ETHERNET CABLES

+1 @audphile1 and jibes well with my post above. 

@12many ​​​​@fredrik222 I’d love to believe you guys that Ethernet cables make no difference, and I totally get where you’re coming from about the physics saying they should make no difference. But, I’ve heard enough people here say they not only make a difference, but a pretty sizable difference. In fact, everything in streaming seems to make a big difference. I started streaming from my iPad through an upgraded lightning to USB cable, which was a big improvement over the Apple Camera Adapter, but when I added an iFi Zen Stream things improved exponentially and actually surpassed spinning CDs. So, I bought a mid-priced Wireworld Starlight 8 Ethernet cable I’m gonna try out between my router and streamer and see if it makes a difference versus a garden variety Ethernet cable. If I hear no difference, I’ll just return it. But at least I tried and accepted MAYBE there’s something I didn’t know and just trusted my own ears. You know, CDs were “perfect sound forever” until they finally figured out how to measure jitter, timing, and noise that turned out to be BIG problems and why many audiophiles just stuck with vinyl until manufacturers figured it out. I might hear no difference between the two Ethernet cables, but if I hear a difference maybe sometime in the future they’ll be able to measure it and explain why. But if not I’ll just return the Wireworld cable and no biggie. I also just upgraded from a very decent Apogee WydeEye professional digital cable, which I’ve loved and stuck with for 10 years, to an Acoustic Zen MC2 that is notably better in absolutely every parameter — not even close in a direct A/B comparison. At some point in the past someone would’ve said there couldn’t be any difference because it’s just ones and zeroes (and yes, they’re both 75-Ohm cables), but here we are. I guess what I’m saying is, rather than just blindly walling it off why not just try a “better” Ethernet cable and if you don’t hear a difference just return it? What’s the harm? Worst case is you’ll just prove your point to yourselves, and if not you’ve benefitted from better sound quality and learned something. That’s a win-win either way in my book.

@12many Thanks for being so cordial and accepting of another opinion. If only all differing opinions could be this way. Listen, how about you and I do something of a challenge? I’m gonna buy a generic Ethernet cable and compare it to my Wireworld Starlight 8. How about you do a trial for, let’s say, any $200+ Ethernet cable (Wireworld Starlight 8 would be optimal, heh heh) that you can either audition or return for free and let’s compare notes. Sound cool? All I ask is let’s both be totally open, honest, and objective to what we hear (and yeah, I know it’s one sample and a ton of variables so it ain’t exactly scientific — I get it). But @12many you seem like at least open to it and have at least a somewhat open mind, so I think it’s be super interesting to do this and compare notes. What do you say? Could be fun and interesting, no? We could even swap cables cause they’re so damn cheap to ship and compare notes on similar cables. Personally, I’d love to hear the honest opinions of two guys who come at this from two different perspectives. Nothing could be more valuable to me as a discerning audiophile cause when both sides agree I think we have something. Anyway, just a wacky idea that might be fun here. Or not. Lemme know what u think.

@12many Goodonya!  At least you have an open mind, and I totally get wanting to do a blind comparison.  There are some here who refuse to even try something just because they don’t “believe” it’ll make a difference, which I honestly don’t even understand.  Especially with cables as they can be so easy to try with low shipping costs, free trial periods, etc.  I’d be very interested in what you find, and I may well do the same in reverse just to see if I may have wasted $200 starting out with better Ethernet cable.  

@audphile1 I’m in north Jersey too and it’s a truly beautiful day here. Perfect time to go outside and take a break from the ASR crowd. Go get a great Neapolitan pizza tonight and a great bagel tomorrow morning, which doesn’t exist outta the NYC area. Heh heh.