What did you do to your stereo rig today?
Comments
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Would be curious to try the audiolund. I was using the supra cat 8 and the audiolund was a pretty big improvement but substantially different cost
Everything in the chain for streaming matters, no question!- Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit. -
Trey, next time we have a GTG? I'll bring mine up there or you bring yours down here. It's not like we have to reconfigure the rigs or anything. Would be an interesting shootout, if you are game...
Tom~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
Lol, mine are zip tied in place since they are the size of a garden hose
- Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit. -
I got a utility knife sukkafoo....😀
Tom~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
Seriously, all we have to do is unhook the ends where they connect.....unless that's where you have them zip tied. Real Estate sucks sometimes. Just LMK
Tom~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
Two words
Coconut audio 🥥 -
My bad. I bought them over a year ago and they are just some cheap, no name cables that had better spec's than the normal cables I had laying around. I never installed them because of the issues I kept having getting the Vega G2 to play music (ended up being a wi-fi issue that a mesh network solved).
I had to search through my old Amazon orders to find it. At the time I bought it, if memory serves me correctly, it was around $14 for a 6 foot cable. They are 50% off right now. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QLXC6QR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
Best $14 I ever spent!
Tom
Try an EtherRegen on there or that type of product. It will take it to another level.
I even went as far as putting a sbooster on the router and teradak power supply on the EtherRegen. All of it made a difference as much as the Ethernet Cable itself.Klipsch The Nines, Audioquest Thunderbird Interconnect, Innuos Zen MK3 W4S recovery, Revolution Audio Labs USB & Ethernet, Border Patrol SE-I, Audioquest Niagara 5000 & Thunder, Cullen Crossover II PC's. -
Would be curious to try the audiolund. I was using the supra cat 8 and the audiolund was a pretty big improvement but substantially different cost
Everything in the chain for streaming matters, no question!
I have Supra currently and a RAL Ethernet cable on the way whenever Brad makes it. I will let you know
Klipsch The Nines, Audioquest Thunderbird Interconnect, Innuos Zen MK3 W4S recovery, Revolution Audio Labs USB & Ethernet, Border Patrol SE-I, Audioquest Niagara 5000 & Thunder, Cullen Crossover II PC's. -
Thanks for the insight and suggestions. I'd like to make the internet signal path as short and simple as possible....(keeping with the K.I.S.S philosophy)
So, I am thinking that I will have the Mother of the mesh network swapped over to the stereo room, instead of one of the satellites so that I can put the modem and router behind the rig. I'll add in 2 outlets there as well for those 2 things and sboosters for both of them and have the incoming cable line rerouted to the listening room.
The mesh satellites can run the rest of the house and the switch can be off of one of those, unaffecting the rig because each satellite has 2 Ethernet hardwire ports. Everything else in the house can run off of Wi-Fi. The only switch I would need is for my son's gaming system on the other side of the house.
I was so impressed with the cheap cables I bought, I am not gonna play around with different flavors of bargain to midline cables. I am just gonna go balls to the wall and get what I want. After some research, I am going to order 2 Shunyata Ethernet cables. A Venom for the modem to the router and then I'm seriously contemplating an Alpha for between the router and the Auralic Vega G2.
I'll start out with the Alpha first and see how that goes. If that goes well, then I will execute the rest of the plan over the next couple of months. I'd love to do it all at once but my wallet just laughs and laughs and laughs. Well, that and I want to know what affects what so I know what area(s) to concentrate on, if I ever want to change things up down the road. I wouldn't know what affects what if I did it all at once.
My wife, Kim came back from Florida today and she wanted to listen for a while. She was listening for 3 hours straight. Even she likes what she hears.....and that's the longest she's ever stayed back in the listening room. No physical media tonight. She was streaming the entire time.
Tom
~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
Surprised you are so quick to mess with things if it was sounding that good as is. I would just leave well enough alone for a few weeks/months.
Just my two cents, you do you. -
Tom's a but neurotic......
