All I can say @GraemeH, is the Chord C-stream is still in, as I dance around the living room to “Shock the Monkey” by Peter Gabriel. 
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Ah well nothing will be arriving today as I pressed pause bearing in mind your discussions. However, I will now get Mrs. H. and her Prime account on the case today. Thanks both for your input. Unlike others who tend to obsess on whether stuff remains on topic I’m quite content to see things meander and learn other stuff as I go along. I’m fine on networking. Zero knowledge on electricity really.
Although the thing will arrive tomorrow I’m out much of the day for a 90th birthday party and staying overnight at my parents midweek for the football so I think next weekend would be the better moment rather than trying to hear differences after a tiring working day.
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I use the same configuration (and also have ATC’s) between my EE8 and Linn ADSM/3. I also use BJC from wall socket to switch to isolate the system properly.
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Thanks James, I thought that would be the case. I recall a forum craze a few years back was to add an unshielded adapter to the streamer port in order to break the shield connection into it.
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Hi Chris, in most cases we fitted the UTP isolator at the NAS end.
The purpose was to have only one earth/ground point on the network, as per regs on industrial network installs.
I think at some point in the near future, I will give fully wired with Chord C-stream a go.
It has to be worth a go, as still being a dancing fool here….
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If C-Stream is fully shielded then I don’t recommend to connect to router or wall socket with that one. I actually tried this back when I bought the EE8 and even regular bulk unshielded cable was clearly better since it isolates the switch and the rest of the system.
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I understand your point, from a electrical viewpoint. I respect also, that you have tried a fully shielded ethernet cable, but not for you. However, sometimes you just have to go with the roll. It seems @GraemeH is having good results, with a full C-stream loom. It could be worse, just seen 0.6m pair of XLR cables for sale at £19800. I feel a flutter of £75, to be worth a punt.
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I tend to step away from the full loom concept @NoNaim . Never heard it sound right yet. Similarly, I tried 4 Powerlines in my system some years back and brought 10 4 friends round to make sure it wasn’t me. It sounded better with 1.
If you’ve found that 1 cable change is bringing you joy then pause and have joy. Don’t leap straight to “I must have more of this because more = better”. There’s no such rule.
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Good advice, and I can see your point of view. In all probability, you are correct. However, the exception here is the minimal outlay. I think the quote that applies is “We learn, by doing”.
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Well, placed order for 3 more Chord C-Stream ethernet cables. This will give a full Chord C-Steam set up, router to English Electric switch, switch to Roon Nucleus, Uniti Core to switch and switch to Uniti Atom HE. Let’s see if I’m still dancing when it arrives and wired in
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No Naim,
Your description of the C-Stream making harsh recording less harsh is exactly what I find. It’s by far the most natural and organic sounding ethernet cable I’ve tried so far, and there’s been a few, including more expensive Chords.
It seems to remove a layer of digital hash or noise that surrounds upper frequencies. Bass is not quite as deep as some cables I’ve heard but again it’s very fast and tuneful making the whole system sound very up-tempo. I will add that I’m using a run of BJC up to my router then C-Stream to the switch.
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I agree with your observations. We both must have very similar hearing. I think these findings are along very similar lines what @GraemeH has found. I have been using BJC for all my connections, except switch to Atom HE, which was Audioquest Vodka. As previously stated, about to go a step further, by replacing all BJC with C-Stream. This is what @GraemeH has already done. Hopefully, cables should be hear mid week. I tried the ATC’s for bass loss with the C-stream, playing “ The Awakening Part 1” by The Reddings. If there is a bass loss, not doubting your observations, if there is with my current set up, then it is nothing to worry about. The biggest difference I find, is the music just flows so much better. It wants you to sheikh yerbouti. This is what listening to music is all about. It is not whether I can hear the second violinist of the LSO, pass wind in the second movement. I want to be able to enjoy listening to music, not sat there trying to analyse every track I play. I have heard some amazing systems in my years on this rock. However, some of them, though they resolve so much detail, are so sterile, they strip so much of the boogie factor out of the sound. It took me back to when I was younger and had my Ferguson Studio 6 music centre. It was stretching it calling it HiFi, but I loved playing music on it.
Sometimes, just because it sounds different, or more detail, to what you have does not always mean it is better than something get’s your foot tapping or better still get’s you of yer ass and out of yer seat.
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Yeh, his is where Naim seem to excel. They tread the path between between detail and musicality so well. It’s taken me a long time to get the system to a level that I really enjoy. I now find it very hard to make any worthwhile improvements but very easy to mess everything up, so finding something like the C-Stream just makes me smile as these improvements are very rare.
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Will try to post outcome of all C- stream system, when cables have been installed
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I have been using C Stream cables between my Netgear 5 port unmanaged switch, my Synology NAS, my NAC172XS and my BT TV Pro box. All was working fine for months (years in most cases although the BT box was added late last year). I then added an Arcam AVR850 amp and a PS4, so needed to change to an 8 port switch. I went with the same basic Netgear with the larger port count and again used C Stream for the two extra connections.
The result was a constant electronic interference through the speakers as soon as I connected the NAS. It was only with that, and there was no noise once it was disconnected. When I used a cheap as chips RJ45 cable there was no noise. I tried different lengths of C Stream, and tried both directions with each lead, all with the same result. So I swapped the Netgear for a D Link model. Visually they are almost identical and they probably have the same source of casing. Result was no noise at all with the C Stream.
I have no idea whether the Netgear unit I got was faulty, or whether there just was something in the mixing of cables that didn’t gel. All sorted now but would be interesting to know if anyone else had similar issues.
That can be a problem with using shielded Ethernet cables, especially in the final run to the Network player. Your ‘cheap as chips’ cable was probably just UTP.
You can end up introducing ground loops or unintended ground paths via the Hi-Fi from other network devices using SMPS supplies with no earth connection. One of the reasons I avoid using shielded Ethernet cables at home and especially for the final run to the Naim Network player.
This is what can happen when using shielded ethernet cables as C-Stream. I strongly advice against shielded cable between router/wall socket and rest of the audio system. Surprisingly, C-Stream works well between my switch and Linn streamer though but these equipment are also connected to the same power strip. C-Stream sounded clearly worse than even bulk unshielded cable between wall socket and switch.
What is the ‘wall socket’ you refer to @Patu ? I use 0.75m C-Stream from router to switch, from nas to switch and from switch to streamer.
Thanks
Graeme
Thanks james_n and Patu. What seems odd is that there was no interference with the 5 port Netgear, or with the new 8 port D Link, but dreadful interference with the 8 port Netgear. The C Stream between the NAS and the D Link definitely sounds better than the cheap as chips cable into the 8 port Netgear.