cheap cable like Blue Jeans, a well reviewed $500 cable and a $1,000 one. And despite all the logic they are likely to sound sound very significantly better (depending on the quality of your system). This is the acid test. Then you start working on hypothesis as to why this might be true.

Starting from the logic that it can’t make a difference is a great way to get it all wrong. For the last fifty years of me trying that (to logic it out) and being proven wrong by observation every time has cured me of believing in that approach. Also, I was a scientist for over a decade.

@ghdprentice

great post! Actually even easier than using two different cables: insert a LAN isolator ahead of your streamer with whatever cable you use.,Should be enough to convince you that there is more going on than bits are bits…

@antigrunge2 

The interference messes with the shape of the sine wave thereby changing both amplitude and midpoint

This is impossible if we are discussing only the transfer of a digital file from the source (e.g. Qobuz) to the streamer. The digital file cannot be altered prior to it being converted to analogue. 

Well regarded members of this forum have stated adamantly that digital audio is a true stream of data, and not a bit checked/error corrected file sent over TCP/IP in packets.

This confused me so I contacted BlueSound. Digital audio is transmitted over TCP/IP just like an other digital data file.

Errors can and do occur, e.g. the packets can get sent out of order, which can create a slight delay while the processor assembles the file (assuming the transfer is completed) but the file is the identical once it arrives at the transport/streamer no matter whether it is sent over WiFi or a $1K ethernet cable.

That is my only point.

If your new cable, wherever in the chain that is, sounds better, and you are happy with the ROI, great.

But don’t tell me the amplitude over time of a sine wave in a digital file can be altered by an ethernet cable of varying quality.

a sine wave in a digital file

*the digital representation of a sine wave in a digital file