Most Important, Unloved Cable...


Ethernet. I used to say the power cord was the most unloved, but important cable. Now, I update that assessment to the Ethernet cable. Review work forthcoming. 

I can't wait to invite my newer friend who is an engineer who was involved with the construction of Fermilab, the National Accelerator Lab, to hear this! Previously he was an overt mocker; no longer. He decided to try comparing cables and had his mind changed. That's not uncommon, as many of you former skeptics know. :)

I had my biggest doubts about the Ethernet cable. But, I was wrong - SO wrong! I'm so happy I made the decision years ago that I would try things rather than simply flip a coin mentally and decide without experience. It has made all the difference in quality of systems and my enjoyment of them. Reminder; I settled the matter of efficacy of cables years before becoming a reviewer and with my own money, so my enthusiasm for them does not spring from reviewing. Reviewing has allowed me to more fully explore their potential.  

I find fascinating the cognitive dissonance that exists between the skeptical mind in regard to cables and the real world results which can be obtained with them. I'm still shaking my head at this result... profoundly unexpected results way beyond expectation. Anyone who would need an ABX for this should exit the hobby and take up gun shooting, because your hearing would be for crap.  
douglas_schroeder
This is the problem with the world population. Some ’hundreds of thousands’ (and more) and into the millions as scattered across the earth, say the earth is flat. That is a humongous blip of statistical significance.

Fixed that for you. I thought better context could be provided in couching your response in easier to relate terms. 
The result could be predicted. Confront the voodoo priests with the experimental facts that show they were wrong and they will try to change the rules of the game. As for Geoff and Theo, they of course have a financial stake in perpetuating such deception.
The result could be predicted. Confront the voodoo priests with the experimenttal facts that show they were wrong and they will try to change the rules of the game. As for Geoff and Theo, they of course have a financial stake in perpetuating such deception.
I've been surprised that the most vocal of differences are also the most adamant that they simply be trusted without any instrumented verification to further credential the claims made. 
 
Anyone who believes negative results can be used to prove anything is a ____________. If negative results meant anything every Yahoo in the world would be claiming this cable is a scam, that fuse is a scam, this tweak is a scam, that tweak is a scam, etc. Follow? I mean, they already do that, now they’re trying to dress up their statements in some sort of scientific finery. You can paint a turkey different colors, it’s still a turkey. 🦃 When someone wants to join the debate and get noticed but doesn't have a real argument that's usually when the name calling starts. 😄

No, nothing else at play here. Just the experience of seasoned audio hobbiests who have been there, done that with gear and wire and acquired real experiential knowledge and wisdom. All the insults and verbal tantrums will not change this fact. 
Geoff,

The onus is on the person making wild claims to provide proof. If someone else says it is a scam then those making the wild claim should simply provide proof to the contrary.

That is how science works. Jinjuku should have been challenged and easily proved wrong a long time ago( if any of the wild cable claims were the least bit true).

Those who are justifiably skeptical do not have to provide proof that the wildest claims are indeed bogus. Every significant leap in technology comes with a repeatible demonstration to convince others of the new scientific discovery.
And if these claims are true, there are Nobel Prizes to be won (and patents to be awarded).
jinjuku: In this forum you could have expected these reactions to your testing.  Very good example of "Selective Perception." This is the process by which individuals perceive what they want to...while ignoring opposing viewpoints. It is a broad term to identify the behavior all people exhibit to tend to "see things" based on their particular frame of reference. It also describes how we categorize and interpret sensory information in a way that favors one interpretation over another. In other words, selective perception is a form of bias because we interpret information in a way that is congruent with our existing values and beliefs. Psychologists believe this process occurs automatically.

