Except for audioman58's spew of absolute nonsense, I am so glad that no one on this thread has suggested $500+ snake oil Ethernet cables. It gives me hope for this group!
Ethernet cables
Long time audiophile here but, more of a rookie regarding streaming. My basic question is should I upgrade my ethernet cables and what price point would be reasonable for my application.
The streamer is in a secondary system and is used only for casual listening. The streamer is hardwired to the system. At this point I do not have a streamer in the main system.
Below is a list of the gear in system 2.
The streamer is a Node 2i with the power supply upgrade from LHY (a DIY kit) sourced from Beatechnik out of Singapore. Not using the internal DAC but, feeding the digital signal to an outboard DAC.
DAC - Luxman DA-06
Preamp - Simaudio P5.3
Amp - McCormack DNA-500 (yes, way overkill power wise for the system but, I love the very relaxed sound of this amp)
Speakers - Dynaudio Contour 30i
Cables - Primarily Transparent Ultra mm2 generation.
Internet is from my cable provider via coax cable.
There are three short cat 6 ethernet cables (5'). One going from the modem to the router, one from the router to the wall connection for a 100 foot cat 7 run in the attic and one at the system end wall connection to the Node. The short cables are Amazon Basics cat 6. The 100 foot cat 7 was sourced from Amazon with one of those never heard of names - Snanshi which, seems to be fairly decent but, I wouldn't really know.
So, do I upgrade the Amazon Basics cables and if so, what would be a reasonable choice?
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- 60 posts total
@lovehifi22 I have mine plugged into EERO access point. Then Purist Audio Cat7 from Silencer into Aurender N200. I’ll be honest I could barely hear any difference with and without the iFi unit in the chain. Tried it into the Aurender as well. I figured cleaning up the signal right at the EERO output made most sense to me. Keep in mind the results will vary based on how good the Ethernet implementation is in your streamer. Aurender happens to have a solid isolated implementation and I attribute the very negligible change to this. I never tried using two Silencers since the results with one were barely, if at all, audible. I left in because 1) it’s not expensive and 2) it did no harm. But again, pretty sure the results will vary in each installation. Try one first. You can return it if it doesn’t work. |
+1, @audphile1 The effectiveness of LAN filters largely depends on the implementation of Ethernet in your streamer and home network. I’ve used tested few of these add-on filters including iSilencer, iSO-Cat7 and Net Isolator ahead of N20 or N30SA….I couldn’t hear any appreciable improvement. I am also using a very high quality Ethernet switch ahead of my N30SA, another possible reason why these LAN filter were so ineffective in my system. |
Thanks everyone for your input. As per usual, the opinions ranged from the naysayers to the over the toppers. One cable that has not been mentioned here is the Supra CAT 8 ethernet cable. Jay Luong at Audio Bacon was very impressed with it even in comparison to much pricier cables. See page two of his cable reviews. I think that I will order one Supra cable and one Linkup cable for comparison and then go from there. |
- 60 posts total