Sablon Ethernet cables

I’ve been disappointed with audiophile cables in general and most recently with AudioQuest Vodkas. I’m thinking of giving the Sablons a try. Does anyone have them and, if so, what are your impressions, what gear do you use them with and for what music? The Vodkas disappointed me in particular for tonal texture, natural resonance and decay, and bass extension and articulacy. FWIW my system is Naim ND555, 2x555PS, Hiline, 552 and 500 with Shahinian Diapasons and Mogami cables.

“audiophile” ethernet cables are ALL snake oil. Many of them are in fact WORSE than your bog standard cheapo Ethernet cable because they are shielded and users do not have the proper shield drains/grounding required to properly deploy shielded cable. So the cable instead ends up acting as an antenna, rather than rejecting EMI. There have also been numerous discussions about “audiophile” cables that violate mechanical standards, so don’t even connect properly to gear.

Seriously, just get a Monoprice or Amazon Basics Ethernet cable and be done with it.

17 Likes

Sorry, I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but I’d really like to avoid these hackneyed arguments. Whatever the reasons are, and frankly I don’t care what they are, there are differences in sound between ethernet cables. Like many, I find the Belden bonded cables work well as a solid performance baseline, but I can’t help wondering whether I can find something better and would rather hear about other people’s experiences, not theories or ideas.

So, if anyone has got and is happy with the Sablon Cables please fire away, but I’d be really grateful if we could avoid turning this into the usual cables argument.

5 Likes

Sablon Ethernet cable (I used to have one) is pretty good. When I had it, I liked it better than the Wireworld Platinum Starlight 7, although much cheaper.

Then I had a chance to try a Synergistic Research Atmosphere X Reference cable, which blew me away, and I had to have it. Much more expensive, but totally worth it. I am lucky it’s a short run, only 1 Meter

Cables are very system/equipment dependent. If you believe that Ethernet cables ‘sound’ different, then this would apply to those types of cables too.
You may be better off trying the Naim forum. It probably relates more to Naim, than Roon.

If someone thinks Ethernet cables sound different, maybe these guys have something to try out?

https://www.masterbuiltaudio.com/ultra-line-audio-cables

What wonderful products. They tick all the right boxes:

  • Decades of research
  • Exotic materials
  • Used by NASA on missions to Mars, Jupiter etc.
  • Unbelievably difficult to make (probably by Umpalumpa’s)
  • Electrons follow planned routes with no coffee stops or comfort breaks
  • So exclusive you’ll have a lifetime of brownie points

Seriously, the poster says the $300 Vodka have multiple failings, so how about another $300 cable? So someone then suggests a $3,000 cable. The Naim forum is mostly UK posts, so pretty cable-sceptic.

I took advice on this forum last week and ordered 3 x 1m Blue Jeans CAT6. They arrived from Seattle to UK inside a week, no nonsense packaging amounting to a plastic bag with the cable and a test report, total cost under $50. My system is pretty good, Devialet Expert Pro 250, Innuos Zen Mk3, Harbeth SHL5+ 40th AE and Shunyata power. These cables seem perfectly effective.

So I would recommend phoning Naim or the poster’s dealer for a recommendation, or just give Blue Jeans a try.

p.s. I cannot imagine how a digital signal cable could be system-dependent.

8 Likes

And obviously this is the only cable you tried. Yet, you KNOW that others cables would “sound” just the same. You don’t need to try. Right on!

2 Likes

Look… asking advice on cables in the Internets/ public forums is useless unfortunately. For some reason, there is a group of people that always jump in anytime they read “cable”, quickly denouncing them as Snake Oil. It’s their hobby for some inexplicable reason. Then people who actually own the good cables, don’t say anything for fear of being ridiculed. And I don’t blame them. It’s very tough fighting these types. I have to let them be for the sake of my mental wellness. Good luck with your quest. My advice: give them a try if you can get them borrowed, on trial, or found used at good price. There is nothing that can replace personal experience

4 Likes

I had standard Amazon and tried an AudioQuest Cinnamon for the last link from server to streamer. I shall be selling it as soon as I find the fancy packaging it came in.