😏 -
Cat8 cable from amazon arrived. I do believe I'm hearing more detailed and subtle highs. Sustained lingering piano notes in "From Now On" (Supertramp) are even smoother I believe. Female backup vocals words are more discernible in "Wicked Games" (Chris Isaak). My intermittent skipping to next song issue with my Squeezebox Touch still exists. Can't win em all.
Happy Thanksgiving!George / NJ
Polk 7B main speakers, std. mods+ (1979, orig owner)
Martin Logan Dynamo sub w/6ft 14awg Power Cord
Onkyo A-8017 integrated
Logitech Squeezebox Touch Streamer w/EDO applet
iFi nano iDSD DAC
iPurifier3
iDefender w/ iPower PS
Custom Steve Wilson 1m UPOCC Interconnect
iFi Mercury 0.5m OFHC continuous cast copper USB cable
Custom Ribbon Speaker Cables, 5ft long, 4N Copper, 14awg, ultra low inductance
Custom Vibration Isolation Speaker Stands and Sub Platform -
Surprised you are so quick to mess with things if it was sounding that good as is. I would just leave well enough alone for a few weeks/months.
Just my two cents, you do you.
Well, I can always revert back to where I am at, if I don't like any of the gear/cables that will be coming in. Each addition will be evaluated before moving on to the next one. The thing is, the improvement was so easily discernible over something that I thought would not make any difference at all? I gotta pursue going beyond just a simple $28.00 investment for 2 basic cables.
I have spent untold thousands of dollars on PC's, IC's, power supplies, outlets and other things that made a great leap forward, with regards to the reproductive effort. None of those offered me the sonic differences I experienced with just two, simple and cheap Ethernet cables.
Improving this aspect even more is, to me, a no brainer.
Gotta keep in mind as well, I have heard the changes that Trey has done to his system. I heard the differences that an sbooster made. I have heard the cable swap outs. From where he started to where he's at now? There is a vast difference.
Removing digital hash, jitter and all of the other unwanted artifacts, while reducing any digital glare seems to be the way to go when it comes to streaming music. Take away to get more kind of thing.
I have heard Trey's journey and I have just started on mine. Gotta keep in mind, while I had the BS Node2 and the Tri-Vista 21 DAC with a Transparent digital cable? I never really liked what I was hearing and physical music was the preferred choice, always. I have only had the Auralic Vega G2 up and running for not even a month yet....even though I have had the thing for over a year.
Now that the communication issues have been addressed, I can really start on my streaming audio journey. The gates were opened with the mesh network and the race was on with the addition of just the two, cheap CAT8 cables. Now, I'm gonna have a bit of fun with it!
Tom~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
I went from a amazon ethernet cable to a Pangea premier one, quiet the difference.Home Theater
Parasound Halo A 31 OnkyoTX-NR838 Sony XBR55X850B 55" 4K RtiA9 Fronts CsiA6 Center RtiA3 Rears FxiA6 Side Surrounds Dual Psw 111's Oppo 105D Signal Ultra Speaker Cables & IC's Signal Magic Power Cable Technics SL Q300 Panamax MR4300 Audioquest Chocolate HDMI Cables Audioquest Forest USB Cable
2 Channel
Adcom 555II Vincent SA-T1 Marantz SA 15S2 Denon DR-M11 Clearaudio Bluemotion SDA 2.3tl's (Z) edition MIT Terminator II Speaker Cables & IC's Adcom 545II Adcom Gtp-450 Marantz CD5004 Technics M245X SDA 2B's, SDA CRS+
Stuff for the Head
JD LABS C5 Headphone Amplifier, Sennheiser HD 598, Polk Audio Buckle, Polk Audio Hinge, Velodyne vPulse, Bose IE2, Sennheiser CX 200 Street II, Sennheiser MX 365
Shower & Off the beaten path Rigs
Polk Audio Boom Swimmer, Polk Audio Urchin
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Tom's a butt neurotic......
