This is one of the problems: there is no gold standard or consistency with recording/mastering, and no one knows how it sounded in the studio (which is presumably what the artist signed off on). All these tweaks try to reproduce the original, but we don’t know what that is! There are just too many variables. Skeptics say “that won’t make a difference”, believers say “trust your ears”… but the quest remains,
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There is this old joke about how Pink Floyd could be really good if only they had better cables in their studio.
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Shunyata Research claims that they have been using their cables, as do I:
We conducted a series of listening test to both the Shunyata cables and the HYDRA power conditioner. Our comparison point included both standard mains cables and other esoteric cables. We found that both the Shunyata cables and the HYDRA gave the best results by some margin.
Phil Taylor , Studio Manager at Astoria Studio: UK
We were particularly impressed with the sense of phase coherence that Shunyata products delivered, giving noticeably better imaging, depth and clarity. We tried many different areas of our signal path, all benefited. With digital sources it was almost as if we had switched from 44.1k/16 bit to 96k/ 24 bit. We now run all our analogue machines, workstations and the mixing console from the Shunyata equipment.
Andy Jackson , Senior Mastering Engineer Astoria Studio: UK
The ANACONDA PowerSnakes, have transformed our Sonoma system, used during the mastering process for the new 5.1 SACD mix of ‘The Dark Side of The Moon’.
James Guthrie
Grammy Award-Winning Producer/Engineer (Pink Floyd)
Like to know the sources where these quotes were published rather than who said them.
Sounds suspiciously like a paid endorsement.
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Aha, I misunderstood you post.
I didn’t realize you were being sarcastic. 
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Hi there,
I don´t really wan´t to open the cable war Pandora box, nor do I have an engineering degree to prove the other comments wrong . Just would like to add my two cents on my own personal experience.
I´ve asked myself the same question about ethernet cables about 9 months ago. I do own a quite resolving system and wanted to get the best possible signal out of my NUC (I use ROON with ROCK) into my PS Audio Jr DAC.
I did start the quest by switching the very basic Cat 5e cable to a simple Cat 6, then to a Cat 8 cable and found no big sound difference. Right after that test, I did buy an Audioquest Cinnamon Cat 7 and then the improvement was obvious. I did like what I’ve heard.
After months of reading I did settle for an Audioquest Diamond made out of silver. I know, it´s expensive, but instead of upgrading the components, I did invest in the cable and I couldn´t be happier with it.
It is what I can hear in my system what drives my search. I try everything first, if there is an improvement, it stays, if not it goes!
Just as I’ve said before, this is a personal thing. My ears may be different from yours.
Hope it helps
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DIY Speaker cables made from Ethernet cabling were pretty popular in audiophile circles at one time I think.
A quick search…not mine btw
https://www.venhaus1.com/diycatfivecables.html
Although I now use a new DIY speaker cable in my current system, the CAT 5 cables described above were among the best speaker cables I ever used. They bested Kimber 8TC, AQ Midnight, and even gave the expensive XLO’s a run for their money (the XLO’s were better, but not by the margin that the price would indicate).
Now while I have a lot of good cat5 cable around the place, I have not gone this routes as my speakers require 10 channels of amps 5 left and 5 right so cabling is best left to snakes that have 14awg multi cores Belsen runs.
DIY stuff can be darn good. Made several Furutech Power cords this past year (Furutech cable and connectors). You can make a real high end power cord for less than $150.
Most of what I can build myself I do so. Cables 90% DIY for mains and interconnects and speaker cables too (well I don’t make the wire obviously 
) I even build my own Amps and whatever I can too. And repairs I do my self too…down to chip lever if I can.
DIY is the best bang for buck if you can do it for sure. In my semi retirement its also therapeutic too.
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I notice a huge difference with power cables. So much so, I’ve just invested in 2 x 3M Audioquest Monsoon mains leads. One for my pre & one for my power. I plan to buy one of the cheaper NRG variants for my CD player too.
I always laughed until I demo’d these, more than once. Even when blind tested, I got 5 out of the 6 attempts right.
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To add to this, the son of the owner of our local high-end Hi-Fi shop once gave me his secret to the instant & ultimate upgrade to any system;
- A good bottle of red wine
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Try Chord Ingido Tuned ARAY Ethernet cables.
SUBLIME! 
Well written. The way an Hifi should be tested is blind & by ear. If it works, it works.
There’s some crazy science in DAC measurements that people take as gospel, but nobody ever makes a scene about what degree of those measurements have no sonic difference.
The best hifi is the one that is enjoyed the most.
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This is why I like the Meridian approach. In the end, it’s about how the music sounds with a lot of research into human perception.
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If the electrical characteristics of twisted pair are a concern, then converting to fiber and back eliminates this.
So you could do this:
Telco -> TP -> fiber ->TP -> Whatever floats your boat.
If you have an (audiophile) switch on your “clean” power supply in your audio rack then you should have the best electrical properties possible on the data part of things.
But then we need an audiophile light speed re-generator device to eliminate light disturbances in the fiber.
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Hi, want to try something else? just try fiber optic between your streamer and the point where the Roon server is connected to (obviously a switch?). It is worth trying and you will be amazed … it is MUCH cheaper that UTP cat7 and sounds brilliant - I use between my 851N streamer and server (ROON on MacMini i7) TPLink 1GB converters and Polymer optic cable.
Can you provide more details about connections/cables? Do you have optical output on Roon server?