Huh? Are you in the right thread? Is this something I have to look forward to when I get old?
You’ve gone on a tangent like Margo Margo. Except he asks about ethernet sound quality (thread title) but thinks as long as the internet works, not even ground loops can affect sound quality apparently.
Have a slow and careful read of this thread (from the top) and note Margo Margo joined under 24 hours ago… . Also read the advice given and point me to the “bad advice” (in the technical discussion) that was given to this newcomer that you are concerned with…
I’ll help you out… the “bad advice” was to avoid shielded ethernet cables… additional “bad advice” given is that optical connections are immune from ground loop associated issues…
Ground loops are not an imagined problem and can be measured and even have audible consequences.
You seem to love Archimago for some reason so here you go:
We are not in the USB cleaning product business, but we blind tested a market leading USB cleaning product, and got a 100% success in the test with an old $1000 USB DAC. I cannot provide more details on the test or the brands involved though.
(However, the quest for SQ is never simple. A customer of ours reported that it actually made SQ worse unless the optional LPS is bought and used together, which more than doubled the price.)
I would go for the Ethernet cable or a (solid) wifi network. No more typical USB issues such as high-noise, high-jittery effects and importantly, no more impedance mis-matching, and no more bandwidth limitation associated with the optical toslink.
I figured that might be the case, have been looking at the same threads and I got confused briefly. That said I think your posts may have contributed but it’s an easy mistake to make.
That’s not what I said, I was talking about the digital domain hence the name of the thread “Ethernet vs AES/TOSLINK” - If you think that’s referring to the analogue, then either you’re arguing in bad faith, or you’re just a bit daft and have no idea what’s going on…
No question about this. You’ve only been here just over a day but those that have been here a while know I’m always the first to say I’m extremely slow…
Anyway hope you learnt something from a couple qualified experts above, about the real (measurable and audible, not imagined) potential for ground loops with shielded ethernet cables (that connect ground of the devices on each end) and their potential effects on “sound quality”, as mentioned in your thread title…
You still don’t get it. My point was that ethernet is not affected by ground loops, its been agreed above. I am not even talking about analogue circuits. The freaking thread is about delivering digital to digital circuits… [Moderated]
The point is, the worst thing you can do is connect your audio system to the server, in any way.
SPDIF, Toslink, USB, Ethernet, WiFi, optical, it doesn’t matter: noise transfer, jitter, bandwidth limitations, ground loops, unreliability.
How the heck are you supposed to listen to music then
For all this talk about cables, I have the best sounding system I could possibly imagine right now.
Music has never sounded this good.
Cat 5e cables, basic switches and decent designed and constructed audio systems. Meridian and Bluesound.
There is a plot out there but so many seem to have lost it
Your points seem to be countered by some long time experts such as Jussi and Andrew Gillis, who do believe noise can be generated in the ethernet connection. You’ve had an eventful first day posting. Welcome to the forums.
I’m struggling to see your point here [Moderated]. You started the thread by asking a question you seem to know the answer to. You then take issue with anyone who tries to help…
Im afraid you have the context wrong, the question was about which medium provides the best quality, the answer appears to be ethernet, however, for some reason there’s a few people who seem to think ethernet is inherently noisy, yet theyre unable to explain why that is. Im simply debunking their assertions and now my posts are being flagged for some reason, when theyre not insulting or in breach of guidelines. So obviously someone doesnt like being disagreed with. Tragic.
This topic is getting a little too heated and personal … some light moderation steps have had to be taken … so this is a gentle reminder from @moderators to discuss the topic and not the those posting.
Also we should remember that this is an audio forum not a data transmission forum … thus it would be remiss to attempt to discuss digital transmission options without considering its effect (or not) on the analogue components it is connected to.
LOL