Good answer, I do that now. I worry that so many people just don’t seem to enjoy the music but chase the equipment on a never ending quest for the unattainable. There will never be an end and a time has to come when you just jump off the train and get into the music.
This doesn’t mean people shouldn’t seek excellence, god bless those that do as we all benefit in the finish but personally, I am perplexed by it all as I enjoyed John Mayer practically in the room on a capable but basic and certainly out of date Meridian active setup (not DSP)
Thoughts…
P.S. get the best system you can afford and get on enjoying it for the Music.
Well, Cookie Marenco offers no clear indication how or if she actually measured levels.
Here is the direct quote from the blog:
First thing I noticed was a very slight (less than 1/10th db) volume difference.
So, let us examine some possibilities.
She might not have conducted any level measurements. Instead, she could have perceived level differences, which she then subjectively attributed as being less than 0.1 dB.
She might have conducted level measurements of the digital outputs, and the level differences could have been null, 0 dB, which is less than 0.1 dB. Technically, she would not be lying in that regard.
She might have conducted level measurements downstream at the analog outputs, and the level differences could have been less than 0.1 dB – due to experimental uncertainty from measuring analog signals at different times.
She might have conducted level measurements downstream at the speaker outputs, and the level differences could have been less than 0.1 dB – due to again experimental uncertainty from measuring analog signals at different times as well as acoustical variability.
AJ
Damn, that brings back memories.
Remember - We’re all Bozos on this bus.
BTW - always carry a towel, also.
There are a few inherent problems with your position:
- Ethernet cables, out of all the topologies you mentioned have, by far, they greatest amount of engineering and specs that they have to meet. They aren’t filters and leakage currents happen over conductive materials.
- Ethernet cables come in a few configuration choices. Namely UTP, STP, FSTP, and with the STP and FSTP they can be terminated in a number of ways. So there is that.
- Pick any spec passing cable you want and on the spot I’ll make a like constructed cable that when blinded no one will be able to tell the difference.
- Ethernet PHY’s often power down portions of their circuity when not transmitting.
- Products like JRiver and Tidal can queue up entire tracks and do it in seconds. If that’s the case, and when I remove the cable, did the sound improve, stay the same, or get worse. I.E. can people tell when the cable was pulled even though
the track plays back out of buffer. Magnetics packages and permissible leakage currents not withstanding.
Use wireless and the magnetics, the leakage currents all go to the wayside any way.
People are assigning real time attributes to a high asynch method. One that on standard 1GBe can literally deliver a 16/44.1 track in a 300ms. 2.5GBe 100ms, 5GBe 60ms, 10GBe in 30ms. Then if nothing is going on (what audiophile would’t optimize their PC?) the OS or NIC drive can idle the PHY.
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Texas Instruments white paper “Reducing Radiated Emissions in 10/100 LAN Applications” T.I. specifically mentions an Achilles heel of LAN networks:
The single ended nature of Switches and Routers.
Again wireless is a really good way to go.
In the case of FLAC I’m able to get the same MD5 hashed .wav out of the container that went into it. So I’m not sure what rounding is being referred to in this particular instance.
I don’t do flac only because storage is cheap and my time is not.
@Mark_Brown - At last, someone who will take up your $10,000 challenge.
You should mention it to him.
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Can you summarise the gist of this white paper? If it’s easy to summarise.
This stuff interests me (I know, it’s sad) but I do lack expertise on most of it.
But then you have interference which can be problematic in another form, no? No such thing as a free lunch (as they say)?
I didn’t take anyone’s money. I just wanted to show them that not everything they think is going on is actually going on.
Had a great visit. Still willing to go to Audio Quest and have them blind evaluate their Vodka vs a cable I construct.
On the T.I. Paper:
UTP cabling is noise (externally) immune to 30MHz. Above that you need STP.
Noise can be induced onto the cable from the Switch / Router and that the power supply is the usual culprit.
0/Negative/120 volt power delivery is shitte and balanced power is recommended.
On Wifi:
I’m probably at over 200 wireless installations mostly small business and some campus. Outside of a stamping plant I’ve always gotten full mesh, convergence, and reliability. I’ve also done plenty of 7 km paddle to paddle.
I’ve yet to see a home that’s ever given me an issue. An apartment complex could be problematic.
But you are addressing reliability and bit perfect playback (I assume). I’m not debating that at all.
But this is not addressing having a wireless transmitter/receiver at/inside your DAC and near other analogue components, right?
Not sure what you are getting at. Sorry.
WiFi RFI can affect DAC sound quality.
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That’s what I’m getting at… I don’t think anyone is debating the reliability or bit perfect playback capabilities with either ethernet or WiFi.
The wireless solution may have trade-offs, in terms of potential to affect sound quality.
No such thing as a free lunch sadly.
You may want to reach out to:
Naim
AudioLab
Cary Audio
Cambridge
List goes on and on…
I don’t deal in the unsubstantiated. Wifi has drawbacks: Only so much bandwidth, i.e. it has to share, you normally don’t get rock solid transfer rates it can fluctuate. It’s not mission critical connectivity but that’s not a concern for Audio.
I use a Naim Mu-so wirelessly in my kitchen. Sounds wonderful.
But Naim also recommend ethernet over wireless, wherever possible.
That’s absolutely fine. I’m just asking questions and making friendly discussion 
Wired Ethernet is simply reliable all other things being equal. Naim doesn’t want the tech support call because your Mu-so stopped streaming only to find out the WiFi dropped.
While I don’t deal in the unsubstantiated I didn’t leave that comment hanging. I substantiated what I would deal in wrt WiFi.
I’m certainly open to it. But the usual terms apply.