Most Important, Unloved Cable...


Ethernet. I used to say the power cord was the most unloved, but important cable. Now, I update that assessment to the Ethernet cable. Review work forthcoming. 

I can't wait to invite my newer friend who is an engineer who was involved with the construction of Fermilab, the National Accelerator Lab, to hear this! Previously he was an overt mocker; no longer. He decided to try comparing cables and had his mind changed. That's not uncommon, as many of you former skeptics know. :)

I had my biggest doubts about the Ethernet cable. But, I was wrong - SO wrong! I'm so happy I made the decision years ago that I would try things rather than simply flip a coin mentally and decide without experience. It has made all the difference in quality of systems and my enjoyment of them. Reminder; I settled the matter of efficacy of cables years before becoming a reviewer and with my own money, so my enthusiasm for them does not spring from reviewing. Reviewing has allowed me to more fully explore their potential.  

I find fascinating the cognitive dissonance that exists between the skeptical mind in regard to cables and the real world results which can be obtained with them. I'm still shaking my head at this result... profoundly unexpected results way beyond expectation. Anyone who would need an ABX for this should exit the hobby and take up gun shooting, because your hearing would be for crap.  
douglas_schroeder
your obvious contempt for audiophiles
I have contempt for people that hear realtime differences in a standard that allows you to disconnect the Ethernet cable and yet the music could still play for 10, 20, 30 seconds. 
 
and the whole scientific method notwithstanding

I'm all for the scientific method. You find me a scientist that thinks a rigorous study is needed to debunk spoon benders.


the real reason The Amazing Randi never (rpt never) lost a Million Dollar Challenge was because the test protocol was obviously slanted to favor Randi.

Ok, how is me flying out to you and your setup favoring me?

Let me give some examples, gentle readers. In the case of the Million Dollar Challenge for the Intelligent Chip Wellfed was expected to perform the test at some location other than his own house and on a system of Randi’s choosing.

See above. I'm totally willing to do this in your setup. I'll provide the Client/Server computer, Cisco SG200-8 switch and some additional cabling. 

I.e., some unfamiliar God knows what system.

At the risk of being redundant: This would be in the claimants system.
 
Keep in mind Randi nor any of his crew were audiophiles.

So? An MD doesn't need to suffer the ailment to treat the patient. 

There was also a dispute how many people from Randi’s crew were to have been present at the test

I wasn't planning on bringing Kate + 8


Finally Wellfed would have had to guess correctly 10 out of 10 consecutive trials. Give me break!


I was only requiring 1 round of 20

Well, in the UK a company selling fancy audio cables claiming their sonic superiority lost a courtcase for consumer fraud. I am quite happy that pharmaceutical companies also have to prove efficacy. In EU law there is the requirement of 'fit for purpose

Sorry, either you’re not telling the whole story or that’s the silliest thing I ever heard. Was the magistrate a hardcore pseudo skeptic?


It was Chord.... 

"I’m totally willing to do this in your setup. I’ll provide the Client/Server computer, Cisco SG200-8 switch and some additional cabling"

@jinjuku,

Looks like your argument is based on this video ~ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=anZeheEiff8

I will leave it for rest of the audiophile community to decide the merits of your test.
Looks like your argument is based on this video ~ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=anZeheEiff8

That would be because that's my video. I would really like to have someone answer what happens to the characteristics of the audio when the system doesn't even have a cable connected to it.

The video clearly shows the track is never interrupted even though I did plenty of swaps from $27 a foot and $0.30 a foot cable.

Everything was stacked, and incredibly so, in favor of the WW cable.

The other tidbit is that on some other testing: No packet loss for either cable on the transfer of 4GB of data. 

Also the the Cisco SG 200-8 is bandwidth limiting at the 60MB/s you saw. Going from NIC to NIC, for both cables, I maxed out at 107MB second. So while I like the SG 200-8 for the L3 capabilities, it's not what I use as my backplane switch.