Ethernet cable test, 4 cables go head to head

Did you hear the Omega before committing?

No I got them used from the same seller for a good price.

Very pleased so far. A definite all-round improvement compared with the Audioquests, Sablon and Wireworlds tried in the past.

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I wonder what he got instead? Did you ask if I may ask?

And which Audioquest did you try?

Are the Sablon the one costing 400$?

Yes, the Sablon isn’t super expensive but it’s very well regarded. It was much better than the others in many respects but dumbed down instrumental texture somewhat, especially for classical instruments.

I have a thread on the saga somewhere here.

The seller has opted for Siltech Royal Single crown Ethernet and 2 Double crown Ethernet cables

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Thank you! Those look interesting

I look forward to your review after they’ve settled for a week or two. My mate is still gushing about his Omega that he’s recently got. He loves the sound and agrees with me that it’s more like a box upgrade than a cable change.

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The construction looks similar to the Neotech Neet-1008 with UP-OCC silver wires and a hard plastic dielectricum such as Teflon or the likes. It’s a shame cable manufacturers aren’t transparent about the construction and materials used. Siltech mentions the mono crystal silver which is UP-OCC silver and Teflon as dielectric so kudos to them.

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I’ve now entered a DIN DIN Ansuz A2 to my system so I have full loom Ansuz except power cords. I must say it has been transformative. So musical! Very much recommend Ansuz together with Naim :folded_hands: Ok it’s not British but the Danes know their thing too :ok_hand: Try em out :+1:

The all new 3-series is on the way. Copper housing. Beautiful.

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After a few weeks with the Shunyata Omega ethernet cables, I’m very pleased with my purchase.

It’s the only “high-end” ethernet cable I’ve tried that doesn’t have any negatives: the lower noise floor doesn’t involve any loss of low-level detail or texture; the greater separation between instruments across the soundstage, with each playing in their own space, doesn’t have the usual side-effect of separating out e.g. the strings of the instruments themselves and spattering them about; the greater sense of space and decay doesn’t smear the timing or result in any loss of impact.

In short, the sound is entirely natural.

Whether it’s equivalent to a box upgrade, I wouldn’t know. I suppose it depends on the box. But it is a significant improvement, making the listening experience much more communicative and evocative, because every shade of expression comes through with greater presence, life and texture.

I’ll experiment with how two make a difference compared to one and what posiiton reaps greater benefits in my system as soon as I have a bit of spare time.

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I was looking forward to your review of the Shunyata’s. I’m only using Sigma but ‘natural’ is the word that springs to mind if I had to describe it. I agree completely with all your comments on the sound.

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Fully in line with @Geko
Bad is that I was thinking of omega, as this can a be a slight cure of the harshness the fw update brought. I have compared both and liked the sigma more for its slight more punch. Omega is more refined and has a bass resolution to dream of.
But this should not be the solution to compensate…
@Michaelb have you done the fw update on your nd555?

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Sorry to take a while replying: yes, and noted the problems others have identified, but without them spoiling my enjoyment of the music.

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I wanted to mention I agree with an earlier post expressing that placing Shunyata cables together can actually have a negative effect on sound. I have an Omega ethernet and Sigma USB after my Etherregen and they work great together. But using any other filtered Shunyata before the Etherregen makes the sound “grittier” to my ears. This was even true of a Anzus A2. For me the Shunyata Theta worked best. I found the basic Cardas Clear ethernet worked best from wall to Google modem/router with the Theta coming out of the router and into the Etherregen. To be fair I also have LPS on the Google device (bought a used Gougle router on Ebay and spliced into its power cable) and a Plixir on the Etherregen. And they both have nice cables - Ansuz c2 and Zenwave which also make a big difference.

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I just want to say that I appreciate all the data and observations shared in this thread. I’ve read every post.

But I’m over here, king of the poors, with Belden CatSnake. Wanting to try the big baddy cables…but knowing the 3rd kid (in my wife’s belly) means that won’t happen for a little while. lol

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To quote Yoda…“done well you have, focus and much patience have you”…that is a LOT of posts to digest! To be fair, my personal opinion is that you have ended up with a very good option in Belden Catsnake. A very good quality cable that matches much more expensive ones. Good luck with the 3rd :+1:

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I used to have a selection of Chord Streaming cables; Clearway, Epic and Signature Super ARAY, plus some cheap and thin Cat 5e from the router to the first Mesh Node.

I did some experimenting with some Belsen CatSnake Cat 6a Floating Ethernet cables and now of a full loom of it. Essentially, I found that it was better than the expensive Chord Streaming cables that I was using.

The clincher was that when I put the Signature Super ARAY back into the system, there was no real improvement. It sounded different, but there was no significant improvement, no night and day difference and certainly no WOW factor.

My advice is to keep the CatSnake Ethernet cable as it is very good and for its cost, it is very good value. Plus, if you search on this Forum, you will find that is highly rated.

DG…

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Great, you will save money to @drago . :joy:

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Cables are very divisive, but this is one area where I truly believe catsnake will do just as good a job as more expensive ones and save you a lot of money. I used to have the Sarum T, Signature and C-Stream cables. I genuinely could not hear a difference in the sound when I switched them on the last leg despite the very large difference in price.

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I have, in fact, doubled down on DC CatSnake.

I was originally using it as a home-run to the streamers (NDX 2 in one system & Lumin A1 in the other), from my Stack Audio SmoothLAN filters. However, yesterday I got in appropriate lengths to fill from switch to SmoothLAN. Also from Roon Nucleus Titan to the same switch.

A smaller jump in SQ compared to the first ‘home-run’ upgrade, but still a pleasingly noticeable one. Silly amount of improvement for the $$. Easily on-par with moving from Naim Lavender DIN to WH Morgana or Gothic ELLA DIN interconnects.

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The Catsnake 6a cable is better than most, no doubt about it. And in that I include many “high-end” cables costing many times more - at least in my system.

But that’s with the notable exception of the Shunyata Omega.

I promised to update on the difference 2 vs 1 make in my system and having had spare time on my hands yesterday with a broken finger (don’t ask!) I compared the effects Omega has in different positions and with 2 vs 1.

My system is a bit anomalous because I use the Innuos Statement music player and PhoenixNet switch together. In this configuration you don’t connect to the ND555 using the Statement’s “Streamer” Ethernet connection but just the “LAN” connection for optimal sound quality. So, whereas for many it might suffice to only use the rather expensive Omega only for the last leg, that’s to say from the music server to ND555 or switch to ND555, in my case it’s logical that using two Omegas to optimise the connections between the PhoenixNet, Statement and ND555 will result in a noticeable difference.

Still, I was hoping for it to be much less than just the one from Switch to ND555 and maybe not justifiable. But, the difference was more than I expected, making a big difference to instrumental and vocal tonality and texture in particular, while also taking away some residual “digital edge”, letting everything breathe more and opening out the soundstage. In short, it completes what adding one between the switch and ND555 does.

Where does the Omega have more impact if you only have the one cable? Probably on the last leg, though this may be system dependent. Certainly, in my system, the biggest impact came between switch and ND555, where the Omega does all of the above but also has a bigger impact on soundstage and bringing the instruments/musicians out of the speakers.

It may of course be that this doesn’t apply to other music players as well set-ups that don’t use a switch like mine, in which case only one Omega on the last leg only might make a more than significant enough difference, thank you very much! :slight_smile:

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