Ethernet cables - YOUR LISTENING Shooutout Summary

Nice system you have there Daan-1975. Chord Signature is a really nice cable that didn’t seem to take very long to show its worth in my system.

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:+1: thanks!

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I thought I’d play a couple of tracks I was playing last night (on Sigma) with the Neotech back in. Again, these are very quick initial impressions of what I’m hearing between the two leads: The Neotech definitely has a very full bass with quite a warm midrange compared to Sigma but it does lack the finely etched dynamic contrast that the Sigma seems to achieve. The result of this makes the Neotech sound somewhat simpler and less involving. It’s like a reduction in the musical ‘colour’ palette. This also makes it far harder to randomly follow different instruments or rhythms within the mix, which just makes it less of an emotional experience and again less real. With Sigma I find myself upping the volume all the time as the more complex the music gets the better Sigma seems to sort it all out. With the Neotech I’m not prompted to do this as it starts to sound a bit edgy if it gets too loud. Another good example is a track I use where the drummer really strikes his sticks together at the beginning of a solo. On Sigma you instantly recognise that wooden dynamic clack of the sticks being hit together, it sounds so real and jumps right out of the mix at you. With the Neotech they don’t really jump out any more and they sound more like bits of plastic being hit together. It’s these sort of key differences that I’m constantly hearing between the two cables at the moment. The Sigma is also much more dynamically strong with the high frequencies. If I listen to a live drum kit I always notice how forward the cymbals and snare drum sound. The Sigma replicates this much better than anything else I’ve heard. So, at this stage of the game I feel it’s 1-0 to Sigma but I will continue with the burn-in to see if anything changes.

Oh…this does need to be put into some sort of context. If I’d never heard Sigma I’d probably be raving about the Neotech and please remember the fact that we are comparing a £250 cable with a £2,000 cable.

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Thx a lot. Nice to read! I thought it could get hard against sigma, but a silver cable with warm midrange is a winning statement.
To make it a bit more fair, maybe you compare it also against catsnake / smps (your initial setup). My gut tells me that neotech will be the winner (on lps)

What you wrote about sigma … I am not as good in putting into words, but exactly so it is. The oversight is great and without edgy tendencies and stressing overpronounced speed

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You are quite correct Drago, the Neotech on the LPS easily out performs my Catsnake on SMPS. Although I’d say the difference between Sigma to Neotech is still greater than Catsnake to Neotech.

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Hi :slightly_smiling_face:
How long after reinstalling Neotech did you listen.?
Asking,.for all cables need a few hours of “settle-time” after being installed in the system.

In my system,.what you say about Sigma…
Is the description of the Neotech 1008 in my system.
It’s strange how system dependent it can be.

Hi Peder, I only had the Sigma in last night for about 3 hours while my friend was round. After he left the Neotech went back in and has been there all night and all day before I had the session with it this evening.

I’m not disagreeing that the Neotech isn’t good, as I’ve said it’s already better than my session with Vodka and I’ve no reason to believe it isn’t better than Diamond but the Sigma still seems to be on another level. Compared to Sigma in doesn’t have the same level of transparency, tonal accuracy or dynamics.

I was playing Tchaikovsky 1812 (on Sigma) the University of Minnesota version the other night and the church bells and cannons at the end were just epic!

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Do you know approximately how many hours it’s been played?

I’m glad you are pleased with you Chord. However it is not a fact that it’s a better cable. I’d go out on a limb and say it’s actually the other way around. However the Chord might still work better in your particular system.

What do you find better with Chord signature compared to Neotech Neet-1008? How many hours would you say the Neet has been played?

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By my reckoning it’s had about 120 hours of continuous music and it’s still playing quietly this morning.

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I’ve just had an earga*m playing the guitar solo on Pain with War on Drugs = LOUD. D2 Powerswitch and D2 ethernet cable has sooo much PRaT! Wow! 1000% sure this system has never been close to sound like this with EE8 + Farad3. And then that setup was very good indeed.

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Keep it up​:blush:. At least 4x that but to get it all the way 8,33x :sweat_smile:

I have some noise coming trough in the top frequencies right now. It’s quite annoying and perhaps this cable is too transparent for my system if I don’t get the noise out?

To be fair I don’t have a switch but a lan-isolator. Perhaps it’s not enough though.

What kind of noise? Background hiss?

Not noise like that. I can hear that the upper frequencies are polluted because they are “stickiga (Swedish) on some recordings. Could be the recordings are “stickiga” though. But I don’t think it’s the recordings. It’s to prevalent.

This kind of noise is also something you never hear in an all analogue chain so my guess it’s something that only occurs in digital playback.

If you want the guitar rift of guitar rifts try Samantha Fish, Cassie Taylor and Dani Wild’s ‘I’ll put a spell on you’ from the album ‘Girls with Guitars’. Turn the lights down, the volume up and strap yourself into your chair!

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I have had the Neotech Neet 1008 for almost 6 months and I think I listen to it for 400+ hours. In the beginning the sound was quite sharp (too much treble) but after approx. 200 hours the soundstage improved significantly. As I said, it is not a bad cable at all, certainly for its price, but the Chord Signature is from different league (also 4 times more expensive). In my opinion the soundstage of the Chord is more controlled (more open, more bass and more dynamics).

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Perhaps that’s the edginess I’m describing that I hear with the Neotech? It’s mostly in the upper frequencies but it’s not just the Neotech that does that all the cables I have tried, with the exception of Sigma, seem to display something similar. It’s perhaps the downside to owning a very transparent system. I’ve been able to reduce it with the likes of switches, LPS’s, a ground array, cables, vibration control, electrical isolation etc but this is a consequence of noise in the digital domain I think?

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Thank you for responding.

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Yes could be that it’s difficult to filter out the digital noise in a transparent system.

I wouldn’t call it edgy the noise I am hearing. It’s almost above the threshold of my hearing so way up there. It’s more a feeling than a sound but it’s disturbing. Perhaps I have some other issues in the system right now. It’s so complicated with all the cables running back and forth. Different power supplies and such. The other day I felt I wanted to get rid of streaming all together😅

As I’ve improved the system I’ve definitely reduce this effect considerably. It seems the better the system gets the more available headroom it has, the louder you can play it and the more realistic the dynamics become. More akin to what you hear with live music.

My reference point is a mates 500 system with S1 and 800 Ovators. He has some rare Prince digital recordings that when played replicate live music like I’ve never heard before! You can keep cranking up the volume on his system and there’s no strain, no nastiness it just goes on and on until the speakers want to go up in a puff of smoke!

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