Yup, no other talents are required. I know some folks who don’t really like the sound of Naim gear, saying it is too forward, lacks real power and bass and is un-natural sounding, but others (including myself) love it.
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Not all - lots of us are in the Brian Eno camp. When given a choice do both. We look at measurements and listen and use our own judgement. We are not persuaded by marketing hype or reviews and avoid the perils of autosuggestion.
We cannot listen to everything so trying a few brands that make kit that measures well, as is the case with Naim, Linn and Chord Electronics, is a way forward. There may be better brands, but I really don’t care as I’m very happy with what I have. So third party tweaks are not the way for me. I doubt very much I’d enjoy music more if I used a £4k cable between my LP12 and DSM instead of the one Linn recommended.
I did try Chord STA at home and it did nothing for me courtesy of an enthusiastic dealer (not my usual one). I have no issue though with folk who have faith in these products and believe they are worth a King’s ransom.
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[quote=“nicnaim, post:406, topic:4048”]v
I bought the BJC CAT6a by mistake
[/quote]
I was sent BJC Cat6a by mistake. I actually ordered Cat 6 and it even said so when I agreed to their confirmation e-mail. However, I’m finding it a bit veiled sounding in my system. I can hear very clear vocals, with plenty of bass, but not much else. All the interplay and little rhythms appear lost in the mix and the whole sound stage seems compressed when compared with the Vodka. I have now settled on BJC Cat6a from router to switch and from NAS device to switch with the Vodka from switch to streamer. With this layout I can now I can hear all of the music but with the vocals slightly more recessed than with BJC. I keep trying the BJC full loom hoping things will change but i always end up feeling a bit 
on a crucial piece or bits of music I know really well. It’s a little bit of a shame for me because I think I prefer the BJC tonality over the Vodka which is why I have mingled the two together. A great marriage me-thinks if not exactly perfect.
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Thanks Mike.
Looked up Tune Dem on Linn website. The ‘follow the tune’ part makes more sense, now, meaning listen many times and follow different instruments - I had assumed it simply meant follow the main melody.
One thing Linn suggests that I found necessary was to listen only to short passages - though that can be very tedious swapping between, especially when it comes to speaker positioning, involving physical moving and repositioning precisely. What I have tended to do is multiple listens of a short passages (because otherwise I sink into the music and not listen to the sound), then change to the comparison item and repeat, and unless one leaps out as night and say different, do it again, and then again with different music, many times over covering the full range of musical aspects in the sort of music I like. I then play for a few hours and do that again over several days, with a variety of music but listening in my normal way, first with one setup and then with the other, maybe swapping just once in the session, and sometimes starting with one setup, sometimes the other.
When I have time I’ll have another go with the Tune Dem idea of following the sound of each instrument in turn in multiple short bursts, and assess how the suggestion works for me. I have something I have been meaning to check out for a while, but not got around to yet. (I’m a bit loath to try with speaker position as my optimum position was found quite quickly and easily using REW to measure actual performance, and I am very happy with the result, and its a lot mor involved than a simple couple if connections.)
I was surprised when I was first made aware of it a long while back. ‘Surprised’ as I used to play in various music groups, from bigband to baroque (& some blues in between) & in the small ensemble groups especially, everyone has to listen to every other instrument in the group. I assumed it was what Linn had adopted with their TuneDem.
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So the solution for you would appear to be to look at the measurements and buy only those that measure badly.
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I’m puzzled - who is suggesting that you should choose a cable that sounds worse but measures better?
How do you know, or decide, which equipment is worth looking at? Do you have to look at every bit of kit out there to find the one(s) that suit you? Reviews are useful for giving you an idea of what is worth looking at, but they are not reliable enough.
Specifications of cameras and lenses are extremely useful for sorting out which are worth looking at. Handling and using the equipment provides the final decision. That, to me, seems to be common sense. Surely it is worth eliminating from consideration those that don’t have a good specification - lenses with poor resolution (not so many of those these days, it’s true, but in my younger days of photography there were plenty), or suffered from various lens distortions such as pincushion or barrel, etc.
It would be nice if we could get this thread back on track, JimDog’s thread title says Blue Jeans Ethernet Cable, it was a sensible discussion on just that, exchanges of experience about what & how BJC’s sounded in your opinion & on your system.
These unwanted/unnecessary thread drifting posts over the last day or so have not been helpful
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You seem quite strongly opposed to looking at the technical specifications of a piece of equipment. Why is that? Do you think that the design and performance of the equipment has no bearing on its sound?
I particularly like lens reviews that have conducted tests and show the performance, in a standardised way, enabling easy comparison of the sharpness, colour fringing or distortions between different lenses that might suit my desire, enabling me choose which is most likely (In combination with various aspects of specification) - and a trial then will verify whether it is and does what I want, including whether performance of that particular lens is adequate, regardless of how good the review sample had been. But with lenses there is always trade-off between factors relevant to my liking the lens, typically size, weight and cost vs resolution, distortion and speed. Hifi gear is simpler in that regard because in the vast majority of cases the primary or even only limitation for me is cost - but that means there is nothing other than cost to filter out and narrow down to know what to audition if there were no specifications and test results, and reliable comparative reviews as objective as possible.
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I run 3 Ethernet cables, from router to switch, from switch to melco and melco to nds. In each case the quality of the Ethernet cable is important, I have tried each legs.
As far melco used as a player into nds dac, it sounds not as good as upnp mode.
Have you tried unplugging the ethernet network cable from Melco when playing music from its internal store, then with only the one dedicated ethernet cable to the NDS? If nit that may be worth a try - by isolating from the rest of the network you might maximise sound quality without wirrying about the othe cables, switch etc - and only reconnect to load more music, or when/if you stream from an online source such as Tidal, when influences of the WWW might be greater than those of your LAN.
Isolated like that, you could investigate again what cable is best between Melco and NDS, BJ, Vodka or anything else.
I agree with @Mike-B,.now you became surprised Mike-B 
.
I added some interesting aspects to my last post.
And I have full respect for @Innocent_Bystander long answers,.and that he takes the time to seek information about Tune-Dem.
But without being rude,.I do not manage to answer,respond to TiberioMagadino’s two last longer posts any longer.
I have responded to him lots of times,.about the same things that he writes about in these two last longer posts.
But he just keeps repeating the same “Mantra”,.even though I have responded extensively to this as many times as I can.
So,.I’ll stop here…
/Peder🙂
Wanted just to point that there is no direct correlation between good measures and good perceived sound quality.
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It’s the same of assertion you wrote to me…
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And @Mike-B,…you wrote earlier…
“what is this “requirement image”?. However I will put it down to your english language rather than intent.”
You are absolutely right,.I tried to make a straight translation of a Swedish expression.
But it apparently worked,demonstrably not.
Sorry for that…
/Peder🙂
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You really do need to look inside yourself with the same remark,
I will add I understand & agree TM’s posts, & as I do also with some of your posts. We all have our own ways of doing things & opinions on whats important (or not) with this hobby, best just leave it at that.
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The diamonds between melco/ nds and melco/ switch are my preferred choice. Tried different set up already , with BJ and vodka on different positions.
Nobody seems to be ready to return to the BJ thread…