Most Important, Unloved Cable...

What SQ you keep referring to...all I hear is noise. In case you don't  know, Noise is a sound with a continuous structure.  

@dynaquest,

I don’t entirely agree with your summary cause some of those betting don’t even own a digital streaming setup that involves Ethernet cable (I won’t single them out but they know who they are).

Why they are even here debating the merits of Ethernet cables or digital bits is beyond me 😳

We have recently conducted a shootout between following cables and each of these cables sounded different in a pretty good mid-fi system,

Purist Audio CAT7
SoTM dCBL-CAT7
Synergistic Research Ethernet Active SE CAT6

In any highly resolve system, each and every cable matters!

@jinjuku,

We get it!!! You’re are not in ’Cable makes a difference’ camp. Then why you continue to participate in a thread that contrary to your core beliefs?

May be your ears gotten immune to any possible audible improvements from barking at people who are actually willing to try and keep an open mind.

"I’m totally willing to do this in your setup. I’ll provide the Client/Server computer, Cisco SG200-8 switch and some additional cabling"

@jinjuku,

Looks like your argument is based on this video ~ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=anZeheEiff8

I will leave it for rest of the audiophile community to decide the merits of your test.

@dynaquest4,
@jinjuku,

In your experience, do you think laptop / computer is a best source to determine sound fidelity and quality of a Ethernet cable in direct comparison with a dedicated audio server like Lumin, Aurender or Antipodes?

I would like to hear from folks using a dedicated audio server. It would be interesting to hear their feedback on $5 off the shelf Ethernet cable vs $100-$300 Ethernet cable.

Many of us using PC as a source of streaming. Let’s also talk about the next chain in the link - the USB cable to the DAC. Are you going to say next that a generic $5 USB cable is just as good as $300 USB cable?

@jinjuku,

I would be happy to answer your question if you tell me what happens to SQ once the info in buffer runs out assuming Ethernet cable remains out of the equation?

"I still don’t have an answer to the video I made where I removed the Ethernet cable and the audio still plays and nothing changed about the quality of it"

"What happens to the SQ when the Ethernet cable is removed and the music still plays?"

@jinjuku,

The whole crux of your tiresome argument is that you can’t discern any audible difference between a $5 or $300 Ethernet cable. Well you’re not going to cause laptops are not designed to use as a dedicated source for high fidelity audio. No video or argument is going to convince or sway your opinion. I am sure you have heard the term ’garbage in garbage out’.

As @shadorne so eloquently conveys in every discussion, you can’t improve the sound from a faulty and badly designed component with cable upgrades...upgraded cables or any other tweaks are like band-aids to faulty components.

You read earlier, grannyring heard the audible differences in his tricked out Sound Science Music Vault computer,

"I changed my ethernet cable from a Cat5, if I recall, to a shielded CAT 7 and liked the change. Again, more relaxed and natural sounding. Less of that digital glare we sometimes hear. The USB cable used made a significant sound quality improvement/change. I ended up with the Curious USB cable. I tried several and the sound quality differences were easily discernible. The Curious cable was the most full bodied and relaxed and met my personal subjective sound quality needs"

May be you should conduct a A/B test with pair of Belkin Ethernet and USB cables vs. Wireworld Starlight Ethernet and USB cables on a decent dedicated audio server. You may be able to hear the audible improvements cables on 1's and 0's. 

Take the advise of your buddy shardorne and ditch your crappy laptop. You can also read up on tons of discussion on Computer Audiophile forums on how everyone’s is trying whole bunch of band-aids to improve the sound from a laptop which only tells me one thing.....consumer laptops are not ideal for bit perfect audio nirvana let alone conducting A/B cable tests :-)

@willemj 

Did your banker say that they had to use cheap cables cause you want free checking account? 

Sadly, you are not willing to admit the importance of a cable carrying the digital bits to your buffer zone. Again, garbage in garbage out. You’re only focusing on the sound that comes out of your noisy $10 sound card within your laptop. Who gives a shit about the SQ :-)

Enough said!

"The cable is important if you want to get data transferred. It’s not involved in the SQ"

That’s pretty much sums it up.

@jinjuku,

Just like you...I’ve selective listening :-)

@jinjuku,

No one listens to music with their cables 'unplugged'. Since you don't believe in 'cable makes a difference' there is not much to discuss or debate here. 

Even If I shoot a video with A/B test and post it on YouTube, i highly doubt either you or anyone for that matter can discern 'SQ' between different cables. 

Is this simple enough for you to understand? 

BTW, how many comments did you receive on your YouTube video :-)

"Ethernet as a protocol and cable is the only cable in all of audiophiledom that I know of that you can unplug and you will still get playback"

@jinjuku,

Again, we don’t listen or test equipments and cables on a 30 second buffer memory. Everyone understands here how music is being streamed off Ethernet and played back. 

I think you’ve lost sight of OP purpose of starting this thread. You clearly don’t have any understanding on how to evaluate cables so just stick with your 20 seconds ’gimmicky’ of unplugging cable and so on.

"It’s all about attention, you know, like the YouTube video currently under discussion"

+1, geoffkait. 

He's got way more attention here then on YouTube, that's why he won't leave 😜

+1, @wgutz

@grannyring,

You make a very valid point. We all waited for this test and it was quite disappointing to see the poor choice of source and cables. I have been saying all along, laptop is not the best renderer to stream music let alone testing out cable differences.

To your point, it does take time to fully appreciate a cable in your system. Frankly, this 10-20 second cable swap is nothing but a cheap gimmick. The cables used in this test regardless of price point wouldn’t have yielded any audible differences.

A while ago i did a shootout between USB cables using my windows laptop as a source going direct into a $7K DAC and I couldn’t discern any audible differences between Platinum Starlight 7 - $500, Furutech ADL USB - $200 and a $10 USB cable generic printer cable.

On flip side, Wireworld Platinum sounded amazing compared to other two USB cables between Aurender N100 / N10 and Modwright Elyse DAC.

Coming back to your cable trial, I have tested Wireworld Ethernet Cable in my system and didn’t care for it in a direct comparison with SoTM dCBL-CAT7 and Purist CAT7, YMMV.

I am currently using these cables and found them to be best among the one’s I have tested below in my system,

Belkin CAT6
SR Active SE CAT6
Purist CAT7
SoTM dCBL-CAT7
AQVOX CAT7
Wireworld CAT 8 (SME)
RAL Cryosilver Reference CAT8

Source components:
Aurender N10
Bluesound Vault 2

I don’t expect everyone to hear or appreciate audible improvements be it cables, room treatments, fuses and so on. IMHO, cables are just as important as picking out speakers and components. At the end of the day, it comes down to trusting your own ears and enjoying the music.

Invisible Pink Unicorn buddy..LMAO!!!!