oh don’t hold me to that .01% … I just threw that out there so as to reinforce my point that the aesthetic of a nice cable is enough for me to spend the money … albeit I’m not buying the cream of the crop $70,000 speaker cables, and $30,000 AC power cables either… 
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Just to clarify David that although i run Supra ethernets into and out of my network switch, it was the one from the switch into the Bartok that made the audible difference.
Sam, I hear you 
and i think most of us are guilty of want vs. need at some point… Alot of want involved in some of my hifi purchases 
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I just wanted to do justice to the Bartók, so floated the idea of changing/updating my network.
Naim and Linn have the same take on Ethernet cables, as dCS does, which seals the deal for me.
Personally, I wouldn’t buy a £4.99 one from Tesco (Sorry you Tesco shoppers!), but neither would I buy an AudioQuest Diamond. 
There is definitely a difference in the way cables are manufactured, so bearing that in mind is important when choosing cables.
Which is pretty much exactly why I bought the BJC and then the Supra to try out and compare. Not from Tesco and not super expensive. Just well made and built to spec.
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Hi Jon…So are are you using both BJC and Supra cables in your setup?
BJC appears to be well respected across various hifi communities.
Thank you James for this superbly clear response. I have copied your response and will use it anytime I hear more about “just because audiophile” network cable superiority from anyone.
I will add thought that the comment later on about buying cables that are aesthetically superior from “telephone line” stuff also has merit. Bottom line for me anyway - is that I would gladly pay for things I appreciate not for snake oil wrapped up in “quantum speak”.
You have helped me and others with your clarity.
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I tried Supra. Enthusiastically. Went back to BJC. Not shielded and test results for each cable’s conformity with spec. Zero noise, which was not the case with the Supra [and may have been due to the shielding].
I now have an EtherREGEN in my network and just borrowed a Melco N100 to try out. Interestingly I have switched back to the BJC to plug into the A side of the EtherREGEN.
But have to test out various configs and see what sounds best; if anything.
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Placebo really works and can do miracles.
Packet trasmission can’t be compared to not controlled SPDIF. No way is there a difference in sound as you sent packets and frames with error control. If packets are not missing, no problem and they are not lost in LAN
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Well an awful lot of people don’t agree with you. The understanding of how computer systems and networks affects digital audio systems is far from complete.
Seems we are still very much on the learning curve.
People run many different setups and each one will not be affected in the same way by something being changed.
I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the views of so many others.
I’m not necessarily disagreeing with this sentiment in the abstract—there is always something new to learn—but this same notion is all too often used to obscure the engineering we do know that tells us that, absent packet loss and/or the injection of noise, there is simply no science behind a lot of the Ethernet snake oil. I am not one who subscribes to “bits is bits,” and writes it off at that, but I do believe a large variety of “audiophile” Ethernet cables and boxes are nothing but snake oil with zero engineering behind them. Audiophile paranoia is so easy to prey on.
It’s fine to say we don’t know everything, but that’s not an excuse for refusing to provide engineering explanations for what people claim to hear. We are now decades into digital audio. It’s not in its “infancy” any more. Do we really prefer to believe that companies like dCS, Merging, MSB, Meitner, CH Precision, etc., know less about the dynamics of digital audio than the host of companies with a motivation to sell audiophiles on audiovoodoo?
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Precisely!
Some audiophiles imagine they know better than the professionals who do this for a living, and there are plenty of people just waiting to profit off of that ignorance 
If somone doesn’t trust his home LAN, is good to ask a professional installer to test it with good cable tester like fluke https://www.flukenetworks.com/edocs/datasheet-dsx-8000-cableanalyzer
You will know if it is complient with eia/tia network standards, having NEXT ( near end crosstalk) and other parameters ok. If it is ok, the rest is done in network active equipment like switches, receivers etc. LAN is Data transmission…so different to spdif. I can hear spdif copper cables BTW. I didn’t want to write it here, but i worked for mod-tap/molex structured cabling system /molex premise networks/ dept as an engineer and wrote the installers guide, so not sure you can trust me here. I understand the mechanism of spending 50k usd for audio devices and connecting it with 5usd cable. It simply doesn’t look good, but this is a beauty of ethernet standard. Just have it tested and it works 100%
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I bought a BJC cable and some Supra Cables to test out and an EtherREGEN with an LPSU. Loose change compared to the cost of a dCS product.
Maybe the switch is unnecessary, still ‘switching’ back and forth and testing things out this week.
Yes I agree that science needs to catch up so that empirical testing improves and that scientific explanations are available; I was saying that this process seems to still be ongoing. The companies taking advantage of the confusion in certain areas are not all helping to clarify things, its not in some of their interests.
I still have a $20 Netgear switch and the wall wart it came with. Might put it back in the chain to experiment at the weekend. At least I am willing to try again. Maybe i can sell some stuff or send it back; wouldnt be the first time
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This is a good suggestion. I will need to do some research and find out if there is a local company who can come and test my network and see if it needs any changes.
That Fluke tester is £7.5k… Ouch
According to some around here, the price of a good interconnect 
. O.K. maybe a pair.
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Data connections either work, or they don’t. It is a binary outcome, nothing grey. Factors such as network traffic, flood packets, and loose jacks determine the reliability of the connection, but there is nothing more beyond same that could impart anything resembling coloration onto the audio. All is packet-driven; data either is received and passes checksums, or isn’t, in which case audio simply drops off.
The only investment worth making is having proper and solid Ethernet terminations into a good network topology. Additionally, having a managed network (such as UniFi or Meraki) will offer actionable insights into items such as lag, runaway crosstalk, and others.
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Following up on my own post, for the sake of clarity, let me summarize as follows:
If you are able to play audio every time, with no dropouts ever, you’re good. No further action is needed wrt your network.
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Well I took out my EtherRegen and went back to my Netgear $20 switch and then back again.
The EtherRegen is staying in…