All interconnects in my system are Ethernet. There are in total 6 of them now, after addition the addition of a few switches in series. Also 1 AES (NB to active speakers).
Ethernet: Earlier I was using wireworld cat 8 chroma. These have gradually been replaced with optical and AQ diamond. The 2 optical are the top recommended by afterdark and cost approx usd 300 including sfp’s. Quality exceptionally improved over the Chroma. Same story with the AQ Diamonds (3 times the price, but no more optical inputs in the systems). I have not had a chance to compare the AQ Diamond against the Opticals, but noting the incremental improvements, I would be surprised to hear much difference. This will happen anyway sometime around early March.
I’m 70 and listen mostly to rock from the sixties. So my hearing is not that great. However, I have noticed the following improvements from the above implementations:
distortion is almost non existent now. It’s only occasionally that I can hear etched hashy chorus lines on complex passages. I would say less than in 5% of those what I thought were nasty recordings. Of course a good recording sounds much better. But clarity a great starting point in enjoyment of music, no?
vocal intelligibility is up from say 50-60% of the words to 80-90%.
Given my deteriorating hearing, I would say this can’t be a perception issue. In fairness, I have to say I have recently introduced a great clock in the system, and all components are grounded thru an SR active grounding unit.
Not sure if this is clearly within the bounds of the discussion, but the conclusion is that ‘good’ Ethernet cables and a good clocking set up are big assets.
Best wishes
Aubrey
PS I am a great believer, by and large, of Ted Denny’s magical devices, and use many of them.
Hi, I have a Bartok dCS.
I have tried several network cables, including models with a cable that discharges to ground, a Nordost Heimdal 2.
1 switch with OCXO clock and 1 etherregen.
Each of these is beneficial.
So I can say that yes, the lan cables bring improvements and not insignificant.
I can’t explain why but they do.
Now I just have to decide whether to buy a switch, a cable, both,
or decide to sell the Bartok and buy a separate solution of network player and dac.
A friend who has OCXO clocked swich and lan Heimdall 2 tried Auralic Aries G2.1 and says that with WiFi connection it is better than via LAN. I want to try Aries G2.1 connected in wifi and via USB to my Bartok, if it is better than the Bartok I buy Aries G2.1 and a DAC.
What LAN cables have you tried?
Did anyone understand why they widen the soundstage?
I’m a big fan of Tellurium Q cables, used it with Ansuz switch - a dream team (my 2 cents).
Then, I changed the switch to PhoenixNet and the Tellurium cable didn’t work- too fuzzy, no edges etc. After that, I tried a very cheap cable and it sounds just great! So my findings: it really depends on your set up. Never thought that…
Welcome to the forum, and thanks for sharing. Sorry to engender such a negative reaction and, while I think you’ve misjudged me, you’re entitled to your assessment. Enjoy the community here.
I’m using a Meicord. I did try a Catsnake with floating shield. Initially it wasn’t great. Then it came to life. But after extended listening I found it made things sound a little edgy and fatiguing on many tracks. The Meicord went back in and all was well again. I also have BJC cat6 cables and I can’t hear any difference between that and the Meicord. I’m a big fan of TQ cables and am running black diamond interconnects and speaker cables. I’m very keen to try their streaming cable
Meicord for me too! That replaced some random patch cables from a box in my closet.
My LAN is currently set up as follows:
Wifi router → Meicord → Cicso 2960 → optical → optical interface box (with linear supply) → Meicord → Vivaldi Upsampler
Does it sound any better than the patch cord directly from the wifi router? Probably not, but it was fun to set up!
Swapped out a Blue Jeans ethernet cable for a Shunyata Alpha…to our ears, decidedly better, albeit very subtle. Worth the upgrade nevertheless. First tried a Shunyata Venom then the Alpha but the Alpha simply spanked the Venom. Worth an audition.
Absolutely. The Sigma itself was a big improvement over a variety of Ethernet cables I’d previously used, which included the best Audioquest and Wireworld offerings, at the time. The Omega was another notable jump in conveying a better sense of timing, space and reduced noise with a lower noise floor. It has simply been, as one might say, mo’ betta’
Yes they can; especially with fancy shielded cables where the shield isn’t properly handled by the equipment in both ends. Think of celltowers etc. as possible sources of noise.
Avoid getting the noise in the first place by using a cable that is unshielded and built to spec. Andrew from dCS posts here about that:
I tried $10 Blue Jeans cable and it was as good as anything I tried well into four figures. I understand now that it was just as likely that the more expensive cable could have been worse.
I tried $10 Blue Jeans cable and it was as good as anything I tried well into four figures. I understand now that it was just as likely that the more expensive cable could have been worse.
Or… it could have been much better.
The key is it never hurts to try it in your system, and any good dealer would allow you to either borrow a cable or give you a full refund on any cable you purchased and didn’t feel improved your system.
