AmpCom Ethernet Cable CAT7 improved streamer sound

[Nikhil]

The Linear Solution - TCXO AUDIOPHILE SWITCH

The Linear Solution - TCXO AUDIOPHILE SWITCH

thelinearsolution.com

Hilarious!

There were some issues reported on this seller on CA a few months ago.
Design/Price issues aside I think there were defaults on deliveries if I'm not mistaken.

Two guys I know and whose products I can recommend easily are:

EtherStream2 – Network Switch | Fidelizer.Audio

Best streaming experience tuned with Esoteric K1X Grandioso as reference. It's been 3 years since releasing Nimitra as the first true affordable highend server that is good enough to match with highend audio performance from CD and vinyl.

www.fidelizer-audio.com

EtherREGEN (original, "Gen1")

Advanced audiophile Ethernet switch with differential isolation and femto reclocking.

uptoneaudio.com

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[Nikhil]

Does it make any difference in a scenario where the network is used to control an audio device than stream music.

Not quite sure what your question is. Can you elaborate what you mean?

Does a switch or they type of ethernet cable (UTP or STP) will make any difference to audio qualify.

A Network switch used to make a difference a few years ago over an all in one router.
But nowadays I'm told the new routers have upgraded switches built in.
IMO adding a switch makes a much more efficient network traffic management

Ethernet cable type makes a difference.
CAT7 is an order of magnitude improvement over CAT5.
Down at the wire we are still talking voltages and all rules of analogue fundamentals apply.

Similarly will wifi be good enough in such a case.

WiFi is a good option when cables are an issue but the typical issues of noise is introduced.
Implementation is key but in general wired sounds better.



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[rikhav]

Does it make any difference in a scenario where the network is used to control an audio device than stream music.
Does a switch or they type of ethernet cable (UTP or STP) will make any difference to audio qualify.
Similarly will wifi be good enough in such a case.

I am assuming what you mean is when music is stored in local storage of any kind of computer and network is just used to control that device.
Not entirely sure as not tested but quality of router , switch or lan cable should have no affect on the sound

 

[keith_correa]

I don't want to comment much on the ... [see my signature to complete the dots ]
BUT if you're on Windoze:
use TCP optimizer [free!!!] - https://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php

Let us know how things work out sonically for you guys after using this.

 

[Kannan]

Not quite sure what your question is. Can you elaborate what you mean?

I use the ALLO Digione Signature to which an hard disk is connected to play my music collection. The ALLO is the media player and puts put a coaxial signal to my DAC followed by the rest of the chain.
As there is no display attached, meaning the linux software running in the transport being headless, it is controlled through the browser of my laptop/phone or a dedicated app on the phone.
In such a case the role of the network cable is to link the laptop and the transport purely for control of the playback and not for streaming.

 

[drkrack]

Anyone has these 'audiophile' ethernet cables , or a first hand experience?

CAT7

www.puristaudiodesign.com

Just 500USD / 5m length...


This is a very good comparison of various Cat 7 ethernet cables from audiophile perspective...

Audio Blast: Ethernet Cables and XLR “Y” Adapters Survey

Ethernet: a family of computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 1983 as IEEE 802.3, and has since been refined to support higher bit...

www.dagogo.com

 

[Nikhil]

I use the ALLO Digione Signature to which an hard disk is connected to play my music collection. The ALLO is the media player and puts put a coaxial signal to my DAC followed by the rest of the chain.
As there is no display attached, meaning the linux software running in the transport being headless, it is controlled through the browser of my laptop/phone or a dedicated app on the phone.
In such a case the role of the network cable is to link the laptop and the transport purely for control of the playback and not for streaming.

This makes network efficiency all the more important IMO.
Using a switch should typically give you a better network performance.

But like I said earlier I don't know if the new routers are better.
But if adding a switch makes your network more efficient then you should benefit.
However how that affects sound is another matter altogether.

I had explored all this a few years ago when I was trying out DSD128.
Most networks should be fine with PCM upto 24/192
When you start pushing around larger files then you start having issues.


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[keith_correa]

Does it make any difference in a scenario where the network is used to control an audio device than stream music.
Does a switch or they type of ethernet cable (UTP or STP) will make any difference to audio qualify.

