How can different CAT5/6 cables affect sound.
While is is beyond doubt that analog cables affect sound quality and SPDIF, TOSlink and AES/EBU can effect SQ, depending on the buffering and clocking of the DAC, I am at a loss to find an explanation for how different CAT5 cables can affect the sound.
The signals over cat5 are transmitted using the TCP protocol. This protocol is error correcting, each packet contains a header with a checksum. If the receiver gets the same checksum then it acknowledges the packet. If no acknowledgement is received in the timeout interval the sender resends the packet. Packets may be received out of order and the receiver must correctly sequence the packets.
Thus, unless the cable is hopeless (in which case nothing works) the receiver has an exact copy of the data sent from the sender, AND there is NO timing information associated with TCP. The receiver must then be dependent on its internal clock for timing.
That is different with SPDIF, clocking data is included in the stream, that is why sources (e.g. high end Aurenders) have very accurate and low jitter OCXO clocks and can sound better then USB connections into DACs with less precise clocks.
Am I missing something as many people hear differences with different patch cords?
In many instances, those differences are heard in systems that are not galvanically isolated behind at least one run of SFP fiber. When differences are still heard with components or cables located upstream of fiber isolation, explanations still exist for that phenomenon, to the extent that psychology is indeed a science.
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You're correct that TCP/IP ensures error-free data transmission, so theoretically, CAT5/6 cables shouldn't affect sound quality. However, some argue that differences in noise, shielding, or EMI from cables could influence the DAC's analog output stage or power supply, potentially causing subtle audible changes—though this isn't strictly about the digital data itself. It's a debated topic, with some attributing perceived differences to placebo or system-specific interactions rather than the protocol itself. |
here is a response to the same topic in last week's Weekly Recap. You can up the numbers by a bit. I spend about 5 minutes a week here hoping for something interesting but you guys debate this same topic over and over and over and the same responses are repeated over and over and over. .If you search "Ethernet" in this forum you get 12,599 hits as of a few minutes ago. Everything that can be said has been said in those posts. Let's move on |
