What did you do to your stereo rig today?

Toolfan66

rebelsoul wrote: »

Link?

rebelsoul

Toolfan66 wrote: »

rebelsoul wrote: »

Link?

Go back a few posts tom listed the link

rebelsoul

Listening to it now and I like what I hear . I was using one of those yellow ones that Xfinity gives you . It was my only cable that wasn't upgraded in my chain.

rebelsoul

treitz3 wrote: »

So, yesterday I tried something that I had a feeling would not make any difference at all.....but I tried it anyway. Back when I originally got the Auralic Vega G2 network Audio Player, I went ahead and ordered 2 or 3 different Ethernet cables. My thought process was that it wouldn't change the sound at all but that it might help with the transferring of information at faster/better speeds.....but as mentioned, I wasn't expecting any change at all.

Man, was I wrong. Completely wrong.

I hooked up one of the extra Cat 8 cables I had ordered last year. (I know, they don't even have a standard for that yet but the data transfer rates/speeds they were showing looked promising) After hooking up the new cable, I turned the Vega G2 back on and hit play.

I played the same exact song I had just sat down to listen too 5 minutes before. While expecting absolutely NO difference at all (since it's not part of the audio signal or incoming power). I was very pleasantly surprised at what I was now hearing through the Vega G2.

I hadn't even sat down in the sweet spot yet and I could tell that there was a vast difference between what I had heard before and what I was hearing now. Not quite believing what my own ears were telling me off axis, I immediately sat down in the sweet spot.

I don't think I left the sweet spot for an hour or two after that. Yosi Horikawa's, "Bubbles" easily took on another 10 feet in width to each side of the sound stage. Height perception as well as a drastic increase in depth perception was immediately noticeable. It made it from listening to/following a sound to being able to "see" the image as it moved up and down, back or forth to the point to where you knew exactly where what you were listening to was at. Laser sharp focus now.

While listening to London Grammar's, "Hey Now"? I made the comment in a text to Trey that.....and I quote, "I'll be damned if it doesn't sound like physical music! No way....". This was followed by a text that read, "I am not believing what I am hearing.....I am simply not. The floor beneath me is shaking and the visceral presence is unreal".

All of these aspects were a far cry from what I had been listening to since I got the Auralic Vega G2 up and running. I could always and easily tell when I was listening to the NAP. Now, not so much anymore.

All this over a simple Ethernet cable I thought wouldn't amount to a hill of beans regarding the end result as to what hit my ears.

Who knew?

Tom

Stuck in listening spot also Tom , I swear it added about five feet to the sound stage. Nice crisp
drums and highs to die for. noticeable difference from Xfinity cat yellow cable. It was 8.99 plus 2.99 for same day shipping. 2 thumbs up, i spent hundreds and not a noticeable difference.THANKS TOM

rebelsoul

treitz3 wrote: »

So, yesterday I tried something that I had a feeling would not make any difference at all.....but I tried it anyway. Back when I originally got the Auralic Vega G2 network Audio Player, I went ahead and ordered 2 or 3 different Ethernet cables. My thought process was that it wouldn't change the sound at all but that it might help with the transferring of information at faster/better speeds.....but as mentioned, I wasn't expecting any change at all.

Man, was I wrong. Completely wrong.

I hooked up one of the extra Cat 8 cables I had ordered last year. (I know, they don't even have a standard for that yet but the data transfer rates/speeds they were showing looked promising) After hooking up the new cable, I turned the Vega G2 back on and hit play.

I played the same exact song I had just sat down to listen too 5 minutes before. While expecting absolutely NO difference at all (since it's not part of the audio signal or incoming power). I was very pleasantly surprised at what I was now hearing through the Vega G2.

I hadn't even sat down in the sweet spot yet and I could tell that there was a vast difference between what I had heard before and what I was hearing now. Not quite believing what my own ears were telling me off axis, I immediately sat down in the sweet spot.

I don't think I left the sweet spot for an hour or two after that. Yosi Horikawa's, "Bubbles" easily took on another 10 feet in width to each side of the sound stage. Height perception as well as a drastic increase in depth perception was immediately noticeable. It made it from listening to/following a sound to being able to "see" the image as it moved up and down, back or forth to the point to where you knew exactly where what you were listening to was at. Laser sharp focus now.

While listening to London Grammar's, "Hey Now"? I made the comment in a text to Trey that.....and I quote, "I'll be damned if it doesn't sound like physical music! No way....". This was followed by a text that read, "I am not believing what I am hearing.....I am simply not. The floor beneath me is shaking and the visceral presence is unreal".