While both sides in this discussion could be demonstrating this trait, only your side was willing to go to the effort to actually do some testing.  Since neither side will ever give-in to the other viewpoint, I'm glad we are on the scientifically correct side.
Geez, that’s the best you guys can come up with? Expectation bias? 😬 Give me a break. I can give you at least five reasons off the top of my head why negative results don’t mean anything. I was the Government witness for the testing and evaluator of test results for a multi billion dollar critical communications project. Cables are merely child’s play. Cut me some slack, Jack.
Nothing is being claimed as a scam. I understand the fundamentals of how Ethernet works. I've tried out three boutique cables vs one that I made. 1 person here had the intellectual humility to simply hear without knowing what is in situ. 

All I'm asking for is someone, anyone, provide some proof as to their ability to hear these differences and have that difference follow the expensive cable. 

It's not to much to ask. 

I was just having a drink with my buddy the Invisible Pink Unicorn the other day talking about the audacity of people not believing me and the 100's of thousands of people that know him. I understand that while you may not be able to see my Invisible Pink Unicorn buddy, it's only because either your eyes, your glasses, or both suck. 

He exists, you just need to believe me. 




shadorne
Geoff,

The onus is on the person making wild claims to provide proof. If someone else says it is a scam then those making the wild claim should simply provide proof to the contrary.

That is how science works. Jinjuku should have been challenged and easily proved wrong a long time ago( if any of the wild cable claims were the least bit true).

Those who are justifiably skeptical do not have to provide proof that the wildest claims are indeed bogus. Every significant leap in technology comes with a repeatible demonstration to convince others of the new scientific discovery.

>>>>>>Uh, give me a break. This is a hobby, not some pretend science project or peer review or any such thing. There is no audio Oversight Committee and we don't follow AES rules or any such thing. I'm afraid we are on our own. There is no onus on anyone for anything. Not for the claimants not for the naysayers. That’s in your head. That’s what naysayers have been using for decades trying to win the same argument. No one has to prove anything or back up claims. They don't even have make claims or provide explanations. Those are all old wives' tales. maybe some people are skeptical in the real sense of the word, you know, they actually investigate things and are curious about things, but most here are just pretending to be skeptics. They're actually pseudo skeptics. No offense intended.

Why Pink? Quite offensive, I’d say. : )
Don’t color shame my Invisible Pink Unicorn Buddy. He’s having a hard enough time with the naysayers that would like some evidence other then my and a few 100 thousand other peoples say so.

I can leap tall buildings in a single bound but it wouldn’t be scientifically significant even if you asked me to prove it to so I don’t bother with it. Need a rather large N of people jumping buildings for my claim to be even relevant. 

jinjuku
Why Pink? Quite offensive, I’d say. : )
Don’t color shame my Invisible Pink Unicorn Buddy. He’s having a hard enough time with the naysayers that would like some evidence other then my and a few 100 thousand other peoples say so.

>>>>>>Yeah, right. Voting is real scientific. 😀 On the other hand I would not be surprised if there were 100 thousand who are somewhat hearing impaired 👂🏻and/or all thumbs. 👎🏻

Jujistu
I can leap tall buildings in a single bound but it wouldn’t be scientifically significant even if you asked me to prove it to so I don’t bother with it. Need a rather large N of people jumping buildings for my claim to be even relevant.

>>>>>>That’s quite a silly argument. Kind of what I’ve come to expect from naysayers, if I can speak frankly. 😁
@geoffkait 

Give me a break. YOU raised the topic of negative test results proving nothing. I simply pointed out that you are correct - the evidence must be supplied by those making the wild claims!
Cut me some slack, Jack. I know that's what you said. And I responded by pointing out....oh, never mind!

Goodness, GK...methinks thou doth protest too much.

I suspect that given a chance to guess which cables were which on your own system in your own home in a fair and impartial method...where you were not able to know which were which, you would decline...deep down knowing that there was a very good chance you could not pick out your own "best performing" cables from two or three others of much lesser quality (e.g. MonoPrice).

