Ethernet cables

@antigrunge I find it so amusing that the people that are least informed think they are the smartest people in the room. You might try looking up ’Dunning-Kruger Effect’

Here’s a commentary from someone that actually designs digital audio equipment on some factors that affect the sound of digital audio. tl;dr: Bits are bits, BUT there are types of interference outside just looking at the integrity of the digital signal data.

Bob Stuart, Meridian Audio
"Of course digital bits-are-bits and with due care, each of the three interfaces (USB, Toslink, coaxial) can deliver the same data at approximately the same time. But the audio we hear is analog and real-world devices are subject to a variety of interferences including data-induced jitter, other process-induced jitter, (and) common- and differential-mode electromagnetic noise. In the ideal world, the data are clocked in by and buffered in the DAC (asynchronous mode) and then de-jittered before conversion. In my experience this can never be perfect, just made closer and closer to irrelevance."

Want more? Here’s some commentary from Gordon Rankin (introduced the digital audio world to asynchronous USB transfer): https://darko.audio/2016/05/gordon-rankin-on-why-usb-audio-quality-varies/

As for myself, my hearing works just fine. So, a +5 on the Supra Cat 8 cable from me as well. And yes, I listened to it extensively versus an AmazonBasics Cat 6 cable. And also got my 15 y.o. son who doesn’t give a hoot about cables to give me his thoughts as well. Maybe his opinion is a +6 for the Supra cable.

FWIW, these were my listening notes of the Supra cable vs a AmazonBasics Cat 6 cable:

• More presence, voices and instruments are more forward in presentation and more distinct. Sounds is tonality richer. Less grain to the sound. - Too Much Alike, Robert Plant & Patty Griffin on Digging Deep: SubterraneaEasier to follow bass lines. - Smoke on the Water, Deep Purple, Machine Head
• Pace seems faster due to more clarity and better definition to the leading edge of notes. - Route 66,, Depeche Mode, Music for the Masses
• More power behind crescendoes producing a greater sense of tension in the music. - Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, Lisa Batiashvilli, Daniel Barenboim conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin
• Typani have more fullness and definition. More finesse in how the interaction between instruments are conveyed.   Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, Op. 45, First Movement, London Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski
• The complex, multi-layered rhythms are are more effortlessly conveyed & much more easily understood. It feels like it takes less mental effort to listen to this track when the Supra cable is in place. More fullness in how the voices at the beginning of the track are reproduced.  I hear this when listening to this recording on vinyl, but realized that following the rhythms in this track when streaming can sometimes be more difficult. Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes, Paul Simon, Graceland
• Guitar sounds faster and more articulate. Layover, Michael Hedges, Breakfast in the Field.

Just an introspective observation of how I was involuntarily reacting to the Supra vs AmazonBasics cable:

I was listening to both on Sunday night and one interesting observation that I had was that I had a serious case of 'Let's hear that again' when the Supra cable was in my system and ending up listening to the same track 3 or 4 times. I was pretty tired when I was listening on Sunday night and the AmazonBasics cable didn't seem to have that same effect on me. In fact, I was literally falling asleep when the Amazon cable was in, but putting the Supra cable in would perk me up.

But I suggest you get a basic Ethernet cable and a nicer cable, perhaps the Supra Cat 8 cable which only costs $60-70. Listen to both. Ask your spouse or significant other if there is ANY difference at all between the cables. If not, keep the cheaper cable and you'll then know for sure that you either can't hear a difference and/or those of us advocating for more expensive Ethernet cables are just full of it.

Calvin - if you buy this Ethernet cable, which seems to modify the data, don’t use it as part of the network you use to make the payment online, will you!

Or is this cable so miraculous that it can tell the difference between the packets of data that carry your financial data from the packets that carry your audio data, and will let the former pass through unmodified, but will change the latter?

The digital data is not changed. It works better because it lets in less interference. Read what I wrote. Sound quality is impacted by "a variety of interferences including data-induced jitter, other process-induced jitter, (and) common- and differential-mode electromagnetic noise." While you’re at it, you might benefit from looking up ’Dunning-Kruger Effect’

@calvinandhobbes

I was trying a jib at the bits-are-bits crowd. I recommend an EMO-EN-70HD filter with a short Meicord Opal cable to the DAC and concur with everything you say