All of these aspects were a far cry from what I had been listening to since I got the Auralic Vega G2 up and running. I could always and easily tell when I was listening to the NAP. Now, not so much anymore.

All this over a simple Ethernet cable I thought wouldn't amount to a hill of beans regarding the end result as to what hit my ears.

Who knew?

Tom

Very noticeable difference, 5 feet added to the sound stage. Crisp drums and highs to die for . Listening to rush. Best 12.99 I spent !!! If spent hundreds and didn't get results like this. Two thumbs up Tom. THANKS TOM

rebelsoul

Stuck in listening position also tom

rebelsoul

Running mine to a ps audio perfect wave dac bridge 2 to a heavily modded carver c-19 to a heavily modded ps audio 200cx to modded legacy prototype bookshelf's the ones legacy interduced there first bookselfs to the shows I think there were only 10 or 20 made .

rebelsoul

rebelsoul

treitz3

Sounds like it made a positive difference in your rig too. I know and have known for quite some time that everything affects everything but an Ethernet cable? That was just too much and over the top for me.

Not anymore.

@rebelsoul - I'm glad for you that this made a positive impact on your system as well. There aren't many things more satisfying than a cheap or free tweak that enhances the sound. For one to have this much impact? That's not a tweak to me. That's a component, if you are running with a network audio player IMO.

Nice setup BTW! Enjoy.

Tom

jdjohn

Tom, were they all CAT8 cables in your test bunch? You mentioned having 2 or 3 others you were testing, so I'm wondering if it is the CAT8 configuration itself making the big difference here, or just this particular cable.

treitz3

Don't really know. It could be a combo of both. Like rebelsoul, I had the standard yellow cable that comes with wi-fi stuff.

Back when I was looking and researching, I accidentally ordered two of the same cables and the other one had kinda the same specs but wasn't gold tipped. I put in the cheap gold tipped one and it sounded good enough, I never bothered with the other one.

All of the ones I ordered were cat8 though. If memory serves, this one was the one that had the fastest speeds/transfer rates....out of rhe ones that were available last year.

Tom

VR3

That woofer looks exactly like the one definitive uses

rebelsoul

Rolled back in my bugle boys (gold post) back in the c-19 .

skipshot12

Pulled the left speaker's crossover today.
Tomorrow will be removal of the polyswitch to replace with a jumper.

jdjohn

treitz3 wrote: »

Don't really know. It could be a combo of both. Like rebelsoul, I had the standard yellow cable that comes with wi-fi stuff.

Back when I was looking and researching, I accidentally ordered two of the same cables and the other one had kinda the same specs but wasn't gold tipped. I put in the cheap gold tipped one and it sounded good enough, I never bothered with the other one.

All of the ones I ordered were cat8 though. If memory serves, this one was the one that had the fastest speeds/transfer rates....out of rhe ones that were available last year.

Tom

Well, shoot...now I might have to try one myself, just to be sure Of course, just clicking on the link from the earlier post has triggered all kinds of notifications from Amazon, including a 20% off discount. I need a 30ft run, but it's still cheap. Might be interesting to compare to my BJC custom-made Ethernet cable.

Side note: interesting how Ethernet gets capitalized automatically with smartphone typing.

Gardenstater

I will try a 20ft one. My 25ft ethernet cable running to my Squeezebox Touch has a broken latching clip and I have been experiencing occasional dropouts where in Qobuz or TIDAL the song skips to the next one in the playlist without finishing.

I see that Cat8 has more shielding against EMI/RF and has 26awg OFC conductors.

@treitz3 What would you say is the minimum bend radius of this cable?

Gardenstater

I ordered it. I found one source online that said minimum radius is 8 x dia., so about 2".

Milito

Ordered 2 to see how I like them.

Polkitup2

Today I replaced my aging 2014 Mac Mini that I used as a music server with an Aurender N200. Very nice upgrade sound quality wise compared to the Mac and it was very easy to configure and transferring my music files was also easy. The Aurender conductor app works very well. I thought my Mac sounded pretty darn good with my Wyred Dac 2v2 SE, but the Aurender is in a different league. The Aurender unleashed a significant level of detail that apparently was buried in the higher noise floor on the Mac. Just starting to get into streaming Qobuz and that works well also.

treitz3

Well, maybe I didn't order two of the same by mistake. I forgot I needed one to go from the modem to the router as well.

So, tonight I did an experiment. I listened to one of THE most demanding and hard to play songs via the network. That song is, "The Killing Kind" by Marianas Trench.

