No, better to stick with Network Engineering. Medicine requires observation of ever evolving treatment modalities and an open mind.
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?
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@devinplombier Your post makes zero sense to me. |
Nothing that runs TCP makes any difference in sound quality. That's because it cannot. The only exception to this rule is SFP cabling, because unlike metal wire cabling it physically cannot pick up EMI or RFI, thereby galvanically isolating your components, and, conceivably, lowering the noise floor of your system. Make no mistake: a $8 SFP patch cable from Monoprice is superior in every respect to all metal wire CAT cables, including cryogenically treated pure silver wire ones costing $5,000 or even $8,000.
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Not every streamer accepts sfp. And even if in case of streamers featuring both fiber and rj45 inputs it highly depends on a user preference for sound, implementation of the sfp and the rest of the system and room acoustics. Remember it’s all about synergy. You can degrade your system performance using fiber optic converters simply by injecting noise from SMPS units back into AC line your components are running from. Or having all this network garbage in close proximity to components and cables will impact the overall sound by the EMI radiating from these modules. There’s a difference between Ethernet cables in how they affect the sound. I don’t have experience with $5,000 or $8,000 Ethernet cables (and I doubt you do as well) but from what I’ve tried I was able to pick the ones that sounded best to me. I will note that none of them sounded horrible. |
@audphile1 there are indeed many variables and your points are well taken, but they don't necessarily contradict mine. Best practices are to run dedicated AC lines to one's system, and to keep network / computer gear in a room / closet separate from one's listening room. This way no worries about EMI/RFI interference, whether via physical proximity or via AC mains contamination. The SFP cable that feeds one's streamer should originate from a SFP switch stashed away in said separate room / closet, and terminate at a converter fitted with a linear power supply.
Yes, that would be SFP ones! 😃
Correct, and here's hoping I'm always busy enough that auditioning Ethernet cables never starts looking like a good use of my time. Happy listening!
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