Scrolling back up, this post has run about to about 10 times its intended length. Oh well. I’ll call it my cardio for today.
I ran AQ Forrest Ethernet cables many years ago, to the derision of just about everyone. I’ve been told that if I can hear a difference between Ethernet cables my system is “fundamentally broken”. So I don’t think I can add much in the way of wisdom, just some anecdotes from someone who’s ears won’t hear the same things that yours will, because two sets of ears never do.
As a Forrest user, I was already susceptible to the suggestion that Ethernet cables can sound different, and I was kept appraised of AQ’s then forthcoming range and had an opportunity to test drive each model at home, as well as get back the full cost of my Forrest. How could I refuse? . I thought that all three sounded different. Cinnamon certainly sounded more open and detailed than my stock CAT5 or CAT 6 leads, Vodka sounded more open, more detailed and for want of a better word, more “full bodied”. Diamond was different again.
To our ears, in our system and our room, we both thought that the difference between Vodka and Diamond was not significant, didn’t necessarily represent an improvement, and that the Vodka offered the best price versus performance package in the range. It didn’t seem to be directional and between NAS to switch, HDX to switch and switch to DAC, three AQ cables sounded better than two plus a stock cable, or one plus two stock cables, in all possible combinations.
When you consider that the Hub is far away, on the end of a 25m run of stock CAT6 cable, the subtle changes in presentation and musical communication heard when swapping cables at the end of the run, albeit off a dedicated switch, might be hard to believe - until you hear them for yourself. This was with DAC/PS555, which at the time I was hanging from an HDX-SSD, taking files from a QNAP TS-420.
When the NDS replaced the DAC everything changed. Once it had run in and everything had settled down, and after the HDX was moved out to be replaced by Minimserver on the NAS (which significantly improved the musical communication in our system), we became slightly dissatisfied at times, with what we considered a somewhat spiky presentation. It didn’t grate but it did sound a bit off occasionally. We have used AQ cables (and other makes) in a number of places in our system over the years and we knew that in a less than ideal environment, AQ had a potential to sound a bit hot, a bit scrubbed.
I’m not a fan of Chord the cable company, having been on the end of some awful customer relations when I was looking at Sarum as a digital interconnect. However, seeing no point in cutting my nose off, I tried some C-Stream between NDS and switch because it wasn’t expensive and it had been recommended several times. It seemed to take the occasional edge off the presentation without adding or taking anything else away. Exactly what we wanted. Things don’t usually resolve so easily.
But it’s more complicated than that. It always is. Our system is like Trigger’s broom, and everything we have done to the mains supply, equipment support, system itself (which has changed out of all recognition in the past 15 years), and room furnishings have a potential to change how the speakers play the room.
Our system development is not so busy nowadays, although we still tweak occasionally, and have a list of things to investigate like, Melco, Roon, the newer 800 range, maybe moving away from Naim for something more compact and space efficient (we’ve never heard a top end Linn system which we didn’t love. We just haven’t loved it enough).
I tend to spend more time listening to my music than listening to my system. It’s fascinating and rewarding to still, up to 50 years later, gain yet more insight into something I thought I already knew by heart. To hear how cleverly things were arranged, how skilfully they were performed and the telepathic, almost magical interplay between a really tight group of talented musicians who know more than just how to play their instruments. It’s like time travel. And it’s still a drug to me.
The practical upshot is that I am so in love with my music and the sheer joy of listening to it that I forget to keep upgrading, and may well still be far off my system’s full potential. But somehow I will find the will to go on