It's never going to happen so you may certainly continue to spout your pseudo-science.
Ouch! Another name caller with no real argument enters the fray. Let's get it together, people. Heck, I don’t even use cables. Is that wrong? And does that mean I can’t post on this thread? 😀 Should I ban myself?

Post removed 
Tried my first Mogami wire today.   Very happy.  Are those important or loved?
I’m still waiting for my phone call from machine dynamica to make my system sound better.

Maybe the The Teleportation Tweak is being updated for compatibility with SMS.

Been beating the subjective audiophile with the Generic Zip Cord of Logic since 1999(tm)
Greg22lz:. You seem to be way too emotional about our discussion here. If it pains you that much, feel free to "unfollow" this thread.  No one wants anyone to be moved to anger or intense frustration over this issue.  Hope you feel better.
Wow, I guess I didn’t realize there were so many Crusader Rabbits on this forum. Let the Crusades begin! 🐇🐇🐇🐇. Look out for the rabbit droppings! 

I just upgraded my home ethernet service from 20Mb to 40Mb and had an interesting talk with the installer.  As he was testing the new connections he mentioned all the splices & switches that exist between my home and the CO and the effect they have on the overall performance I will see.  I mentioned the fact the some people believe that spending big $ on fancy CAT 6/7 cables for their audio systems and he laughed & could not figure out how those cables could possibly have any impact on anything.  The real fact is there is so many switches & splices upstream from your home that no single cable could compensate for it, TCP and its built in error corrections and retries is what does that.
@azbrd I am going to guess that the OP is not using the high quality Ethernet cable to deliver the last few feet of Internet service, but rather to transfer data locally stored on a server to a DAC or some other limited local data transfer.

The same argument has been leveled against power coming in off the grid and how could a high quality power cable in the last couple of feet “rescue” an already polluted AC source.

All that said, I think this logic misses the mark.  A quality Ethernet cable, or analog interconnect, or power cable keep signals intact and in their appropriate lanes in a cluttered environment around your gear, so you deliver as close to the initial output at the other end of the cable as you can get without picking up or transfering interference from or to other cables or gear in the vicinity.  I have found that the better I tame possible problems related to non conservative signal delivery between equipment, the better and bigger difference I notice in the next upgrade in another part of my system cabling.  YMMV.
The same argument has been leveled against power coming in off the grid and how could a high quality power cable in the last couple of feet “rescue” an already polluted AC source.
While I agree the same argument has been leveled, the people the level the same points about a power vs Ethernet don’t know what they are talking about.

Unlike power, every port that data passes through is a reconstruction. 
knownothing sez: "A quality Ethernet cable, or analog interconnect, or power cable keep signals intact and in their appropriate lanes in a cluttered environment around your gear, so you deliver as close to the initial output at the other end of the cable as you can get without picking up or transferring interference from or to other cables or gear in the vicinity."

Exactly!  And a "quality cable" needs not cost more that a few dollars a foot.  Spending more makes them look prettier and more impressive but does nothing to improve, enhance or increase the quality of the sound.
jinjuku, yes, of course a digital signal is handled completely differently by the sending and receiving device compared to AC power supplies. The analogy is very broadly drawn here. My point is regardless of the type of signal or how the signal is handled at either end, if something bad happens to it in the wire, or it does something bad to a signal in adjacent wire in your system, it can affect the overall sound coming out of your speakers or headphones.

Your point does argue for better implementation of devices and error correction in data reconstruction - and perhaps why optical toslink should not be the first choice for digital data transfer - but I don’t think your point obviates the need for good cabling. Maybe we agree on that.
dynaquest4, yeah, I guess that is why they use $few a foot power cables in all major recording studios. Or maybe not...

http://shunyata.com/2015/04/01/grant-samuelsen-visits-astoria-studios/

and this, referring to a specific Shunyata power cable:

”The Anaconda Alpha wasted little time in becoming a power-line reference used by major music and film studios, electronics manufacturers, reviewers, music producers and mastering engineers. Studios such as Sony Music (Japan) and Philips (Crest National-US) adopted the Anacondas for reference playback and mastering. World-renowned mastering engineers Doug Sax and James Guthrie also endorse and use the Anaconda Alphas, as do Record Producer Rick Rubin and a host of other industry luminaries.”

