Hello Stephen
I won’t argue your last post 
Did you compare your bjc cable you ordered against the vodka?
Am genuinely interested
Cheers
Mike
Hi Mickdale,
My BJCs are in transit as we speak and I have received an e-mail yesterday from the courier to say I shall receive them tomorrow.
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I’m also guessing thats why most have source Components at the top of their rack.
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Ah, so your photons (whatever they are!) run on a maglev monorail. How very modern (well for the 20thC anyway.)
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Bear in mind that they take a good few days to run in and sound as they should. The main thing I’ve found is that the sound is more natural than with the Vodka, with nothing emphasised. I was listening to some Schubert recently and it was much more obvious that the guitar had nylon strings - obviously being a classical guitar. Somehow when it’s loud it sounds less loud, easier to listen to. The money from selling the Vodkas has funded a sparkly bit of plastic to go in my mains block - one example of craziness swapped for another, one might say.
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Did you ever try Chord Epic Tuned Aray streaming cable direct from Cisco to ND555 or other streamer without the Melco being involved?
I ask because I wonder whether the improvement that cable made was due to interaction between the Cisco and the Melco, or whether it would happen between Cisco and streamer?
Ok thanks Nigel. Yes, I shall just install them and leave them in for a good week or so before contemplating on swapping things around. I have found (from experience) and especially with cables, iis to take one’s time before evaluating things. I’m glad the BJCs have worked out for you. If I gain the same results such as your good self then I too will sell on my boutique cables and use the spare funds to go towards a Supernait 3, with which I plan to purchase sometime next year. This is not to say I’m not happy with my current XS2 amplifier, it’s just that I have made that fatal mistake (on three occasions now) of hearing a SN3 with ND5 XS 2 as source. Wow!
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A good question. A really good one. I have never tried an Ethernet directly from the Cisco to the ND555. Has never crossed my mind. I have no IT nor tech background. Just Finance 
but i like to listen to music.
If direct from the Cisco to the ND555 I guess that Tidal and internet radio would work. I will give it a try early this week.
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Thanks Gunnar.
I’d be very interested to hear how that sounds - especially if you compare the Chord Tuned Aray cable to some of your other cables running direct from Cisco to Streamer.
it’s nonsense Michael. You think you have the monopol of knowing what is the perfect sound? for me the generic ethernet cables had a compressed soundstage, were lacking details, nuances, colors, textures, bass, and overall the impression of real sound.
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we can add :
Gunnar
Pcd
Just a simple genuine question - What do you consider to be the point or feature that differentiates a ‘fancy’ cable from a ‘generic’ cable.
Is it cost/m, Cat number, or ??
i tried also to compare nds to melco vs nds to cisco and melco to cisco.
I couldn’t see real differences. But i am curious if you could do the same test.
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fancy boutique ethernet cables is a term that appeared here. Generic also. But you can give others terms if you want.
or audiophile boutique cables vs cheap generic ones. The cost is indeed the difference.
The same for lavender naim cables vs hiline or superlumina. The cost too.
FR,
In that, you’re making the same mistake for which you criticise Michael - he’s found that result for his system, and that’s a perfectly valid conclusion for his system and his ears. That you have reached a different conclusion for your system and for your ears is (as far as his system is concerned) irrelevant to his system (and also to my system).
In a similar vein you criticise me for not trying AQ Vodka, AQ Diamond, Chord Indigo, Chord Sarum, Chord Music or Veretre cables; on that basis have you tried many (a reasonable percentage) of the ‘generic’ Ethernet cables, or even many of the ‘certified’ cables available, in order to dismiss all these cables en masse for all different streaming systems that people have?
Also note that: having found that screened Ethernet cables consistently don’t work well in my system, I did try the most expensive non screened (i.e. UTP) ‘audiophile’ cable I could find at the time. As it happens I then found a simple certified cable that did beat it in my system and to my ears.
There is no reason for me to believe that a different screened cable would reverse this consistent and very marked trend. No matter how much it costs, no matter what materials are used and no matter how fancy the construction, it’s still a screened cable and in essence all the screened ‘audiophile’ cables are still functionally and electrically closer to the cables I tried that didn’t work well than they are to the cables that did work well in my system.
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the valid point of Michael you are referring is very very personal. A majority of us found the contrary results by listening.
I however have not criticized his point of view but the form of his post, that i found like saying an universal truth. ( difficult to express myself in english).
OK, so nothing specific, for me no problems
I wondered because the word (noun) ‘generic’ means “a consumer product having no brand name or registered trademark”. … all the cables we discuss here (with a few exceptions) do have a brand name.
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I accept the language barrier and your English is very much better than my French! 
However you also come across as dismissing all but the boutique audiophile cables as a universal truth.
Perhaps this interpretation of your words is also part of the language barrier? Perhaps you do actually accept that a simple Certified Ethernet cable is, in any randomly chosen system, as likely to give as good a result as an ‘audiophile’ cable and the benefits of the ‘audiophile’ cables are also not a universal truth?
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Keep your manners! I’ve heard “generic” cables about which I’d say the same thing. That’s why I’m saying “generic” cables aren’t a valid starting point for evaluating AQ etc