Not enough for me and my system. I’m sure it’s ok but I’ve left ok behind. And shields have been added during years of development and increased need for it in Ethernet cables.
Check out Alpha audio measurements on this topic.
Not enough for me and my system. I’m sure it’s ok but I’ve left ok behind. And shields have been added during years of development and increased need for it in Ethernet cables.
Check out Alpha audio measurements on this topic.
I’m not getting into back & forth discussions on this.
I know electrical and wireless engineering.
Alpha Audio are a bit of a joke in audio, and I’ve read some of there stuff.
Let’s just leave it at that.
Ah you’re one of those. Ok
As in Mike-B has a good understanding of electrical engineering and the effects of interference, and a lot of practical experience of combatting it - yes.
There are engineers and scientists that think they know everything and everyone else per default are wrong.
And there are engineers and scientists that are humble and curious about not knowing evenrything leaving a door open to find out something they earlier could not understand and taking a leap forward.
I’m also an electrical engineer by the way. But I chose the later staying curious and respect that we don’t know everything in audio transmission and our ears and brain decoding the sound hitting the ear drum.
I worked in scientific instrument engineering.
Control of noise, the interaction with ADCs and DACs, and data processing were critical to the instruments.
Perfect. That doesn’t mean you know everything. It’s pretty boring when people throw in the engineering or scientist card like it does matter in an area where there is so little research made. It’s like saying you have a drivers license and convert that in to being an F1 champion. There are millions of lousy drivers out there.
I’m sure you listen to music with your scientific instruments, right? What do you need your ears for anyway.
Strange that the words pot and kettle come to mind!
So you recommend designing HiFi equipment by guesswork rather than engineering, I suppose?
If you look at interviews of high end manufacturers you will see that most of them design by ear but use engineering / mathlab / experience for the initial get go. No one will tell you they design music equipment by measurements as the major tool. You cannot simply design an audio product by relying on measurements only since it doesn’t tell you everything. You know this right? There are many videos showing developers making many iterations on pcb designs where they use their EARS to verify the performance. Naim also do this. If they could only use measurements the performance could be anywhere on the map. This because not even the most experienced audio designers know what the performance will be like just by looking at measurements. So saying an ethernet cable is great because it follows a standard old men longing for a coffee break made up doesn’t mean anything in terms of audio performance. If you want a 10USD ethernet following a standard pushing an excel file from a server to your computer without issues, yes it will work fine. If you want the very best AUDIO performance possible then it won’t be the best choice. It will be OK, like a 500 EUR Denon amp also will. But most of us in here have higher targets than “OK”.
It was a joke
Sorry, our ASD got in the way.
We sometimes don’t recognise jokes, particularly when written (as then the dyslexia complicates things as well as the autism).
And you believe the bluff and bluster from the marketing departments of the manufacturers of boutique “streaming” cables?
There is no general correlation between the noise profile of the RFI and the effect is has on the digital stages and the DAC in an audio system, and even less correlation to the cost of a cable.
Yes, in a specific system in a specific location with specific other components in the system a £5 cable may out perform a £2000 cable. Equally, in another specific system in a specific location with specific other components in the system the £2000 cable may out perform a £5 cable. There is no way to know other than trying a lot of cables. (Which is what we have done.)
There are a few thing that MAY produce a consistent correlation within a particular system
Heavy filtering of the digital signal (even in common mode) MAY give a slow feeling in some systems
There MAY be consistent differences between screened and UTP cables in some systems
Even these are not consistent between different systems.
In our system UTP cables consistently outperform screened cables (this is consistent across around 15 cables that we have tried).
N.B. I haven’t tested in a large number of systems, so in other specific individual systems other consistent effects may occur within that system. (However there are no universal rules when it comes to the interactions of noise shaping, the behaviour of noise interactions within complex systems is simply too chaotic for prediction.)
100% Xanthe …
I’ve concluded over the last 12 years the Ethernet cables can sound different to others, its subtle but it is there.
I suspect its caused in part by variances in the manchester encoded voltage, this is analogue, the digital data stream itself cannot change.
If it is as I suspect analogue variances and maybe some RFI and other noise cause a combination of crosstalk, return losses, timing drift and other bandwidth limiting issues.
The problem is an individual can spend a lot of money seeking audio nirvana with Ethernet cables and end up with very little bang for a lot of bucks. The fact that Naim and Linn don’t sell an Ethernet cable says a lot.
In respect of the circuits other than the network interface, the Manchester encoding is RFI!
That’s certainly a possibility.
Mike, what’s the most expensive ethernet cable that you’ve tried in your system?
I only tried the usual (cheap) suspects - catsnake, bjc, c-stream, meicord. The shunyata gamma that I recently acquired wipes the floor with them. The investment of £350 feels like huge bang for the buck.
For that reason I get why some folks with higher end systems choose to pay £1000+ for an ethernet cable. I admit I only have their word for it that it represents value for money.
I can say for sure though, that in my experience, the cheap cables I listed can be considerably improved on by forking out for a genuine audiophile cable (such as a shunyata, ansuz, etc).
I feel it’s the real problem, sadly repeating itself since many years. Those saying that an expensive lan cable will not forcefully upgrade the sound, that it’s dependent of the system….and all the nice theories behind that, have never tried Ethernet cables in the 1k-2k price range.
But only some more expensive vs cheaper, but within a restricted difference of price.
Hi Xanthe, what has led to this comment, is it your personal opinion?
All i can add to this conversation is, tried a few different ethernet cables from just a few quid up to many thousands and they all sound different on my system.
Plus it’s not just me saying this, Dan and his lad both experienced it on my system and even did it blind, not having a clue what cable was working, and still picked out certain cables.