I looked into this a while back on Cisco www & what I read indicated the shortest cable (voltage) setting was for cables of longer than I would expect in domestic environments. I don’t remember the numbers, but 10m & 30m ring a bell
Be somewhat wary… an RF trap is simply a high frequency parallel tuned circuit made from a parallel inductor and capacitor, ie it resonates and has minimal impedance at a specific frequency… but using radio engineering jargon. The key thing it will only be effective for a specific frequency… so one often has several traps for the frequencies of interest.
The point of charging of a dielectric/capacitors is reasonably standard technique in certain electronic circuits and circuits to provide a degree of consistency of dielectric charge on an AC coupled signal. A wire can appear like a capacitor. By definition any filter will apply different phase delay (time) to different frequencies. It’s not a problem… it’s physics… however distortion can arise when the time delay is inconsistent across frequencies… but for an audio small signal cable the effects are going to be minute…
So really two different phenomena discussed… ie RF tuned circuit for specific frequencies and the other is dielectric charge bias.
But I am not sure the relevance for Ethernet patch leads…
Mike you are right to call this out… your post prompted to look it up… and I might have misled the benefits of what EEE can do.
The specific feature I should have referred to is Short Reach Mode.
This only applies to Gigabit Ethernet ports … and needs to be manually activated, it’s off by default. It reduces power for ables of 50m or less and 30 m or less for 10Gigabit ports…
So in practice is unlikely to have much effect in the home environment… so you are better off using longer Ethernet patch leads wherever you can between streamer and switch.
Thanks for the heads up.
i had 0,75 m audioquest diamond between switch cisco and streamer. I worked fine. Much better than 3 m meicord opal before.
Now i use direct connection between streamer and melco.
Thanks Simon. Would it be OK to coil the unused portion of the cable?
Yes, like for like longer cables produce less switching noise in the streamer
1 Like
so i like probably more noise…
Yep… that explains a lot 
1 Like
@BertBird,…And now,how has things develop.?
• Have you listened clearly to AQ Diamond.?
• Has it changed something in soundquality the last days.?
Do you have any feeling in which way you should move on,.because you had a thought of a switch too.?
/Peder🙂
@Henryski,…Excuse a late reply,.I have a separate forum in Sweden (where I am admin and moderator) to also “keep going”.
I had no own picture in the phone,.so I send this as long,on Entreq’s Earth-boxes.
We are waiting for Entreq to send up its best earth box,.with one of their best powercable Atlantis,so we can test these together.
I’ll come back with pictures of those things later.
This Entreq Atlantis powercable in the photo below,.is my Cableoholic-friend’s own.
And one of these,.you just must have in your switch…Or how.? 
But,.just to be clear…
This Atlantis powercable lifts the soundquality quite substantially on this Cisco.
But,.in the usual case,my Cableoholic-friend has it plugged into his streamer.
/Peder🙂
Yes, esepecially the auditory processing region of your cerebral cortex. 
Good idea. I might try it (if I had a car sponge)!
Haven’t cleaned a car in decades.
3 Likes
Do you really believe that?
hey Jim, why not test a dozen of different car sponges. Maybe your car will have a better sound inside ? but don’t forget to well run in the sponge ( without burning it). 
1 Like
Yes, that’s where the impact of the sound waves on your ear ends up being processed.
Subtle or major changes to your hifi equipment will be immeidately processed on arrival there to identify differences straight away.
But also over the first few days and weeks after that your processing system and it’s ability to compare immediately arriving extremely complex sets of nerve impulses with the stored memory of your overall sound signature will change as you tune in to the various effects on different songs and sounds.
But the elements of the hifi system is also always changing too.
Which makes most difference depends on the details of the case.
1 Like
That is interesting.
My Vodka cable from switch to ND555 is 8m long, purely for logistical reasons as my router/switch/NAS/UnitSreve are on the same rack in a wardrobe a distance from the Fraim rack. I have a 3m (i think) Vodka from the NAS (with Asset and BubbleUPnP, which I now mainly use as the music server) to the Cisco 2960 switch. The 3m Vodka has a proper woven sheath but the 8m Vodka has a plastic sheath.
I was considering rearranging things so I could swap the two Vodka cables over as I felt that things would be better with shorter Vodka connected to the ND555 (apparently not the case) and the shorter Vodka has the woven sheath wich I suspected was the best for SQ.
Having read the last few posts, I will probably keep things as they are and am less inclined to experiment swapping over the Vodkas due to the upheaval involved.
@Darkebear found that 1m vodka from switch ( melco switch) to the nd555 works better than 3 m. Better prat.
I had also tested 3 m meicord vs 1,5 m from cisco to nds. Preferred 1,5 m.
Sometimes theories must be destroyed.
Thought we’d turned a bit of a corner there for a minute with Nick doing some sterling work actually listening to several of the cables that have been mentioned here and then describing what he heard. Referencing actual music. Is anyone interested in how things sound?
2 Likes
@MichaelB wrote in another thread…
“That fits with the Naim philosophy of transmitting the energy away rather than trying to damp it”
AND,.that’s exactly why I wrote how we in Sweden would test @Peter1480 suggestion,when we mount this Cisco on the wall.
We try to apply Naim’s philosophy…See above.
Although someone expressed himself a bit ironically before,.and thought we should…Quote
“A short course in basic engineering principles would help.”
… I don’t think so.
/Peder🙂
I’ve not actually tested the Vodka lengths but it was the Cinnamon I did that with. I borrowed 1.5m and 3m lengths and the longer one was a bit less lively and softer than the 1.5m and I overall preferred the immediacy of the 1.5m so went with that.
I eventually upgraded from 1.5m Cinnamon to 1.5m Vodka - I have not tried other lengths of these cable.
I think, given my experience with these, there does seem to be optimal lengths for certain cables in a specific system and perhaps more generally.
The Melco designer was rather adamant that any cable more than a couple of meters or so was far worse in subjective performance than with a shorter lead, which is why the Melco is meant to be used very near the Streamer with the longer lead to it from elsewhere.
I had wanted to use the data store farther away but the results of it closer - and also discussion with others that had also found closer worked best convinced me to at least try it as intended and I do get the signature result I like about the Melco when it is close and requiring only a short lead to connect it to Streamer.
Just how short that lead can be I have not determined - I’d like the shorter lead to be better as with esoteric cables it is less expensive and also will dress easier in my rig. Also so far I seem to be finding the longer run of 3m to my switch prefers non-esoteric cables - presently using very old Cat5.
I’m also finding many other things that are very worthwhile getting right that in their scale of musical impact are more so one can over-do the cable aspect and miss other improvements if not careful. I’m very much for getting the system balance right in that you find you have something you enjoy listening to and draws you to listen - a bad sign is when it is ‘better’ but you find you are not playing music as much - which means it is not really better but you have spoiled something that subliminally you liked - this often happens with some upgrades which is why extended time is needed to let it all settle and find out if you have an improved system - or just a different one.
DB.
4 Likes