Not Toslink, fiber optic.
Any jitter added by fiber optic converters is probably the result of the power supply used in the converter.
I only use radio crap speaker wires internet cables/interconnects that came with my Schiit products/Apple tv/and interconnects i bought from outlaw audio/my Ethernet-wifi cable is cat 5a from god forbid walmart!!
the only thing i have to say is do megabuck silver copper lead etc cables interconnects protect you from vampires and werewolves if they do they are well worth the money otherwise cheap/inexpensive is the way to go and my system is sublime bobbmd
May be, but still not fiber optic. At least not the kind that can be converted from/to ethernet. Which is where, so long ago, my conversation started.
The converters in high quality DACs and players use the power supplies in the units, which are likely to be high quality linear ones. Iād be more inclined to suspect the transfer characteristics of the LED and photo sensor.
You came in the middle of an old conversation, where I was talking about something else.
You think I meant this -
I was talking about this -
Toslink is actually a kind of fiber optic connector, of which there are many. Cables for audio gear, almost all of which uses Toslink connectors, are typiclly called āToslink cablesā.
Read what I have written. You are the one who said toslink, not me. Iām talking about different cables.
Get it? Cheese 'n crackers.
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No, I really have no idea what point you are trying to make, sorry.
Yes, I know. You put in your 2 cents to a reference to an old conversation that you didnāt understand.
what Ćs the point? Especially with fiberoptic if you have to convert to standard ethernet anyway and the data stream isnāt particularly time sensitive. Jitter over ethernet doesnāt matter.
[quote=āSlim_Fishguttz, post:39, topic:30251ā]
My point, in the beginning, was āaudiophileā ethernet cables might have a benefit. Since my core is in the basement, my proposal was to convert to optic, make the long run, convert back to ethernet, and then use āaudiophileā cabling into the endpoint.[/quote]
Not specifically about jitter. Thatās the misunderstanding.
It was the tail end of a 3 month old discussion about whether there is any benefit to āaudiophileā ethernet cables and if switches effected SQ and how to avoid the expense of long runs of expensive āaudiophileā ethernet cable.
I thought this was put to bed, but the misunderstanding of some has opened a discussion that is not about what people think itās about.
Iām tired of this whole needless confusion and misunderstanding. People jump into the bottom of a discussion and think they have a point to make, when the point is about a completely different discussion that never happened.
Iām done with this.
The old conversation was about an Ethernet cable āoptimized for soundā that doesnāt work with the OPās system. I was making an analogy to other dubious audiophile physics. What am I missing?
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I donāt understand why these āhopelessā conversations about all kinds of cables, coming up now and when!!!
On every forum regarding music, exactly on every single one!
So have people discussed every single cable, and never came out with anything! Because we all have different versions of how it shall sound, but who decide what is the wright or wrong sound? No one because we all hear different. Every single cable that we use in our music system, has one function to fulfill, some cables are doing it better than other! So the company who makes these different cables are earning a lots, lots of money on our hunting for the perfect cables and we are stupid as well! Because when we have found the perfect cables (off course are they different from a person to person)!
But even if we are satisfied with every cable in our system, so does we read about a new cable of some kind! So even if we are satisfied, so start our brain to work, hmm if I buy just that cable so will my system be perfect! A system that already are perfect 
. So itās going on and on!
Isnāt the cables so is it the speakers or amps or DACāsā¦
Some people like this hunt for the perfect sound system, but we are humans so we will never be satisfied!
Itās perhaps why itās stands like this if you are searching on that Audiophile, stands for/means.
An audiophile is a person who is enthusiastic about high-fidelity sound reproduction.
Audiophile values may be applied at all stages of music reproduction: the initial audio recording, the production process, and the playback, which is usually in a home setting.
A key goal of audiophiles is to capture the experience of a live musical performance in a room with good acoustics, and reproduce it at home. It is widely agreed that this is very difficult and that even the best-regarded recording and playback systems rarely, if ever, achieve it.
