Well said! So true!
Absolutely! These percentages ARE statistically significant â not only from your point of view.
3 Likes
I have gotten excellent results using Amazon TNP brand cables, both with my Ethernet audio interfaces and my Smart TV. I include these with my Ethernet renderer.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio
It is certainly possible that high-end cables have tighter impedance control and maybe better shielding.
Whether this has an effect on audio playback is debatable. I think grounding the power supply of the Ethernet driving source is more important, as well as adding an isolator in the cable. These changes are usually obvious and audible.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio
1 Like
I have not read the whole thread, not going to. All I want to say is that this was to be expected all along. First we had SPDIF out of a build in soundcard but that was suspect to noise and jitter. Then came USB and people raved about itâs immunity to jitter and about eveything els that plagued the SPDIF interface. There where serious magazines trying different USB cables and ALL OF THEM stated that there was no difference and there could not be any difference. Nevermind, some users reported differences and more and more cable compagnies started making more and more expensive cables. All of a sudden, all the magazine reviewer heard âsubstantial night and dayâ differences between generic usb cables and even the cheapest hifi usb cable (that was on the markeet all along, back when they declaired there was no difference whatsoever). After that came a whole series of USB decrapiefiers, first declared as doing nothing, later raved about the âsubstantial night and dayâ differences. Whatâs so sad about all of this is that a lot of people takes these hifi magazines far too serious and because there are soo much cables and boxes on the marked that âclean upâ the USB signal they strated to believe that USB is a flawed protocol by itself. Current consensus is USB = BAD. Now excactly the same happens with ethernet. Just yesterday declared as the cure for all. It doesnât have any of the flaws USB has, itâs immune to cables etc etc. As of today, more and more compagnies are bringing ethernet boxes on the market that âCureâ all the faults of the ethernet connection. Itâs just starting all over again, and it will start all over again whenever a new protocol comes around. All the reviewers declare there is no differecne between cables and there canât be. A split second later they declare you deaf if you donât hear these âsubstantialâ differences. So let me make the statement of tomorrow ETHERNET = BAD.
3 Likes
The irony is, we have the best audio reproduction in History available to the ordinary man in the street if she wants it, and this is with basic cablesâŚlol
Chris 
1 Like
So true. These so-called âfindingsâ or rather âsudden changes of mindâ are ANNOYINGLY arbitrary.
8 Likes
Can you share a copy of your report?
As one of these manufacturers that designed S/PDIF, many USB and now Ethernet interfaces, I can tell you that there were good reasons to believe the cables, playback software and even sources would not matter. We all had high hopes for Asynchronous USB.
It turned out that some unexpected phenomena reared their ugly heads and that is why cables make a difference.
With Ethernet, it has to do with leakage current through the interface pulse transformers. Like most passive devices, pulse transformers are not text-book perfect either, so S**t happens.
At least with Ethernet, the things that affect SQ are reduced compared to USB. I can use virtually ANY computer with any power supply with any playback software that supports DLNA and they sound identical. Unfortunately, different Routers sound different, as do cables, power supplies and isolators etcâŚ
The other difference with Ethernet is that it is not necessary to spend a lot of money on exotic solutions. Cheap cables and power supplies work fantastically.
The problem on forums is that every poster has a system at a different level of sound quality. Those that have extremely live, resolving systems hear cable differences easily. Other systems mask any difference in noise, distortion and jitter. so the answer to whether cables make a difference is:
It depends. If your system delivers world-class sound quality, they probably will, no matter where you put them.
Steve N.
2 Likes
Spoken like a true marketer. If you canât hear it your systemâs not good enough 
3 Likes
Iâm an engineer with 30 years design experience, not a marketer. I know, the truth can hurt.
Itâs not how much you spend, its what you spend it on.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio
2 Likes
Youâre being incredibly presumptuous, engineer or salesman.
Funny you mention that because there are debates going on the âsubstantialâ difference in sound quality when feeding a nuc with Rock with a linear power supply, or the perceived differences by just turning the fan off. People will allways here âgiganticâ differences and if you donât your ears are not trained enough, or completely deaf or your system isnât good enough. I hear one reviewer say it took him ten years of intens training to hear differences between cables but now that he does the differences are âout of this worldâ and he felt sorry for anyone who couldnât hear it. To me, he just made a fool of himself. Iâm not saying there arenât any differences, Iâm experimenting with cables as well but the differences are never âgiganticâ, âenormousâ, ânight and dayâ, âsubstantialâ or any other superlative. This kind of tweaking is fine and may take your system up a tiny notch but just donât let people believe they âneedâ special ethernet cables because they donât unless they are prepared to spend a lot for just a tiny upgrade. You ainât going to get more out of it then that.
I wonât describe my whole system here, lets just say, a kef ls50w setup I have auditioned sounded like a cheap bluetooth speaker compared to it. I do hear differences between interlinks and loudspeaker cable etc. But all not even distantly close to a tweeter upgrade for instance. Iâm a loudspeaker guy and I can tell that driver matching, driver amp matching, crossover tweaking and most importanly room/loudspeaker matching power response makes âsubstantialâ more of a difference then any cable tweak I have ever done. Iâm not a cable sceptic but please put it into perspective. (All of you guys, not adressed to Steve.)
2 Likes
Yes, sure â but not before the official publication of my thesis (planned for the middle of next year). I*m sure you understand why.
Best of luck with the final submission. Will make for an interesting read if you can eventually share it here.
Two questions:
-
Could you please name/recommend a system you believe âdelivers world-class sound qualityâ? My team and I would love to use it for our listening testsâŚ
-
How can an audio system the sound quality of which depends so heavily on âcable influencesâ be considered a âgoodâ system? For me, this seems like a very peculiar way of looking at thingsâŚ
4 Likes
While we wait for you to hopefully share your report at some point, can you share exactly what playback equipment you used for your scientific listening tests?
And exactly which cables (brand and model) were tested?
I absolutely trust you arenât making all this stuff about scientific testing and a thesis up, but since you brought it up (for discussion?) some background details would be appreciated. Just for friendly casual discussion purposes.
For the record, I use Blue Jeans Cables Cat 6 (Belden 10GX series) cables everywhere. Nothing too fancy.
I canât believe those are sincere questions. How can you expect @HWZ to give away the details of his test method before the submission/publication of his thesis? As I see it, the reason why he decided to mention his research project was that @thyname asked him if heâd ever done any listening testsâŚ
Thatâs the very reason I bought Meridian Active speakers. All of the HOT Roding is taken care of in the design. I like the sound which is all that matters in the end.
3 Likes
Hi Rich, given that the conclusions were presented above, I didnât think it was out of place to ask what equipment was involved?