Ethernet cables test

Audio Systems
1

Hi all
Best to start i guess with a quick system run through on my digital side.
Fiber into the house, then from the router i have about 15 meters of catsnake to my cisco switch. This has everything plugged into for the house. I then have another catsnake cable about 4 meters to my PhoenixNet on my rack.
So these cables are going to be tested on the final leg, PhoenixNet to my dac.
As for system i have, dCS apex dac, vivaldi upsampler/streamer, and clock into both.
Amp is the vitus sia030, and speakers are titan 808’s. I have chord music xlr’s, my own mains cables, and speaker cable from titan on the top box and my own on the bass.

The 4 ethernet cables are

Neotech 1008
Audioquest diamond
Shunyata omega
Hemingway ZcoreLan

The Audioquest is mine, been used for years, and is well run in.
Neotech has been off for an intensive burn in, but only a month old.
Omega and hemingway are dealer’s cables and demo unit’s that are also run in.

Cheers dunc

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2

Right then

Tried them all very briefly on just 3 different tracks, to try and highlight things easier
Each track played and then cable swapped over, and same track played. Then move on to the next track after cable has had a go.
I have gone over this 3 times now, and already i have got options on each.

Obviously these are just my opinions and nothing more really. But hopefully it might give a guide to what you might expect from each in a system like mine. But as with anything only you can decide what works for you.

Let’s start with the cheapest cable, and it is by far the cheapest cable here. The neotech.
As i guess you might have seen my thoughts on this already on my other thread.
Well nothing has changed.
This cable gave me a very lively sound, with very strong full bass.
The problem being was, the bass was bloated, and the top end over powerful.
It was like it was all trying to hard to impress, the first few moments you could fall for it, as it certainly grabs you, but the more you play, you certainly hear the problems above.
Good cable for the money, especially if you feel your system needs a big lift, and sounds a bit flat.

Audioquest diamond
This is my long lasting cable. I feel this also gives good valve for money.
It has a fairly natural sound, lively without being over the top, with great details. Plus a nice bottom end. It fitted my system well, i think?
Could it really be beaten.

Shunyata omega
Right from the start it was quite different to the audioquest.
It made my audioquest sound slightly broken.
Much better refinement, nicer top end as it made my audioquest sound a bit harsh in comparison. That was something i hadn’t noticed till now with this cable.
Once again a nice bottom end, which was even better controlled.
The only thing was it all sounded slightly laid back in what it was doing.
Don’t misunderstand me hear, its a fantastic sounding cable, but right now in this test, especially with the 2 cables that went before it, it did come over as being very polite and a little laid back, with a touch off added warmth to it, to make sure you are fully snuggled in for the ride.
Great but not really what i want, especially at the ÂŁ3000 price tag.

So on to the hemingway, could this be the one. As now i am looking for that extra refinement that i never knew i needed, but i want it to be lively still, but not neotech lively.
Well right now i think i have found just that.
This cable has the refinement, an absolute lovely top end too it, it’s really shining out on my system against the rest.
Never heard off them and haven’t a clue on it’s price, so it could be silly money and completely out the ball park as we say. But right now if i had to pick one, well that’s easy give me this hemingway.

I will continue to listen, but i haven’t swapped the hemingway out now for about 45 minutes, so that’s saying quite a bit to me really.
Plus #dan you will also get to hear them all Saturday and give your views on it all with my system.

UPDATE hemingway way is also ÂŁ3000

Cheers dunc

3

Dunc, as has been written over and over, the Vivaldi is designed for unshielded network cables. Of course you can like whatever you like ( they will all sound a bit different), but UTP is correct and I think that all of the cables that you are testing have shields. Just saying. How about adding some Catsnake CAT5e UTP to your comparison?

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4

Have catsnake and that sounds dull and boring compared to the audioquest, its why i ended up with the audioquest

5

They AQ has a floating screen, the other ones I don’t know.
I am using a Sablon ethernet 2020 (floating screen), between Rossini and Melco S100 (with Ifi elite power supply), works very well in my setup SQ wise. Much better then a generic cat5e cable.

Ifi elite power supplies are also used for router and optical/copper converter(internet provider), connected with AQ forrest ethernet cable (floating, telegartner cat8.1 connectors)

With this setup I basically only stream Qobuz and some good recordings from a SSD drive, it has stopped me playing CD’s via the Rossini player.

I have tried the AQ diamond ethernet in my system, but preferred the Sablon up to now.

As a remark, for my system it was important to “completely” separate ethernet for audio and video, only the Rossini is connected to the Melco S100, TV and internetbox are on a separate ethernet cable to the router.

6

Network cables make a huge difference, not just due to shielding alone. Every conductor type, whether it is silver, copper, or gold, has a unique material sound. I heard what I heard, and I am not alone. To all the naysayers, please do not insult our cognitive abilities by implying that this is a placebo effect.

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@Dunc , thanks for sharing your experiment.

Shielded cables dominate the premium market as we all know. Between a switch and a streamer, this is wholly inappropriate as the shield on the cable can act as a conductor (after all, the best conductor materials make the best shields) as the noise stopped by the switch travels along the shield and basically undoes the good work of, in your case, the PhoenixNet.

@Dunc Do you happen to have either an ethernet cable tester or a multimeter?