😏
He does seem to have a penchant for them, doesn’t he…The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson -
Bad fingers and no glasses on my part
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Swapped out the PC on the Vega G2 -
Went from a Signal Cable Magic PC to a Pangea AC-9SE. Yeah, that lasted all but about 30 seconds.....if it even lasted that long. While I was at it, I cleaned the Signal Cable PC and the PC to the Marantz CDP with Caig Deoxit Gold (100% solution).
Put it all back together again. That was definitely a failed experiment. That PC does not go well at all with the Vega G2. I am gonna go through my PC stash and see if there are any others that are long enough for me to try out in that location. The quest continues...
Ahhh, the music is back...
Tom~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
I have Supra currently and a RAL Ethernet cable on the way whenever Brad makes it. I will let you know
Brad makes great cables, but somebody needs to light a fire under his keister 🧨the improvement was so easily discernible over something that I thought would not make any difference at all? I gotta pursue going beyond just a simple $28.00 investment for 2 basic cables.
Your experience prompted me to order two 15 footers and two 6 footers. Grand total of $40.58 and free shipping. Delivery is scheduled for next Wednesday
AC Regenerator PS Audio PerfectWave Power Plant 10
Source Lumin U1 Mini into Lampizator Baltic 4 DAC
Pre Cary SLP-05
Power Rogue M180 Dark monos
Mains Salk HT2-TL
Rythmik F12 -
Brad makes great cables, but somebody needs to light a fire under his keister 🧨
That's the understatement of the year....and one of the reasons I haven't ordered the cables for in between the PS and the MF KW750. I don't want to have to deal with the delays and aggravation.
Please let us know if the Ethernet cables you ordered helped you in your system. Ya' can't beat that kind of price! Hopefully it works out for the better on your system as well.
I gotta be honest here.....I almost didn't make that original post about them. I honestly thought people would think I was full of ****. But, I trust my ears. They never lie to me and things are what they are. In my system? Wow.
Today, I finally switched back off of streaming and for the first time since I did the Ethernet swap, I am back to physical music because what I wanted to hear, well......it wasn't available on any streaming service.
Tom
~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
Today I swapped the orientation of my gear, what use to be on the left side of the cabinet is now on the right. Gradually over time the gear churn in the cabinet has changed from having power cords on the right side of the components to to now all being on the left side. To minimize signal and power cables crossing it was time to adjust. It even sound better now - or so it seems.
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Just ordered 4 of these . There supposed to be better then the bugle boys (gold pin) -
I received my 30-ft run of this Amazon CAT8 cable a few days ago. Tonight, I did a first-pass with my wife's hair dryer to 'straighten' the cable from its 'coil memory'. You can probably imagine the amount of coil memory in a 30-ft cable, so I'm taking baby-steps in this process. I'll have to run the cable behind a desk, a corner curio cabinet (full of agave spirits), and a console piano, before finally getting to the rack of audio electronics.
Well, shoot...now I might have to try one myself, just to be sureDon'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 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 [the word] Ethernet gets capitalized automatically with smartphone typing."This may not matter to you, but it does to me for various reasons, many of them illogical or irrational, but the vinyl hobby is not really logical or rational..." - member on Vinyl Engine
"Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time, I do what I have to." - Cicero, in Gladiator
Regarding collectibles: "It's not who gets it. It's who gets stuck with it." - Jimmy Fallon -
I received my 30-ft run of this Amazon CAT8 cable a few days ago. Tonight, I did a first-pass with my wife's hair dryer to 'straighten' the cable from its 'coil memory'. You can probably imagine the amount of coil memory in a 30-ft cable, so I'm taking baby-steps in this process. I'll have to run the cable behind a desk, a corner curio cabinet (full of agave spirits), and a console piano, before finally getting to the rack of audio electronics.
Well, shoot...now I might have to try one myself, just to be sureDon'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 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 [the word] Ethernet gets capitalized automatically with smartphone typing.