I realize this statement is part of a sales pitch, but I was in a relatively low rental rate basement recording studio recently and even they were using high end cables. When it matters, at least some of the folks that are laying down what we are listening to at night want every advantage to get the sound they are after in the final product, and $few a foot wire apparently doesn’t give them what they want.  I tend to agree based on my experience that the right premium cables, power, analog and digital, make a positive difference in my playback systems.  Again, YMMV.
I haven't seen anyone be a proponent of junk. 

Bottom line is $1/foot for a certified Ethernet cable from Blue Jeans is all you need to get the most out of your streamer.

$232 a foot more is not going to buy you a single iota improvement. 

The fact is you can do 10GBe (1250MB/s) over 15 year old CAT5e up to 37 meters on a lot of swtiches now. I could theoretically transfer my entire 2000 album collection in seconds. 
Jinjuku, Yes, sound will come out every time you turn it on.  Very reassuring, I am sure.
Typical sarcastic nothingness from knownothing.  Yes major production studios use expensive cables but that is because of kick ass durability not precise, subtle audio transmission.
dynaquest4, I wasn’t being sarcastic.  I was projecting what I perceived as jinjuku’s (and your?) priorities.  Your most recent post supports that perspective.

As for durability, I can and have made power cables with hardware store parts that would pass current after decades of hard use, but did not sound as good as some more exotic designs.  Your statement is sweeping compared to your specific knowledge of recording engineers intent.
Knownothing your points are spot on and I have learned to ignore those that just cannot hear differences and then make the mistake of assuming the same for all others and all other systems. Audiophiles around the world know better and really don’t pay attention to these rather few dogmatists. 
I have learned to ignore those that just cannot hear differences and then make the mistake of assuming the same for all others and all other systems. Audiophiles around the world know better and really don’t pay attention to these rather few dogmatists.
So when can we do this in your setup?
I did over the past week. Ethernet cables and the power supplies to our computers, usb cables, modems, routers, usb cards etc. Amazing how everything’s matters in digital. Everything. 
granny! It is not that "we" cannot hear the any difference, it is because there is no difference (that matters). Cables/wires cannot "upgrade" the audio program. All they can do is preclude outside interferences or influences that might "leak into" bargain basement low quality connects and change the audio signal passing through it.

If you have a significant noise or distortion issue, expensive cables aren’t going to fix it. I chuckle when you guys say: "Oh I changed to such and such exotic wire and the improvement was breathtaking." Breathtaking? Really?

"We" hear no difference over basic good quality connects because physically, logically and scientifically significant improvements are not possible. You hear the difference because you desperately want to.😉😉

not entirely true -- special 'audiophile' speaker cables can really screw up the sound
Roger that.  I think I tried to focus on "improvements" when I mentioned "differences."
I did over the past week. Ethernet cables and the power supplies to our computers, usb cables, modems, routers, usb cards etc. Amazing how everything’s matters in digital. Everything.
You did what over the past week? Have me out to keep you honest?
A couple of Ethernet cables and several linear power supplies.  These play a critical and vital role in my overall enjoyment of music. Differences and improvement were easily identified and enjoyed.  I am a big boy and can handle this on my own. 
Just let me know when you want to go on camera with your mythical hearing abilities.
Anyone else having trouble reading comments on this thread?

Everything Grannyring and Knownothing have posted is totally garbled gobbledygook.

@grannyring and @knownothing

iF tHiS pOst loOKs oDd oN yUoR sCreEN tHen YoU hAve biG pRoblEmS WiTh yUoR eTherNeT cAblE, uSb, rOuTEr and pOwER!