The former can be bought on the 'bay for a fiver or so, and they run through each conductor to ensure it is connected properly. But the important thing here is whether the G lights up which would indicate that there is circuit continuity along the shield - not desirable.

Alternatively, if you have a multimeter, you can set it to measure resistance (ohms) and touch each metal RJ45 plug casing with one of the two prongs. If the meter flickers away from 0, there is circuit continuity along the shield from one metal plug to another. Again, not desirable.

If you use UTP, just keep the cable as short as possible so the unshielded cable has less chance to pick up environmental RFI. If the PhoenixNet is in your rack then you probably have a short cable anyway, but if if a rack reshuffle allows a reduction from say 1m to 50cm then it’s a cheap experiment and you might be surprised.

All the best,
Nigel

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I don’t intend to insult anyone but please can you explain how the conductor material might affect the sound? I can imagine how this might be the case post-streamer, but pre-streamer all we need to do is ensure the data packets arrive unmolested.

If you have heard differences in network cables made from the materials you mention, please can you identify which these were and what differences you heard? Thanks

10

I would advise you to first try a side-by-side comparison using a copper and a silver Ethernet cable. If one doesn’t have the capability to hear the difference, further discussion or theory is moot. It’s best to explain what you actually hear rather than basing it on theory to determine what you should hear.

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I am not questioning what you heard, I asked which cables you compared as there may be more to the difference between the cables than the conductor material. If you compared 2 or more ethernet cables all of which were identical except for the conductor material then I have the basis for further consideration.

I usually adopt a similar position regarding the combining of listening experience with theoretical explanation, but I think here you’re extrapolating incorrectly from the post-streamer domain (whether digital and/or analogue) to the asynchronous pre-streamer world where we are moving around data packets/frames, with built-in error correction and retransmit etc etc. If we set aside extremely badly and non-compliant designs and or those which are appallingly badly manufactured to the point of causing data loss, the key design (and sonic performance) differentiator is cable shielding as this affects the amount of noise accompanying the ethernet signal - and differences amongst cables in this regard are clearly audible in most systems to most ears. I have not heard anyone suggest that gold or silver are somehow better at rejecting such noise…
If you could give us/me real world examples of ethernet cables using different conductor materials which you’ve heard show the sonic difference you describe, this would be most helpful. Thanks.

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Dont want to start any bickering going.
This is just what i found when trying these cables.
I have tried many ethernet cables over the years, from the free ones, ÂŁ5, ÂŁ40, etc. All the way up to what i own right now, the audioquest diamond.
Each time i have got an improvement, as if not i wouldn’t have bothered.

I know what dCS state about cables, i also know like many manufacturers that dont make ethernet cables, they all state just use a bog standard cable, i guess because these have been certified to do what’s needed, and the ones i have haven’t.
But it’s very clear to me in what these cables bring, especially over a bog standard ethernet cable.
I also get if anyone is happy with the SQ they have with the bog standard cable, fine.

UPDATE
i have now put my audioquest diamond from my melco to my phoenixnet switch, and running the hemingway from the phoenixnet to the upsampler.
I am going to run it like this for a few days, and then pop the omega in to replace the Hemingway, and see if i miss it or prefer the omega.

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13

I have read so many posts on this subject i need a clarification so that i understand what im reading. @Dunc if i understand correctly, this cable that youre reviewing is in lieu of using a fibre to media converter and a meter of fiber optic cable prior to the last 1/2 meter of cat into your dac. If my understanding is correct, can you explain why you are opting for this solution rather than using fibre for isolation. Are you suggesting that a better cat cable delivers a better sq than fmc to fibre to cat. If not then are you suggesting that the last 1/2 meter of cat after the fmc and prior to the dac further enhances the sq over another certified cable. Thx

14

The only fibre is the main supply into the house, after that its all wire

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15

@barryr1 Not sure if I understand your post entirely, apologies if not. I appreciate that fiber/fibre is theoretically better (as in zero noise) but this ignores the quality of the downstream conversion back from optical to electrical which is vitally important and not all FMCs are the same; some are unsatisfactorily noisy. As with much else in hifi (I’m thinking SMPS vs linear PSU, for example), I guess it all comes down to implementation.

The cable to the streamer doesn’t have to be Cat but if it is shielded then the shield should not be grounded at both ends. All Cat and most exotic cables are, unfortunately. The Melco C100 is an excellent cost-effective shielded cable with the shield grounded only at one (identified) end.

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@TheFlash Hey Nigel. I was just trying to establish if Dunc was saying that he found this alternate cable to be superior to using a FMC or in addition to (downstream of ) an FMC. I personally have a very long cat run from it’s entry to my router and through a circuitous but as direct as possible route to a dedicated switch very near the dcs setup …converted through a FMC… through a meter of fiber…through a second FMC …and then ultimately through a piece of unshielded, certified cat5 cable. FMCs are powered by pix LPS. I was not trying to challenge at all the need for better quality cable for that last meter or so to the dcs stack.
I was specifically trying to determine if it was thought by DUNC that a better quality cable from the FMC to the DCS produced better SQ or if DUNC thought that bypassing the FMC and fiber altogether and using hi quality cat was yielding superior SQ. .

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17

Cool, thanks for explaining @barryr1 and my apologies for not understanding properly the first time!

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