Will make absolutely no difference to the sound.

Similarly will wifi be good enough in such a case.

If by "good enough" you mean good enough to control? Yes!

 

[Kannan]

I had explored all this a few years ago when I was trying out DSD128.
Most networks should be fine with PCM upto 24/192
When you start pushing around larger files then you start having issues

In my case the audio file size or the resolution does not matter. This is purely dependent on the processing power of the transport and the MPD, and has nothing do with the network as there is no streaming of music files between the control source (laptop) and the transport (the ALLO). There is no network delay or any sort of lag either while using wifi or cable. My question was purely related to audio quality.
Do these ethernet cables carry any kind of stray noise into the chain coming from the router though ethernet ports are supposed to have galvanic isolation. I am not much concerned about RFI or EMI in home environment.

 

[rikhav]

In my case the audio file size or the resolution does not matter. This is purely dependent on the processing power of the transport and the MPD, and has nothing do with the network as there is no streaming of music files between the control source (laptop) and the transport (the ALLO). There is no network delay or any sort of lag either while using wifi or cable. My question was purely related to audio quality.
Do these ethernet cables carry any kind of stray noise into the chain coming from the router though ethernet ports are supposed to have galvanic isolation. I am not much concerned about RFI or EMI in home environment.

Network cards (the bigger ones of yester years ) used to have a small transformer, hence galvanically isolated .
I am not sure how it is on motherboaed or SBC like raspberry pi and allo

 

[sidvee]

I use the ALLO Digione Signature to which an hard disk is connected to play my music collection. The ALLO is the media player and puts put a coaxial signal to my DAC followed by the rest of the chain.
As there is no display attached, meaning the linux software running in the transport being headless, it is controlled through the browser of my laptop/phone or a dedicated app on the phone.
In such a case the role of the network cable is to link the laptop and the transport purely for control of the playback and not for streaming.

If you are using a router and that router has a wall wart smps power supply it may introduce stray electrical noise into the device to which it is connected. Use of a linear power supply to the router may help. I am doing that in my system where a router is connected to my Aurender n100H purely for control of aurender and not for any transfer of music which is stored on the aurender.
In my scenario the router/ethernet cable is not going to make any difference in sound quality other than the above mentioned noise which I am mitigating by use of a hdplex lpsu.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[supersaiyan]

[Repeat post- looking for answer]
i have a cambridge cxn i tried connecting them with usb to mac and via lan.
lan sounded better than usb or even the coax.
dont know why.
and i also had an improvement in sound when i changed the cable to a cat 6.
anyone care to explain y is this so.
shouldnt the usb or the coax sound better ?
usb cable i used was from audioquest. coax was from kimber while the lan both cat 5 and 6 are local brands.

 

[drkrack]

The Next Upgrade in pipeline is Adding a Linear PSU for my Etherenet Switch and Router.

A Small Update to This...
I upgraded 3 Devices to LPSU, The Desktop Switch ( 9V /1.5A) at HT Rack, Main Router and NAS Box ( both 12v/3.5A), after using over a month, my impressions.
1. Change of LPSU to Desktop switch gave remarkable improvement SQ wise. The details were more clearer, marginally improved bass and reduced shouty-ness or harshness in the Sound. I can play bit more louder than usual. The change pretty easily audible.
2. Main Router LPSU upgrade was less Remarkable compared to Desktop switch ; nevertheless, the speed of network seems to have gone up by a notch. I don't see buffering screen quite often now, also the local file search ( on NAS) has been blazingly fast. The streaming services (both audio and video) improved a lot in terms of overall speed.
3. The LPSU upgrade to NAS was least remarkable in my setup, which was quite against my assumption. Nothing I could easily make out, so I swapped the LPSU to another Router which was acting as access point.

Considering the importance of Desktop Switch near HT rack, I upgraded the power cable of LPSU to Pangea 14se and bingo... The remaining Shoutiness/Harshness was reduced, Now I have a system sounding the way I always wanted, Sweet Warm SQ with lots of details. My Recommendation is, Get a Desktop Switch At HT area if you don't have and upgrade to LPSU (for desktop switch) if you rely a lot on streaming services and use NAS for storing local audio files.