Looking forward to your opinion. -
I've now spent some time comparing the Amazon CAT8 'darling' Ethernet cable to my custom-made Blue Jeans Cable CAT6A cable. I have a 30-ft run between my Xfinity modem/router, and my Innuos Zen Mk3, which then goes into a Benchmark DAC3/HGC.
My first comparisons were via Spotify, listening to Luckiest Man, by The Wood Brothers, through loudspeakers. I switched the cables back-and-forth a few times, and made a preliminary evaluation that I liked what the AmazonCAT8 was doing. I was hearing more extension, clarity, and separation with this cable. I can't really speak to soundstage, since my listening space is multi-use, and there's simply not a good, true 'listening spot'. For me, the differences between the cables were not remarkable, but I could discern a difference, and again, liked the sound of the AmazonCAT8 cable...marginally.
Then, today, I experimented between the two Ethernet cables while listening to classical internet radio through my Innuos Zen Mk3, and again, through loudspeakers. For whatever reason, my Benchmark DAC3/HGC always shows the bitrate for this internet radio station at 24 bits/44.1kHz...sounds really good! Having said that, I seriously doubt that is the true transmission rate. I think this is simply how my DAC 'interprets' the signal. Regardless, it does sound good, and with the AmazonCAT8 cable, I think it sounded a smidge better.
Next, I decided to go back to Spotify, and do some listening comparisons via headphones. I always find that listening comparisons through headphones are more raw and revealing - removing the power amp, speaker cables, and loudspeakers from the listening equation. It is easier for me to hear pure 'source' differences when I listen through headphones. I should probably mention that the headphones I use are not high-end, but respectable. I'll just leave it at that.
This time around (with headphones), I listened to several 'go-to' tracks for me, with most being from Dire Straits, "Brothers in Arms", songs from side 2 - NOT the commercial hits from side 1. Again, I was listening through Spotify. Turning up the volume while listening through the headphones, I felt that the AmazonCAT8 cable was too hot, over-saturating the mids and upper frequencies, leaving the lows a little lacking, and un-refined. In short, it seemed that the CAT8 cable was emphasizing all the negative aspects of streaming digital playback. I found the BJC CAT6A cable to be more balanced and refined...forgiving.
Then it occurred to me: maybe the CAT8 cable was showing the weaknesses in Spotify's (more compressed) streaming feed, and the CAT6A cables were more forgiving/smoothing in playback. That is my working theory at this point. After all, the internet radio comparisons were favorable. To test further (i.e., a true hi-res streaming source), I reckon that a Qobuz subscription would be necessary in order to figure it all out...which sux. I have hi-res downloads on my Zen SSD of all the songs I want from my favorites list, which, of course, bypasses any need for an Ethernet cable, so I don't have a real need for a Qobuz subscription. I reckon I could do a trial subscription just for the purpose of further testing, but...ugh."This may not matter to you, but it does to me for various reasons, many of them illogical or irrational, but the vinyl hobby is not really logical or rational..." - member on Vinyl Engine
"Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time, I do what I have to." - Cicero, in Gladiator
Regarding collectibles: "It's not who gets it. It's who gets stuck with it." - Jimmy Fallon -
I may have missed it.....but...
What's the end result?
Tom
~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
I have Supra currently and a RAL Ethernet cable on the way whenever Brad makes it. I will let you know
Brad makes great cables, but somebody needs to light a fire under his keister 🧨the improvement was so easily discernible over something that I thought would not make any difference at all? I gotta pursue going beyond just a simple $28.00 investment for 2 basic cables.
Your experience prompted me to order two 15 footers and two 6 footers. Grand total of $40.58 and free shipping. Delivery is scheduled for next Wednesday
Truth! I am waiting on an Ethernet cable and USB. I am going to put the Wireworld plat 7 usb against it. It's funny, when I ordered my umbilical cables for the Tri-vista (made a big difference) I got them in under 2 weeks. This round, I ordered them at the beginning of October and still waiting. I wonder if the Tri-vista he had a set of them laying around and didn't need to make them. I did email him 2 weeks or so to check in on him when Hurricane Nicole his area and he did get back to me.
