Relationship between Ethernet Switch and SQ

 Why would we be concerned about noise along an ethernet cable.  Noise doesn't come into play until the signal's past the DAC?

To quote Hans Beekhuyzen: "But it does. It clearly does". 

Long before we could explain why the sky appears blue, we all observed it with our senses and agreed that it was blue, but we didn't know why. The funny part is usually when humans ask they are too young to understand the answer, and by the time many are old enough to understand the answer they don't care anymore. You know, that innate curiousity doesn't exist anymore. 

This is where we are at- many of us are agreeing that ethernet filters do make our kits sound better, therefore we conclude they must be absorbing and filtering out electrical noise. At some point we will be able to prove it and explain it to those who question it before observing the outcome using our senses. But for many we don't care about the reason, we just know that it does. And many probably wouldn't understand the answer anyway. 

What am I missing? 

A better soundstage, and a smoother, less digital, and more enjoyable sound. Yes, I am a recent believer. 

Digital transmission (external to a chip) is typically an analog waveform which “simulates” the ones and zeros over a cable. Most believe it is either a one or a zero but the fact is the analog waveform is a voltage approximation (the better the approximation, the better the signal) can be affected by noise, cable length and the veracity of the signal transmission. Its critical to do your own research because there are parts of the chain where the signal tranmission is fragile and susceptible to external interference and the physics of analog signal transmission absolutely apply.

There are other parts of the chain where there is little to no effect. You need to understand which is which because so many argue one side can/can’t be affected/influenced by applying their knowledge and understanding of one side of the equation to the other side where they believe their logic should apply equally. It doesnt work that way. I’m not smart enough to explain, let alone understand, the intricacies but I am smart enough to understand when I clearly hear an improvement to discount the opinion of those who swear there can’t be.

Trust the science and trust your ears but most importantly, we must have a credible constant to compare against….and our memory and how we think something sounded is fallable in seconds.

So if I hear a tree fall while walking in the woods, should I assume that a tree really did not fall because 1) I did not see the tree falling and 2) I expected to hear a tree fall while in the woods and so therefore I heard one fall.  There is a third option:  There are no trees in the woods…. (There is no spoon.). Oooooh.

@tonywinga 

To further refine: if two tress fall, one after the other, and with the first one you had an ethernet filter in your pocket and the second one you did not and yet, they soundeded identical….well, then the filter makes no discernable difference.

If you can’t prove to me that the tree actually fell, then you are delusional. Confirmation bias is very powerful, you know. We all know you wanted to hear that tree fall.