guidof;672004 Wrote: > Shortly after getting my first Touch, back in September, 2010, I posted > a most naive question: Which category Ethernet cable would "sound" > better? > > Needless to say, I was patiently reminded that Ethernet cables are DATA > cables and consequently could NOT POSSIBLY sound different from each > other. Thus recalled to my senses, and given that my wireless > connection worked fine, I stuck to Wi-Fi and forgot about cat5, cat6, > and even the cat7 that was (jokingly) mentioned in the replies. > > Fast forward to my recent installation of TT3.0 and subsequent move to > hard wire the Touch to a wireless bridge/repeater as per soundcheck's > suggestion. Eager to test this new arrangement, I connected Touch to > repeater with the cat5 freebie that came with the repeater, and all was > fine. > > But then I recalled that Klaus had mentioned in passim something like > "get a Monster Ethernet cable," and in a sudden attack of -Audiophilia > Nervosa- I gave in and got one, a cat6 "Digital Life High Performance > Advanced High Speed Ethernet Cable," no less ($14.99 including > shipping). > > Now you know where I'm going with this, don't you? > > Yes, Virginia. Bits is bits. Yes, there is NO WAY these two cats can > possibly sound different. But they most definitely do! I listened to a > wide variety of music and recordings of diverse quality in CD and 24/96 > formats. One cable sounds open and refined, true to timbre and tonally > balanced. The other sounds coarse, heavy on the bass, and uninvolving. > The differences are not "huge" but they are noticeable and consistent. > > At this point it's really immaterial which of the two sounds "better," > but for the record it's NOT the Monster. > > Of course, these are just my personal impressions and in no way are > they corroborated by blind tests, etc. So feel free to call me a > gullible audiophool, a nitwit, or any other adjective of your choice. > > I remain completely baffled, but I'm just reporting what I hear. > > Guido F.
Cat6 and Cat5e cables/connectors are NOT totally interchangeable. They might look similar but they are different in behaviour. At the speeds we are talking about here (ie slow!) the three things that are likely to be experienced are differences in the amount of RFI that is emitted by the cable (and picked up by nearby equipment), the amount of RFI that will be collected by the cable from the air and injected into the connected equipment and the behaviour of the earthing paths between equipment, including unwanted coupling at RF frequencies. This has nothing to do with the data that is travelling down the cable - that is completely unchanged in ANY respect. It does however provide possible explanations for why you can hear differences - the implication is that the Touch/DAC is picking up interference or is injecting interference (directly or indirectly) into the rest of the listening chain. Different listening chains have different levels of susceptibility to such things, so experiences are not universally transferable across systems other than in a very general sense. Generic advice such as "Use Cat 5 not Cat 6 to avoid ground plane RF transmission/coupling issues" still stands. It also explains why interposing a switch between router (or PC) and Touch can make a difference - the ground paths are altered, as is the degree of direct coupling between the noisy supplies of PC/router and the Touch critical areas (digital output and DAC). A switch is very simple device that is likely to emit little noise compared to a router (which is basically a full blown single-purpose computer in a small box). Attention should be paid to the power supplies of ALL devices in the house that inject crap into the mains and into the air. Replacing cheap and nasty DC supplies with low noise types and/or using mains RF/EMI filters is a good idea. As an aside, in (say) 10 years we should commonly expect to see both fibre and "well-beyond N" wi-fi in the home instead of copper ethernet. In the case of fibre, this will remove ANY opportunity to directly couple RFI into a network device via the physical network connection. In the meantime I suggest people try using existing technology to convert ethernet to fibre between their router and their Touch... ( no need to bother with a "switch" in this case and galvanic isolation between Router/PC and Touch is assured!) http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002TAA392/ref=asc_df_B002TAA3925238632?smid=A3PHVT6Y9KA0O6&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22218&creativeASIN=B002TAA392 -- Phil Leigh You want to see the signal path BEFORE it gets onto a CD/vinyl...it ain't what you'd call minimal... Touch(wired/W7)+Teddy Pardo PSU - Audiolense 3.3/2.0+INGUZ DRC - MF M1 DAC - Linn 5103 - full Aktiv 5.1 system (6x LK140's, ESPEK/TRIKAN/KATAN/SEIZMIK 10.5), Pekin Tuner, Townsend Supertweeters,VdH Toslink,Kimber 8TC Speaker & Chord Signature Plus Interconnect cables Stax4070+SRM7/II phones Kitchen Boom, Outdoors: SB Radio, Harmony One remote for everything. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Phil Leigh's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=85 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=91322 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