On my rig in the digital domain, the 4 things that made the biggest differences were not KISS, 1 W4S Recovery on the USB chain, 2 going from a regular Ethernet cable to the Supra, 3 WireWorld Plat 7 USB, 4 EtherRegen for streaming. My Innuos has a bult in drive so my ripped cd's sounded the same for the Ethernet and EtherRegen so the improvement was in Qobuz and Tidal. If I had to add a 5th thing, it would be the Innuos. Having a device with a good built in power supply that already has the music on it made a difference vs streaming the same ripped music off my NAS upstairs.
Slight differences include upgraded power supply to the Router and EtherRegen as well as the umbilical cable going from the power supply to the EtherRegen.
For those who say that's a lot of money to spend on the streaming side of things, your right. It's a sickness and I cannot help myself on trying out different things!Klipsch The Nines, Audioquest Thunderbird Interconnect, Innuos Zen MK3 W4S recovery, Revolution Audio Labs USB & Ethernet, Border Patrol SE-I, Audioquest Niagara 5000 & Thunder, Cullen Crossover II PC's. -
I may have missed it.....but...
What's the end result?
Tom
Never heard back, We all know Trey is all about the path resistor now. They're double the cost of those 50w Vishay's on the left. I have a project for the future, no time soon as cost will be... well costly. But those Path resistors will be part of it. -
Brad makes great cables, but somebody needs to light a fire under his keister 🧨[/quote]Truth! I am waiting on an Ethernet cable and USB. I am going to put the Wireworld plat 7 usb against it. It's funny, when I ordered my umbilical cables for the Tri-vista (made a big difference) I got them in under 2 weeks. This round, I ordered them at the beginning of October and still waiting. I wonder if the Tri-vista he had a set of them laying around and didn't need to make them. I did email him 2 weeks or so to check in on him when Hurricane Nicole his area and he did get back to me.
For those who say that's a lot of money to spend on the streaming side of things, your right. It's a sickness and I cannot help myself on trying out different things!
I had a similar experience. 1st umbilical for the Cary 98 arrived quickly. After my upgrade to the Cary 05, I ordered another umbilical . . . It took forever, like close to 4 months.
I had to lodge a complaint thru PayPal to get Brad working again.
You may want to get a little more aggressive. Just say’n . . .
fwiw, it is a very good cableAC Regenerator PS Audio PerfectWave Power Plant 10
Source Lumin U1 Mini into Lampizator Baltic 4 DAC
Pre Cary SLP-05
Power Rogue M180 Dark monos
Mains Salk HT2-TL
Rythmik F12 -
My trip to PA and NY led to some changes in my system. Ed the SRT King convinced me to go Chinese.
I've gone R-2R or resistor ladder decoding with a Gustard R26 DAC. The R26 is like the Gustard X26 Pro with discrete balanced out but trades Dual ES9038PRO chips for resistor ladders. Connection wise, first tried USB from my Sonore server with Roon Rock, internal storage. The server has a SOtM USB card powered with external low noise power supply. I've never had any USB noise issues with it.
Then I tried via ethernet. Both methods of connection sound fantastic. I have Roon upsampling everything to Native DSD512 and the R26 set to bypass the internal PCM and DSD FIR filters. Signal goes direct to resistor decoding ladders.
Next up, adding a Singxer SU-6 DDC for I2S out via HDMI.
Salk SoundScape 8's * Audio Research Reference 3 * Bottlehead Eros Phono * Park's Audio Budgie SUT * Krell KSA-250 * Harmonic Technology Pro 9+ * Signature Series Sonore Music Server w/Deux PS * Roon * Gustard R26 DAC / Singxer SU-6 DDC * Heavy Plinth Lenco L75 Idler Drive * AA MG-1 Linear Air Bearing Arm * AT33PTG/II & Denon 103R * Richard Gray 600S * NHT B-12d subs * GIK Acoustic Treatments * Sennheiser HD650 * -
R2r dacs are the best, imo- Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit.
