AES/EBU vs XLR cables for digital connection

Thanks for the input, everybody--very helpful. I have ordered what I think (hope) is a pretty good AES/EBU cable for direct comparison so I’ll see if I can tell the difference. Guess it wouldn’t hurt to try the USB connection too, though from what I have read/heard AES/EBU and particularly I2S beat it hands down, at least with these components. So my next step, probably, will be to order the I2S module. THEN we’ll see how things line up. I'll keep you posted when I've had a chance to try all this out. 

A long overdue update: I tried the standard XLR cable (reminder: Clarus Aqua) while waiting for the AES/EBU cable to arrive and the XLR sounded, at best, okay. Once the AES/EBU cable finally got here, I hooked it up right away and noticed, perhaps, a slight improvement, but all in all, the difference was very small. It may be that I need to put lots and lots of hours on this cable before it shows its true colors, but in the grand scheme of things, I’m not very happy with how the combination of Sonnet Morpheus and Sonnet Hermes sounds. I’m streaming Qobuz through Roon from a Dell laptop, and I’m not getting anything like the clarity and composure I think I should. My point of comparison is the Qobuz app on my Samsung smart TV, which is connected via optical cable to a Wyred 4 Sound remedy reclocker which pushes everything up (or down as the case may be) to 24 bit/96Khz. I actually like that presentation far better. Don’t think this is how it should be, though, so I’m open to suggestions here. Thanks for the input so far--it’s been very helpful.

Designsfx, thanks for your response. I did consider switching to Volumino despite the hoops you have to jump through to get the Hermes to recognize that platform, but for the moment I'm kind of stuck with Roon for the next year, as that's how my subscription is structured. Probably not the smartest decision I ever made...

Another update: having put some time into listening with the AES/EBU cable, I thought I might experience a significant improvement if I went to the trouble of switching out the USB port in the Morpheus for an I2S module. They’re not very expensive and it’s fairly easy to make the change, which I did myself despite not being any kind of electrical expert. After wiring the Morpheus to the Hermes via ethernet cable (a very pedestrian one I had on hand), I did get some encouraging results. Bass and midrange presentation improved markedly, as did the stereo image, but the upper mids and high frequencies are still quite shrill and glassy. I really don’t know where the weak link is here. I’m using a Topping A90 headphone amp and a pair of LSA HP2 headphones. The Roon/Qobuz inerface is accessed from my Dell XPS laptop via ethernet cable.

I’m certainly open to further opinions and suggestions. Thanks.

Thanks, designsfx for your suggestion, but I don't see how I can control the Hermes with my phone, as it doesn't seem to have wireless capability. Okay, I'm really new streamers, so maybe I'm missing something? It would certainly be a worthwhile comparison though, cutting out the middleman, so to speak. And, of course, it would be far more convenient to do it that way. Again, I'm very open to suggestions/instruction. 

BTW, it turns out that the Hermes doesn't have a USB port, just an ethernet input (to connect to the network), and outputs via AES/EBU, optical, coax, or ethernet I2S. They must have had their reasons for this, I guess...

Just wanted to update the updates here, as I’ve been living with all this for some weeks now. To remind everybody, I’m using a Sonnet Hermes streamer and a Sonnet Morpheus DAC. The two are connected through i2s via what I think is a good ethernet cable. Streaming service is Qobuz, which I’m accessing through Roon on my Dell XPS laptop. (And yes, designsfx, it does connect wirelessly. Many thanks for your explanations and suggestions). Since last update, nothing has improved soundwise, I’m afraid. I still don’t think I’m getting anything like the quality I should be getting. Things are fine up to a certain point, but in the frequencies where voices live and higher, it’s still shrill and glassy. Also, dense musical textures get pretty muddy. This is not what I should be hearing.

I made a startling discovery about the Qobuz app on my Samsung smart TV, which is that there are only 2 choices of sound quality, MP3 or 44.1. It was actually set to MP3 (!) but since I’m upconverting everything to 24/96 with a Wyred4Sound reclocker, it ends up sounding quite good. I tried changing this setting to 44.1 quality, but then no sound came out. Go figure.

As far as I can tell, the Hermes streamer won’t allow direct access to Qobuz (or any streaming services) without going through Roon or similar platform. If there is a way to do it I’d be very grateful to learn how. The owner’s manual is pretty basic and doesn’t really cover much in the way of detail.

So this is where things are presently. Not a happy camper yet, but I hope to get there eventually. Still open to your thoughts and suggestions.

Well. After some poking around, and following sesignsfx’s most excellent suggestion, I finally discovered Roon’s DSP engine and the ability to adjust EQ with it. What a difference! Roon defaults to what looks like a flat frequency response, but to my ears it seems skewed towards higher frequencies. Boosting the bass a good 3 db and gradually rolling off the higher frequencies from about 2000 Hz  upwards has yielded some unexpectedly spectacular results. NOW what I’m hearing is much more like what I was hoping for. Of course I’ve only heard this through headphones so far, but I’m sure putting this through the speakers will sound as good or better.

One experiment I’ve yet to try is controlling Roon through a tablet or iPhone, neither of which I own yet, but stay tuned--this may change soon. I’ve tried using both my desktop computer and Samsung (Android) phone but neither will recognize the Hermes streamer.

Again, thanks to all (and especially designsfx) for the input and suggestions. I’ll post further progress as it occurs.

And as happens pretty often in this forum, we’ve strayed rather far off the path of my original post, so apologies for that.

And yet one more update: finally was able to get the laptop out of the equation by switching to a Samsung tablet. It was an immensely frustrating process, as Roon can be very tricky to set up properly, and especially difficult to figure out how to move the Roon core from one source to another. I’m now running it on my desktop computer which is far more convenient, as it’s pretty much always on. The tablet, I discovered (after tearing my hair out and swearing loudly for days on end) can’t serve as the Roon core, but does work very efficiently as a wireless controller to access Qobuz and my music library. Now everything’s working exactly as it should, sounding especially good, and making me happy. I have to acknowledge Roon’s customer forum for pointing me in the right direction, as the actual online technical information Roon offers is difficult to navigate and not as clear as it ought to be. But still, I got there finally. And BTW, with reference to my original post, still using the I2S connection. Haven’t yet compared it to AES/EBU, but will try that experiment at some point. The Hermes doesn’t even have a USB connection (!), so can’t make that comparison. One day, perhaps, I’ll see about an even higher-end streamer, but that’s not in the cards quite yet.