Blu-Tac balls, moderately sized and nicely rounded, seat my 2960 nicely.
G
1 Like
I do nāt often use LOL but it appears appropriate here.
My switch is resting on an oak pad chamfered at the end, the oak is sitting on a pad of lead lined acoustic foam (āonest - from the odds & sods box) All this is to make for easy un-strained runs on the ethernet cables. Makes bugger all difference to sound thoā.
3 Likes
,.you added in posts number 800.
Thanks for the help and tips. I will however not keep on testing between different cables. There will be always another cable and somebody will argue itās better than everything else. Itās also a question of what can you test and try with your dealer on any close by other dealer.
So I guess at the end I will decide between:
- Do nothing - stay with the Vodka
- Get the AQ Diamond
- Get the Chord Music
2 Likes
Never trust a cable that is fatter than the plugā¦
5 Likes
I did some quick research and see again a lot of positive reviews of these cables. But also some critics as always as quoted below in a forum. The funny thing in that forum their is also a quite engaging discussion discussion ongoing about to what extend cables matter or notā¦, heated as hereā¦
The quote from the other forumā¦
āI use these three exact cables in my system and to me the Wireworld was a bit of disappointment after reading so many positive reviews of it. I felt the sound stage was clearly deeper but lacked the weight and timber of both AQ Vodka & Diamond. The AQ just sounds more natural , has better separation of instruments. Things may change since I have only 200 hrs on the cablesā all have to compare again at each 100 hr mark till they have 5 or 600 hrs on them."
2 Likes
That squares with what I found with the Starlight. Massive soundstage and nice dynamics but less weight and very poor instrumental timbres, though I donāt feel the latter is a particular strength of the AudioQuests eitherā¦
Incidentally they have a ribbon shape and are actually quite light and manageable compared to the Vodkas.
I think the only one so far which I get is close to perfect is the Chord Musicā¦, while they make it quite unattractive with the price-tagā¦
2 Likes
@BertBird,ā¦Yes,.itās an absurd price,.but many companies use that tactic to create attention.
Two from Sweden that I know,.has Chord Music in its entire system,there can of course be several.
They are also members here,.but write very rarely.
Both are lyrical over their Chord-cables,.and also the Chord Music-ehternet/streaming cable.
The Swedish Hifi-magazine āHifi & Musikāsā Chef-editor also owns a Chord Music-ehternet/streaming cable.
When the magazine tested ethernet-cables in November 2018,.Chord Music ended up in a first placeā¦Long before all other cables.
But I understand you BertBird,.itās an absurd price.
But sometimes you may have no other choiceš.
/Pederš
I ordered my BJ wires over the weekend and had an email yesterday to say they had been dispatched and would be delivered tomorrow. Thatās not bad considering they are coming all the way from Seattle. In fact, itās pretty amazing service.
3 Likes
To continue; as the new BJC Cat-6 is on the wireless hub to switch branch, last evening I listened to iRadio ā BBC R3, Paradise & Naim - & yes I am positive that the change is as I first heard, more open, definition & detail, there is a hint of better stereo. The differences are subtle & made harder as with iRadio its not possible to play favourite tracks & repeat at will.
When I switched over to NAS streaming I had the same impression of improvements. I know this cable its not in the NAS-NDX route, but its still exchanging data with the iPad (i.e. connected) so I suspect this can be expected.
This morning I temporally removed the BJC & jerry rigged it (hanging in the air) to the NDX to replace the MeiCord Cat-6. I listened only to specific tracks from NAS; the new Abbey Road, Tull, PF & 4Play & swapped between the cables. There is next to nothing between them so all comments have to be taken as small & subtle; the MeiCord is richer with a hint more fullness in bass, BJC has a feeling of more air/presence. Anything else is indistinguishable or maybe just imagination. Added f#factor is the old Lindy cable was back on the w.hub branch & that did affect the NAS replay
Anyway, I have to conclude it was not exactly conclusive vs the MeiCord, the BJC bettered the previous Lindy for sure. The MeiCord will be staying & Iām very happy to welcome the BJC on the hub to switch branch.