As that refers to me, i’ll say that I will spend money when I hear it makes a difference. I use pretty expensive cabling from Shunyata and Townshend, but before Devialet found Mogami balanced signal cables ideal (as do many others), used and still have a usb cable off the cover of a magazine and find Blue Jeans Ethernet equally ideal. I am not trapped in the mindset that something has to expensive to be any good.

It has been written elsewhere, it may have been the chap from Belden, and by other techies, that there is nothing to be gained beyond properly made and tested CAT6.

There are people who think more than $10 on ANY cable is excessive. I’m not one of them, but do take that view with Ethernet cables. That’s just my view, but others will think otherwise.

2 Likes

No two systems are identical. For that matter even your left and right speakers are different in many ways…buy what you can afford and think is reasonable, and if it sounds better to your ears then great.

No point banging others for their opinions one way or another. This is not life or death stuff…there is no right or wrong unless perhaps you are using something that will be electrically dangerous so as to cause failure or worse injury to someone.

My choice is to use good cables, that doesn’t often mean expensive.

2 Likes

Often means expensive ? :thinking:

I recently tried the AudioQuest Cinammon, not the priciest in the Audiophile world of streaming cables but 10x more than the ones I had in so I thought it was a good start to see. It went back after 3 days. It sounded no different to me ears to the Belden Blue Jeans cable I have, If any it was a little brighter. I wont be trying any more as I dont see it being a worth while pursuit, Maybe if you have cheaper network gear or your device has not implemented ethernet well they make more of a difference, I cant really say. But with my core, Naim Atom and Cisco 2960 it made such little if any difference it s not worth the investment.

Who said this refers to you? You quoted my post, and I mentioned no names there. Not everything revolves around you. You may think you are special, which is good for you.

1 Like

And yet, you went all the way to Seattle, West coast US from United Kingdom to purchase your Ethernet cables. If that was the case, and all ethernet cables sound the same, why did you not just buy something local hardware store at a few cents a meter? A little conflicting, don’t you think. Or you just a have magic dollar number, beyond which a cable is Snake Oil?

1 Like

Personally I find it hard to believe that one properly made ethernet cable sounds any different to another if equally properly constructed (this is computer networking which is something that we know works faultlessly when done right).

However assuming that it does for reasons of noise transmission or similar, would the logical conclusion of that be to say wifi is actually better than any cable?

2 Likes

I went up one flight of stairs to buy the cables. I’ve heard Seattle is very nice, except for the coffee. I have no idea as to the construction of the ethernet cables I was using. There have been many posts here and elsewhere singing the praises of Blue Jeans as being non nonsense cables, to audio spec (CAT6, not shielded) and tested. The shipping was £12, not much more than local cost because they send in a small padded envelope, so sensible to buy from Europe. I could get tested cables locally, the largest UK audio cable supplier is 10 minutes from my house, but were much more expensive. I was hugely impressed with their service and of course the price. I’m glad to see @CrystalGipsy had the same experience as me.

I do feel a little sick in the stomach that I bought the Audioquest Cinnamon cable in the first place, maybe @CrystalGipsy feels the same. Anyway, I will be selling mine.

@Tim_Rhodes has a very good point. Devialet is designed to be used wireless, they recommend it, it has so many connectivity options it’s a bit crazy. It’s probably best to have a dedicated wireless access point, which I don’t. It also will depend on how the wired signal path is configured. All I have to do is pull out the ethernet cable from the back of the Devialet and it will work exactly the same, just using wireless. I’ve not bothered to spend the time comparing.

1 Like

They are not all made the same. Cheap ones are often made in china and dont pass the simple tests. These can cause a lot of issues. I have had a number of cheap ones fail to work well in my network. A swap out to another has fixed this issue. I trust a cable that passes all the required tests to meet the criteria of Cat5e, Cat 6 etc. some of these audiophile streaming cables have marginally past these tests. Blue Jeans cables have to pass these tests before they are sold and you get a piece of paper determining how yours passed this. Personally I want a cable that has been made to do the job its designed for properly, deliver network packets, not hodge podged together because they think its sounds better but fails on the basics its supposed to to.

3 Likes

And how exactly do you know this? Or you just know?