A Audiophile who is tiered of the hunting after something that is rarely, if ever, achieve it. And instead, becomes a person who just enjoys listening to music.
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We host live music, the music we hope perhaps to re-produce in our homes.
The cables we use are good quality well engineered cables but nothing super dooper as advertised in Hi Fi mags etc. We have what we call A and B grades. B grades will often go to moniters and A grades for Micās and instruments. We use decent quality DI boxes battery powered.
The artists will bring mostly their own instruments (We have just secured a Roland house keyboard) cables and amps. Which we mic up with our A grade cables.
We have no special mains cables, just a well designed electrical installation. We use a lot of extension blocks and kettle leads.
Mains cables have to run alongside signal cables although I try my best to see there is space between them.
We employ a good sound engineer to control the sound through our Mackie P.A. System and, if I say so myself, end up with a glorious live sound that is very hard to achieve on any home set up. The live sound becomes addictive. The artists love it and so do the audience. The artists really raise their game when the sound is right.
Luckily we get to record the shows straight to hard drive for future mixing and archive. We also give the audio and video to the artists and get to publish some material on YouTube. Itās great to have exclusive albums that often put the studio releases to shame. The live recordings seem to have so much of the life and energy that we experienced on the night.
How does this impact the cable debate? Iām not sure but that we get great sound with nothing special.
The use of good quality mics and DI boxes is number one but nothing would be any good without the sound engineer and his/her ability to balance the sound for the room. EQ.
All this pails into insignificance if the artists canāt play lol
The only issue we have had recently was when a guitarist brought special solderless cables that were not supposed to hum, only they did! Back to basic cable for him, he was not impressed.
To sum up. Talent first, A great sound engineer with the tools he needs, equal first, and decent quality equipment to play it through second. An appreciative audience who pay on the door? We would have nothing without them, maybe they should be first.
In truth, it all matters but donāt get bogged down on cables is my view.
I must get out more, Chris
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Hi Chris, @Chrislayeruk
Great, we seems to come from the same āworldā.
Long Live Rockān Roll
String
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Sweet! Some url would be nice!
Holy smokes. The level of ignorance displayed by the Golden Ears in regards to Ethernet cabling is STAGGERING.
Ethernet ports are transformer coupled. Therefore ground plane isolated. Shieling can be ground tied but often full float and itās not needed for the home environment since UTP CAT6 is noise immune to 30Mhz.
Ethernet is a non-realtime, burst in nature, highly buffered (in fact there is an inbound and outbound buffer directly on the NIC itself).
Ethernet based computer and streamers, if well designed, will have 10/20/30 even MINUTES of buffering. You can pull the Ethernet cable and music will still play. Did your sound suddenly improve when you pulled the Ethernet cabling?
Ethernet is a standard that allows for 328 foot port to port run, 380 is certainly achievable. A $700 3 foot cable is going to do jack compared to a BJC 3 foot where they are both constructed the same and certify out.
When you watch 4K streamed content does a $700 3 foot cable make the colors richer? The blacks darker? The contrast higher? Why doesnāt it?
Lastly I have $10,000 to anyoneās $2000 on your own setup using your own Ethernet cable (as long as it passes spec) that a like constructed RJE that I bring will render said claimant tin-eared. Loser to pay expenses.
You can reach me at ethernetcablechallenge@mail.com. Testing will be SBT. If you like bring an assistant and I will show them how to swap out Ethernet cabling on an 8 port switch setup with a LAG (link aggregated group). This allows for cable swap in real time while you listen.
You need to hit 18/20 and pick the āaudiophile cableā. The 20 possible swaps will be randomly selected. So you arenāt guaranteed a change between rounds but you should be able to hear this. All in your home, on your DAC, Amp, Speakers with your material.
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and
Instead of just proliferating this argument wouldnāt it be better to just do the @Mark_Brown challenge?
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