The fiber optic network ends at the Optical Network Terminal in the utility closet. The network in the apartment is just normal copper wiring with an Ethernet port on the wall, into which I plugged my HiFi switch, like the one shown in the photo.
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Thanks. Can you even begin to describe the sound of each? And/or which you prefer and why? Every system, every room and every pair of ears is different I know!
My entire system, including the interconnects, speaker cables, and power cords, is all of monocrystal silver. Thus, Siltech and Crystal Ethernet cables, which use a similar type of conductor, are the natural fit. Unlike pure silver, which has some hardness, I love monocrystal silver for its transparency and clarity, which far exceed those of copper, yet it sounds comfortably ‘warm’.
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Thanks for this. I can see the difference in the rest of your system (interconnects, speaker cables, and power cords) though I confess to struggling a little to imagine how a conductor formulation might make a sonic difference in the pre-streamer domain where all the data is going to get unpacked and reformatted when it’s turned into a bitstream…
Will investigate these cables though and check out what else might be different about them.
Many thanks,
Nigel
I have just ordered a neotech 1008 ethernet cable to try.
It’s much cheaper than the diamond and supposedly it’s as good or maybe even better, we will see.
I have those Neotech Ethernet cables. They obviously lifted the trebles and shifted the tonality. I removed them from my setup after a few days of testing as I couldn’t tolerate giving them more run-in time.
Burn in can obviously be a pain, but i will install them on something else for a week or two first.
Then after rhat pop them in the system a much better way to do it with cables like this
So far, I own Neotech interconnect, power cord, USB, BNC, and Ethernet cables. I am generally familiar with their OCC silver, which I think, while having a cost advantage, still can’t replace any of the monocrystal silver cables by Crystal or Albedo in my main setup.
That’s good, but i would have atleast given the neotech cable more time to show what it can do. 2 day’s is certainly not long enough.
As said not prepared to pay thousands for an ethernet cable and if this £250 cable can match my audioquest diamond or even beat it, then that will certainly be a bargain. Some even say it’s better than the sigma at over £2k that have tested both.
We will see.
Just to update the neotech cable i got was , well horrendous.
I gave it long enough, even went over the free return time period to give it more time.
But it was as said just hopeless. It made my system just sound very bright and shouty.
I couldn’t believe how it could make my lovely vivaldi dac sound so harsh.
I would 100% avoid at all costs.
By the way i finally did what i said i wouldn’t do, i got an expensive ethernet cable. I tried quite a few and finally choosing the shunyata omega.
It has a lovely quality that i found just suited the vivaldi apex dac better than the other 3 expensive ethernet cables i tried.
If anyone wants the neotech cable let me know, going cheap lol.
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Dunc,
I bought one about six weeks go and can’t say I recognise your description but we (and our systems) are all different in how we hear things.
Two weeks ago I fitted two of their silver 75 ohm bnc’s (130 quid each) to replace my Apogee Wyde Eyes and they were a notable improvement. Second pair are ordered to complete the set.
Well i am glad it’s working for you.
I demonstrated all the ethernet cables i had to a few hifi friends, all blind testing, and the neotech was picked out every time as being the worst.
Just for reference i had, shunyata sigma v2, omega, hemingway, chord music, neotech, and a few other just cheap cables.
The hemingway was a very close second and a lovely sounding cable, but for me the omega just had the edge.
But i so wanted the neotech to do well as it was very cheap compared to the others, that’s why i gave it so long to burn in, rather than sending it back for free before the 30 days was up. But in my system it didn’t work.
I know other’s like it and others find it like i did, as quite a big chat about it on the naim forum. But you can only try.
To replace the clock cables?
If so hopefully you go 75ohm and the 110 ohm you quoted is just a mistake.
Hey, no worries. We like what we like.
I had the Audioquest Diamond for about 8 weeks which was good and had a decent price offer on the top Wireworld cable which I was thinking of taking, but having now resolved to buy as little as possible of US-made materials, neither was an option I could take, so the Neotech was tried as a cheap punt.
Audio memory is unreliable, but gut-feel is that the Neotech was similar sonically to the AQ, but at a fifth of the price.
Sorry, yes 75 ohm cables, not 110. Will correct the post.
I use a 26 € 15m CAT8.1 shielded cable from the fiber optic internet router to the Innuos PhoenixNet, a shorter version of it to connect the Roon Nucleus to the switch, and an unshielded cheap CAT6A from the switch to the Rossini. Fiber with the shielded cable sounds better than DSL with an unshielded cable I was still using a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t tested whether it’s the cable or the fiber connection which improved the SQ. The LPS for the internet router makes a huge difference BTW.
I ran the audioquest diamond for year’s and found it was a good quality solution.
It has a slightly bright presentation, but not harsh sounding.
I found it was closer to the other cable’s i tried and more so than the neotech.
I am going to try the neotech on the connection between my melco and phoenixnet again, as it’s been used on the kitchen system for months now. Plus i use a very cheap chord cable at the moment that came with an ee8.
This now might work better with the lovely shunyata omega ethernet cable on the last leg from the phoenixnet to the vivaldi upsampler.
But these cables can certainly change how thing’s sound. Push things to far one way or the other. But as i already said the shunyata omega is a very nice sounding cable that i found suited me and my set up.
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