What did you do to your stereo rig today?

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  • Toolfan66 wrote: »
    rebelsoul wrote: »
    uarch8pyfh29.jpg

    Link?

    Go back a few posts tom listed the link
  • 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.
  • 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
  • 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
  • Stuck in listening position also tom
  • 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 .
  • treitz3
    treitz3 Posts: 18,230
    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
    ~ 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. ~
  • jdjohn
    jdjohn Posts: 2,987
    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.
    "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
  • treitz3
    treitz3 Posts: 18,230
    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
    ~ 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. ~
  • VR3
    VR3 Posts: 27,970
    That woofer looks exactly like the one definitive uses
    - Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit.
  • Rolled back in my bugle boys (gold post) back in the c-19 .
  • Pulled the left speaker's crossover today.
    Tomorrow will be removal of the polyswitch to replace with a jumper.
  • jdjohn
    jdjohn Posts: 2,987
    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.
    "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
  • Gardenstater
    Gardenstater Posts: 4,136
    edited November 2022
    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?
    Post edited by Gardenstater on
    George / NJ

    Polk 7B main speakers, std. mods+ (1979, orig owner)
    Martin Logan Dynamo sub w/6ft 14awg Power Cord
    Crown D150 amp
    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
  • I ordered it. I found one source online that said minimum radius is 8 x dia., so about 2".
    George / NJ

    Polk 7B main speakers, std. mods+ (1979, orig owner)
    Martin Logan Dynamo sub w/6ft 14awg Power Cord
    Crown D150 amp
    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
  • Milito
    Milito Posts: 1,908
    Ordered 2 to see how I like them.
    Yamaha RX-A2070, Musical Fidelity M6si integrated amp, Benchmark Dac1, Bluesound NODE 2i, Audiolab 6000CDT CD Transport, Parasound Zphono USB Phono Preamp, Fluance RT85, Ortofon 2M Bronze, Polk L600's, L400, L900's, RC80i's, SVS 3000 Micro, Audioquest Interconnects and Digital Cables, Nordost Silver Shadow Digital Cable, Cullen Gold and Crossover Series Power Cables, Douglas Connection Alpha 12AWG OCC Speaker Cables, Douglas Connection Alpha Analog Interconnect Cables, Douglas Connection Alpha 11 OCC Custom Power Cable, Signal Power Cable, Furman PL-8C 15 Power Conditioner, Sony 65" 900F, Sony UBP-X700, Fios, Apple TV 4K, Audioquest Chocolate HDMI Cables.
  • treitz3
    treitz3 Posts: 18,230
    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
    ~ 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. ~
  • treitz3
    treitz3 Posts: 18,230
    @treitz3 What would you say is the minimum bend radius of this cable?

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

    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. ~
  • treitz3
    treitz3 Posts: 18,230
    Oh, dang. Um.......

    Yeah.

    Guess I set myself up for that one. DOH!

    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. ~
  • Clipdat
    Clipdat Posts: 12,560
    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
  • 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.
  • What is the cat on the yellow cables?
  • treitz3
    treitz3 Posts: 18,230
    Cat 5.

    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. ~
  • rebelsoul
    rebelsoul Posts: 749
    edited November 2022
    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
    treitz3 Posts: 18,230
    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
    ~ 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. ~