I choose this song because it has some of the hardest, most complex, heavy passages with frequencies that swarm every aspect of a speaker, all at the same time. It is an extremely good song for evaluating the performance of a NAP. If anything fails? Oh, it'll let you know in a heartbeat. It's very easy to tell ANY kind of "congestion" at all.

Trey and I have pretty much agreed that this song is "the" definitive song to test out a NAP system and it's performance. If ANYTHING goes wrong during playback, your system will not hesitate to let you know.

So, I sat down and listened to this song for the second time since I got the Woodmere's. I wasn't expecting anything special because the last time I played it on my system? I wanted to F'n cry, it sounded so bad. Much to my amazement, during the first minute, I was pleasantly surprised at what I was now hearing.

Pretty much all aspects of the reproduction had changed. The spatial locational cues was the first thing I noticed and everything was much more natural, cleaner, sharper, more in focus with more visceral impact. That said, I STILL did not hold my hopes very high because of the complete collapse of the song when the first busy passage hit, the last time I heard it.

Well, the first busy passage hit and to my utter amazement? It actually sounded good. Really, really good. In fact, it was so good, I started getting goose bumps. While it was a heck of a lot closer to where I wanted to go, I still had the other passages to go....and the goose bumps kept coming....and the system just kept on, with clarity I was not expecting at all. I thought I had a long, long road ahead of me to even listen to "decent" music before the first Ethernet cable swap that y'all have already read about. The first cable shortened that road considerably.

So, I change absolutely nothing. I walk across the house and install the second cable that was just like the first one I put in the other day (from the mesh network hub to the Auralic Vega G2). This time, from the modem to the router.

Walked back into the stereo room and did nothing but turn the light back off and hit play. No volume adjustments, no nothing but hitting play. Listened to the same exact song.

As soon as the music started playing? Oh, you could tell that there was a difference. It wasn't a drastic as the other cable location but still, easily discernable. The sound stage did not get any bigger but the "aura" of the sound stage sure did. Things were so much more natural, even more crisp and in focus. Even the natural rolloff of upper end instruments improved and the texture of the bass/midbass got more prominent.

The thing I liked most about this change was that it cleaned everything up to where you simply heard the music and you weren't really listening to the gear anymore.....which was the whole point of this test....to evaluate the gear, not really listen to the music!

Man, let me tell you, the second time I heard this song? My entire body had goose bumps. I could literally feel them on my legs and up the back of my hands. They would hit certain crescendos and a wave of uncontrollable goose bumps just overwhelmed my body. The goose bumps were so intense that 2 minutes after I walked into the living room? I STILL looked like a plucked chicken.

I say the test was successful.

At this point, I would highly recommend doing this. The cost to performance ratio is simply outstanding.

Tom

treitz3

Gardenstater wrote: »

@treitz3 What would you say is the minimum bend radius of this cable?

I wouldn't try anything less than about 3 inches.

Tom

tratliff

treitz3 wrote: »

I wouldn't try anything less than about 3 inches.

Tom

Now that's funny!

treitz3

Oh, dang. Um.......

Yeah.

Guess I set myself up for that one. DOH!

Tom

Clipdat

treitz3 wrote: »

The goose bumps were so intense that 2 minutes after I walked into the living room? I STILL looked like a plucked chicken.

lol'd

rebelsoul

Thanks Tom on the cable , caint believe the cost to performance ratio. Also can not believe same cable Amazon had it to my house in 6 hours best $2.99 I spent for fast shipping.

rebelsoul

What is the cat on the yellow cables?

treitz3

Cat 5.

Tom

rebelsoul

treitz3 wrote: »

Cat 5.

Tom

Thanks who would of known going to a cat 8 would be such a great gain. Now I am wondering any audiophile cat 8 cables?

treitz3

Well, I did the research last year and forgot most all of what I learned because "data" points and numbers do not interest me at all. Only the end result that hits my ears but I do know that streaming is a completely different animal than simple CD playback. Trey has taught me that.

Next on my list is upgrading the power supplies to everything in the NAP chain. I have heard the difference they make in his rig, so I am not going in blind there. I went in blind with these cables and (as mentioned many times), I did not think they would make a difference at all.

Sometimes? I love being wrong. 😉

I might explore higher end Ethernet cables later down the road but for now? These definitely pull the load and offer me much more than I ever thought possible. The texture and subtleties, macro and micro dynamics are off the charts....and that's something I never thought I'd get out of a NAP.

I have been listening since I put the second cable in and I am amazed at how much "more", as well as "less" there is to the reproductive effort....if you know what I mean. All I know is that this change is the complete opposite of a doorknob on a tent, when it comes to usefulness and the end result as to what hit's your ears.

Tommy like! 👍👍

Tom