Now that you tried it, you know you don’t have to bother. Unfortunately this is not so subtle in my system. I celebrate every time i encounter something that doesn’t matter
I use psychoacoustics the other way around. I keep telling myself that something like ethernet cables can’t matter. Its data packages. Its not a continuous stream as through spdif or usb etc. This worked fine until I actually tested it and as hell freezes over these ethernet pigs don’t just fly -they do in fact make a great deal of difference. I hoped and wished that they didn’t but my ears cannot ignore once they tune into the difference. I actually didn’t like the bj cat6 at first. Just trying them on the short patch from modem to router I didn’t expect any difference since the router is followed by 8m crap cable and the cisco. I installed it just to run it in and later give it a try between cisco and macbook. But it unmistakably sounded different. Neither all good nor all bad. Just different. Giving it some time and giing back to the standard ethernet cable unfortunately showed me that the standard wasn’t as good as i recalled. It was muddy, rolled off and messy in comparison. Back then the bj cat6 was too in ya face and not at all pleasant but then neither was the old patch. Crap me. Silly hobby!
The good thing is that we learn this way and i am slowly testing my way forward and hope that the cat6a, once run in, directed correctly, will put an end to this scrutiny and result in new heights of musical appreciation. I cross my fingers
BJC cat6a loom recieved and installed. Will have to run them in for a few days before I know how they settle. First impression is that they present a different balance than the BJC cat6 loom and from the get go they don’t have the high frequency strident character that the 6s need some burn in to loose. early days. Will report back once they have bedded in and I have had a chance to do more direct A-B testing.
I tried the blue jeans cat 6a too. Some reported they prefer them to the cat 6.
They worked well, good balanced, soft, no brightness.
But they couldn’t replace my Audioquest diamond. Not even close.
So need to test drive the AQ Diamond as well in the future. My dealer doesn’t want to send me one to try, and I think it’s too expensive to just purchase. So for now I will settle with the BJC cat 6a.
Also, I have just installed the Pink Faun LAN isolator. Wow. I did not see that coming. What a difference. Really hard to describe it in words, but very much similar to the improvements the IsoAcoustics Gaia II and the BJC cat 6a brought: wider sound, better defined, more dynamic but also more relaxed.
Now I will not change anything the coming weeks until everything is run in well.
I had the acoustic revive lan isolator before and it had good effect on cheap Ethernet cable I had before.
But with the Diamond there was no change with or without it.
Diamond is expensive, but I have 2X 0,75 m. No 3 or 6 meters.
Of course, however the Meicord with Acoustic revive lan isolator was well behind the diamond alone.
For me, my ears and system. Maybe not in all cases…
Have had the bj cat6a playing since installed Friday and they seem to have calmed down. The highs are now very natural and extended. They always had air but had a slight over emphasis somewhere in the tod end that now seems to have settled nicely.
Compared to the cat6 they are a lot more open and extended in their presentation. The difference is mostly in the highs where the 6 seem to roll off in comparison. The 6 give somewhat more prominence to the lower mid/higher bas which could work well in some systems but the 6a just lets so much more through giving a more dynamic punch throughout the mids and up in the highs. Its a bit wierd that the difference is this big in my system.
The 6a is certainly here to stay between modem and router and router and switch.
I have now also added BJC cat 6a between wall socket and switch and between Apple TV and switch (for playing sound over the TV) and the end result is fantastic.
Update from my end. The BJC cat 6a cables have been in my system for several weeks now and I am very very very satisfied with them. I have been thinking to add a Dynaudio subwoofer to my system since I thought the bass was not up to par with the rest, but since I changed network cables to BJC I have been so satisfied with the sound. I never thought that changing network cables could have such an impact. The system is really well balanced now and the BJC cables were the finishing touch.
