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How can different CAT5/6 cables affect sound.

While is is beyond doubt that analog cables affect sound quality and SPDIF, TOSlink and AES/EBU can effect SQ, depending on the buffering and clocking of the DAC, I am at a loss to find an explanation for how different CAT5 cables can affect the sound.

The signals over cat5 are transmitted using the TCP protocol.  This protocol is error correcting, each packet contains a header with a checksum.  If the receiver gets the same checksum then it acknowledges the packet.  If no acknowledgement is received in the timeout interval the sender resends the packet.  Packets may be received out of order and the receiver must correctly sequence the packets.

Thus, unless the cable is hopeless (in which case nothing works) the receiver has an exact copy of the data sent from the sender, AND there is NO timing information associated with TCP. The receiver must then be dependent on its internal clock for timing. 

That is different with SPDIF, clocking data is included in the stream, that is why sources (e.g. high end Aurenders) have very accurate and low jitter OCXO clocks and can sound better then USB connections into DACs with less precise clocks.

Am I missing something as many people hear differences with different patch cords?

retiredaudioguy
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panzrwagn's avatar
panzrwagn
692 posts
 

@retiredaudioguy. I am confident there are those who claim to here the differences between 568 A and B. Im equally confident they will hear differences between 568 A and 568A as in your first post. 

@oberoniaomnia  Oooh, there you go getting all logical and facty again. ;-)

@richardbrand The network failure you describe would drop any non-validated packet data received and request a resend until either a correct packet is received or the process times out. The last complete CRC error-checked and packet acknowledged is the last valid data. 

The sequence number is the byte number of the first byte of data in the TCP packet sent (also called a TCP segment). The acknowledgement number is the sequence number of the next byte the receiver expects to receive. One more TCP feature that ensures data quality.

When the missing packet arrives, TCP can reorder the packets based on their sequence numbers before delivering them to the application layer.

I'll stop here, but the more you study TCP, the absolute brilliance of it becomes more and more apparent.Remember, the idea was to literally have a bomb-proof network. 

J

sns
4,218 posts
 

@herman My first post on this thread mentioned the endless repetition of the same old tired refrains on this subject, and then I get involved yet again. I will try to remember this and simply tune out next time.

devinplombier
1,672 posts
 

@sns 

Tedious as these threads are (here we agree), they exist because some folks keep spouting nonsense, rooted in ignorance and false superstition, as fact.

Come to think of it... Oh, never mind.

Until these folks either start educating themselves or stop posting, I am afraid these discussions will continue, even if, like you, I’d rather they didn’t.

steakster
2,176 posts
 

@toyman +1    I tried about a half dozen ethernet cables before settling on the Sablon Audio 2020.  In my system, it was pretty easy to hear the improvement in SQ.  Better tone, timbre, dynamics.  More articulate. I have two in my streaming chain. 

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