With equipment where you can effectively improve sq. And appreciate the differences. I’m a headphone desktop audiophile.
We’re reaching new levels here, people! The one about the analogue voltage is beyond belief. Lemme see if I can put @Janne_Johansson’s excellent explanation in language even I can understand.
Yes, data is sent by modulating voltage. That’s the way the ones and zeroes are sent from one point to another. If there is any interference - or rather disruption - in this stream there will be no data because the receiving device will notice that the data is corrupt. Result: no sound.
If the data is not corrupt then result: the data goes through to the parts of the receiving device that do something with the data. Still no sound, but it’s on it’s way.
If the receiving device does not act as DAC, the above will be repeated until we hit a DAC.
The parts of the DAC that do something with the data do their thing and put out something to the amplifier. Still no sound at this point, but maybe - if the output is modulated electricity in the form of a line output, the DAC may or may not inject some interference in this line output. If the output of the DAC is still data (over USB, Toslink, SP/DIF or HDMI), it’s still ones and zeroes. Here, jitter might rear it’s head, but almost any component on the market knows how to deal with jitter.
Once we get to the last DAC in the chain, the data is transformed to modulated current. Again, maybe there will be some electrical noise added to the output (like ground loop hum). Not really a concern with good kit.
This modulated current will drive the speakers. These quaint constructions are what makes the actual sound. I’m more concerned with speaker quality and placement than with interconnects.
Now I still don’t understand how the final sound can be influenced by interconnects that only serve to get the data from the hard drive (or NAS or streaming service) to the DAC. There simply is no sound to influence.
3 Likes
Elaborate… cans/IEMs, HPA, DAC?
All of the above, but my server antipodes audio DX v3 certainly made the biggest sound improvements in my hp system. I can say that upgrades to power and power cables and Ethernet cable upgrades seemed to make little to no difference in my un blind a/b tests. However they look cool and I view them as insurance or protection. My portable solution is iem based but there I just upgraded my cable to my encores.
1 Like
I use as usb the chord company Sarum T digital super array, did notice improvement over aq diamond and oyaide 5s continental but couldn’t hear a difference between these two which I noticed improvement from stock cable, so usb can make a difference
1 Like
Clock skew and DC bias also come into it
In data transport? Don’t think so.
1 Like
There are some affects of router, switches and cables for the quality of your network. If the shielding and attenuation wasn’t good, you could have lost packets. This results in a reduced bandwith, because the sender must repeat the same TCP packet many times and the stream has drop outs or you hear some jitter.
But I think, you don’t need special HIFI Ethernet cables or switches for a lot of money. Some switches have diagnostic tools to check the cables and detect lost packets.
1 Like
For ethernet, the following might affect the sound
- Electronic noise that in the end has a negative effect on the analog-out section of the DAC (might also affect the DAC clock negative which would mean more jitter)
- More packages lost means more electronic “work” which means more electronic noise
If the above is known, it becomes easier to understand why switches and ethernet cables might make a difference.
Some people claim phase noise also affects the sound, but since I don’t understand what it is and hasn’t tested it myself I am undecided about that.
Depends on your GEAR! In my case: HUGE DIFFERENCE! I use Audioquest diamond, SOTM SWITCHES and router but everything runs off a linear Power Supply. The Linear Power supply also makes a BIG difference. Really depends on your GEAR and how transparent it is. In mid fi systems, you may not be able to hear the difference. But in ULTRA HIGH END systems (Above USD 200K), if anyone says they can not make out a difference, I would suggest getting their ears tested or sticking with mid fi systems. Caveat: If you do decide to go down this RABBIT HOLE and can discern the difference, you should be willing to depart with a chunk of change! 
1 Like
I can’t believe you’re equating the price of a system with its quality. That’s laughable. You can buy very bad stuff for a hell of a lot of money…
No matter how much money someone spends on their gear, there’s never an easily discernible (let alone “huge”) difference between different cables etc. How do I know? Because my research team and I carried out HUNDREDS of scientifically reliable blind tests (for my postdoctoral thesis). The results suggest that sometimes such differences ARE audible, but people never score better than 65 to 70 percent. (I’m talking about people with extensive listening training!). Sometimes the people that took part in our tests were shocked by their own failure. They often blamed it on the systems we used and wanted to repeat the tests with their own equipment and in their own listening room. Guess what, the test results never really improved in people’s own four walls. On the contrary, they often got a lot worse…
(FYI, I’m a professional musician, sound engineer [=Tonmeister] and researcher in this field.)
17 Likes
What exactly is your audio setup?
Lol deluded 
. Wow, we are going down that route are we???
Bias also works both ways. So, your so called testing, what’s to say you were biased into not wanting to hear anything? Perhaps you don’t want to hear it because you couldn’t afford it, didn’t have the space, your head telling you nothing is going to improve on what you have due to “no proof”…just saying 
At the end of the day, I don’t give a flying if you believe or not. It’s the “non believers” that need to pull their knickers out their arse, being all twisted up that anyone dare state that switches/cables ( after lots of listeing tests with different models etc) have made a difference to their system.
Hitting me with the “deluded” card… brilliant
1 Like
Ahhh…another Antipodes user…I have the CX/EX solution myself.
You watch, I will be told it’s shit and has has made no bearing on the sound quality lol…this forum is excellent 
Think so or know so?
1 Like
Can someone with a decent recording rig just record the output of a dac with cheap cables and then record the output of the dac with expensive cables and A/B the different recordings?
Let’s say “know so”, based on a good grasp of physics.
If all that noise really exists then please explain to me how the few meters of network in your house will undo all the accumulated noise from the unknown number of servers and the near unmeasurable length of data cables your Tidal or Qobuz music has to pass through before reaching your home network.
All those different clock rates, all that jitter. Those interlinks must have magical properties. Or do all those ethereal effects only occur in private homes?
7 Likes
God, I love this thread. Btw, I’ve got this lovely anti-jitter heat shrink tube for sale with built-in precision flip flops that will accurately reclock the transmitted data. Works on all interlinks, but only if applied with a special phase shift neutralising hair dryer. 700 euros per meter for the tube and 2000 euros for the haidryer.
PM me if interested.
7 Likes
I don’t care how you decide to waste your money (although, in the spirit of @xxx, i will respectfully remind you that there are people here that are wealthier than both you and myself). I also don’t care if having a professor of physics baby-talk you through burden of proof isn’t enough for you to understand what it is. What you don’t seem to comprehend either is that I don’t care about you lot, or what you think, and even though I’d welcome it if you guys stepped back and took the time to learn for a minute, you’re, collectively not who I’m addressing, and I’m pretty sure you’re also not who many people who’re responding to you are concerned with. Let that sink in for a minute… a world of which you’re not the center.
4 Likes
What are you doing on a forum then? We are exchanging opinions here, and this might come as a surprise but that’s the purpose of a discussion.
1 Like