Waiting to hear how HH gets on
The BJC Cat-6, as a cable assy, does not give a visual impression of quality; the twisted pairs & the separator shows as uneven ripples through the outer PVC jacket. Because of the internal separator & the solid cores it does feel stiff (compared to the Lindy Cat-6 its replacing).
The RJ45 plug is really excellent, a very positive click into the port & an easy click touch to remove, plus the plug cover & clip is transparent & it looks good on the black cable. Wrinkly cable aside, this is a well made cable.
Interesting (for me & other techie nerdish) is in TIA/ISO conformance terms the BJC outperforms the MeiCord in the all important NEXT & RL.
To comply to TIA/IOS Cat-6 (Class E) NEXT limit is 39.9 (dB) & Return Loss is 12 (dB)
According the Fluke test data sheet supplied with my cables (BJC 1.8m & MeiCord 4m)
BJC Cat-6 passed NEXT with 6.8dB headroom
MeiCord Cat-6 4m passed NEXT with 3.4dB headroom
BJC passed RL with 4.1dB
MeiCord passed RL with 2.8dB
3 Likes
Iām going to be really cautious how I respond on this one. Iām pretty immune to exploring suggestions on the forum - or so I thought until I was intrigued by this Blue Jeans malarkey. Perhaps surprisingly, the influence some forum members have is greater than they might realise - look at all the Cisco switches now in use, and people have in the past fessed up to buying expensive kit on my recommendation.
Iām getting enough wires to change everything, which might be confusing, and Iām easily confused. So my plan is to add a BJ to a spare socket on the Cisco and run it to the 272, so I can swap easily from one to the other. Whether this is possible depends on being able to stuff the BJ through the hole in the wall without removing the Vodka, which has a huge plug and is really hard to get through. Time will tell.
Just to follow-up the 2960 switch - I now have a quiet replacement one WS-C2960-8TC-L (non-PoE so without the big heatsink) and it is possibly a little bit better SQ, which is good, but mainly it is audibly quiet, which is great.
Iāve preliminary played with placement and that will be further experimented ahead, as it does seem rather surprisingly, still to me, sensitive to installation.
DB.
2 Likes
Sounds like a plan HH, more than could be said about my attempt this morning.
Whatever, my reason for getting a new cable was to have a longer one to enable me to pull out a cabinet from the wall without disconnecting.
Have fun.
When i had my Nova/Core/cheap netgear switch i could hear ethenet cable differences quite easily. The replacement with a Cisco 2960 made those effects much less pronounced, so i gave up. Be interesting to see if you still hear SQ differences as pronounced as they were?
Yet to try cables again with my ND555ā¦something for the future.
If you can enable PortFast on the 2960 you donāt have to wait up to a minute for the Cisco to allow traffic to flow. Otherwise I did it as your plan and just swapped the streamer end to do the comparison.
1 Like
Iin my system it definitely is sensitive both to vibration/microphonics and electromagnetic interference
I did nearly all my cable shenanigans after I got the Cisco 2960 and the differences are still audible in my system
1 Like
I usually take stuff like this with a pinch of salt as well but figured for the cost involved when compared to the outlay on the ND555 etc then its got to be worth a try. I now have 2 Cisco 2960s at the princely cost of Ā£65 for the both. One is connected to my Router, Roon Core NUC which includes my Music Store, Back up NAS and a long ethernet cable run to the ND555 which goes outside through the loft and down an internal garage wall (needs must Iām afraid). The second is at the ND555 end of the long cable which is connected to it with a cable to the ND555.
I have 2 BJC Cables on order, one will go from the ND555 to the switch at that end and the other will either connect my Router to the Switch or the Roon Core, I will decide which when it comes. Probably should have ordered 3 but there we go.
So total cost just north of Ā£100 for the lot. As I said above got to be worth a listen for that price.