As suggested earlier, a great and cheap ethernet cable with a floating shield design is the Blue Jeans Cable Cat 6a (based on the Belden 10GX series). The shield is not connected to the connectors (not grounded) at each end, so groundloops and leakage current loops are broken.
Since I had already been seduced by the Shunyata Omega USB cable which is now my reference USB cable, I thought it would be interesting to compare a Shunyata ethernet cable with the much-praised Wireworld model.
Audiophile Ethernet Cable Tested
Download Zip: https://tweeat.com/2vEY0P
So I decided to compare the second-ranking Shunyata with the second-ranking Wireworld ethernet cable and borrowed a Shunyata Sigma for review. The Shunyata Sigma ethernet cable costs much more at RM9,995 for 1.5 metres compared with RM1,449 for 1 metre of the Wireworld Starlight 8.
The sound quality was fabulous, but very often sanity prevailed and I had to ask myself if it is worthwhile or wise to buy an ethernet cable that costs more than some of the DACs I used and more than the Silent Angel Bonn N8 network switch.
Perhaps in a really high-end system with streamers and DACs costing, say, RM40,000 and above each, it would make sense to have the Shunyata Sigma ethernet cable. But in an entry-level or mid-level system, I think the Wireworld Starlight 8 would be good enough.
I recently wrote about a gushing review of an audiophile Ethernet cable, and how it is just plain ridiculous. Digital cables transport 1s and 0s, and unless they are severely damaged, the TCP/IP protocol used ensures that the data received is the same as the data sent.
Designed with PCIE 4.0 in mind, these right angle Extreme PCIE riser cables can handle both 3.0 and 4.0 video applications. Featuring extreme dual-layer high-speed wires tested to reach speeds of 160GB/s for the sum of all x16 channels.
Designed with PCIE 4.0 in mind, these left angle Extreme PCIE riser cables can handle both 3.0 and 4.0 video applications. Featuring extreme dual-layer high-speed wires tested to reach speeds of 160GB/s for the sum of all x16 channels.
By using components from the audiophile technology in the power supply, plus innovative noise suppression concepts, AQVOX has achieved a quantum leap in the improvement of signal quality during the transmission of digital media data. The data packets experience a precise re-alignment. Sound and picture deteriorating noise (EMI), induced by sources such as PC, NAS, routers, and as well power cables, are largely eliminated.
As more and more people are asking this question recently.Yes, other Switch manufacturers are claiming that switches connected to each other in series with short LAN cables are improving the sound quality.But our tests revealed that this sounds more calm, has "supposed" more contrast, blacker backround etc. , BUT, for the cost of transients, room atmosphere and all those fine micro details for what we are so hard working ,and our audiophiles are striving for.The sonic essence which is producing/inducing the emotions.Same effect as putting some LAN isolating devices in series, as more LAN isolators you chain up, as more the sound goes into direction of mp3.This applies to traditional transformer based isolators and electronic and opto isolating technologies.It took us a lot of effort and true innovative self developed technology to reduce the negative effects of the LAN isolators in our switches.AQVOX SwitchOK - we have a strange situation what we are still investigating.For our switches it makes sense to chain them up. But not for short distances, eg 1m and below it is contra productive, less dynamics a bit matte.But for longer distanced eg longer than 2m LAN cable between the switches improves the sound quality in deed. Yes.
A friend called me up a few weeks ago and asked if the DAC we both own had received an automatic firmware update he hadn't heard about; something had changed, it wasn't good, and he couldn't figure out what it was. His system's sound was suddenly pale and unfocused.There had been no firmware update.The next morning, he called me again. He'd remembered that, earlier the day before, he'd swapped out a meter or so of the standard Ethernet cable connecting his network switch to his DAC with an expensive, audiophile one.This is not a review of an Ethernet cable or my friend's ears or the science of subtle cognitive bias. It's a review of Pass Laboratories' XP-22 solid-state preamplifier ($9500). The relevance of this cable story—to which I'll return in a moment—is this: Lately, I've reviewed a lot of preamplifiers, and I've often found them to improve the sound of the system I've heard them in. Other reviewers have found the same thing. From a scientific perspective, this doesn't make sense. Adding a preamplifier—yet another active component, hence more noise and distortion—should not improve the sound of an audio system, but degrade it. Any improvement seems almost as unlikely as a network cable dramatically altering a system's sound.By the time my friend figured out what was going on—or what he thinks was going on—his system was sounding "glorious," he said: better than ever. If his ears and brain are to be trusted, not only did that network cable dramatically change his system's sound, it also "broke in" over those first few hours of use.The scientist in me finds this story incredible—in the sense of lacking credibility. My friend, though, is a solid guy—a scholar, a technical professional. Was expectation bias at work? Maybe. But consider that his expectations were at first so low that he hadn't even remembered he'd swapped out the cable. He obviously wasn't listening for a big change. But that's what he heard. I know—crazy, right?Poets, art historians, and musicians may find such stories easier to swallow than do former physicists (like me) and engineers. To those of us who like to think, rightly or wrongly, that we have some insight into what goes on inside an audio system at a mechanistic/electronic level, such experiences are mind-blowing. They can cause us to mistrust our own experiences, let alone the experiences of others.Skepticism about our own perceptions is healthy and can save us money, but too much skepticism is bad for subjective reviewing: If it's true that we hear what we expect to hear—and to some extent it is true—then it's equally true that we can, in marginal cases, fail to hear what we expect not to hear. Furthermore, to continue to doubt yourself when faced with convincing if statistically inconclusive evidence strikes me as not especially good for happiness and mental health. Explaining away your own perceptions starts to seem less rational than embracing them.But never mind that. I've got a preamplifier I need to review.Pass Laboratories XP-22That a preamplifier can improve the sound of a system relative to the same system without a preamplifier is mysterious, but there's nothing intrinsically mysterious about a preamp. Its functions are straightforward, as are its means of performing those functions: some relays or switches to choose a source, a variable resistor or some other technology to adjust the volume. Shift the signal from side to side with a balance control. All of these things can be achieved via straightforward electronic principles.The Pass Laboratories XP-22 is a two-box preamplifier, one box containing its dual-mono power supplies, the other its signal-path electronics. These cases are connected via a robust umbilical described by Pass Labs as "aviation-grade." On the rear panel are two balanced (XLR) and three unbalanced (RCA) inputs, plus a tape loop (RCA). There's a home-theater bypass on input 5. The two outputs—one balanced (XLR), the other unbalanced (RCA)—can be used simultaneously. The left/right balance can be adjusted using the provided remote-control handset, a chunky metal slab that duplicates all front-panel controls, and then some.My 55-year-old, presbyopic eyes can read the big blue characters on the XP-22's display from my listening chair, without glasses. Volume is displayed for the left and right channels separately. That display can be dimmed or turned off via the remote control or a button on the front panel. Then, when you change a setting—say, the volume or the input—the display comes back on for a few seconds before turning off again. I like this feature, though it's not, I think, unique to this preamp or Pass Labs.The XP-22 is handsome, with a robust, sturdy look, but those looking to make a colorful fashion statement should turn elsewhere: Pass Labs' preamplifier designer, Wayne Colburn, said that the XP-22 is available—old joke alert—"in any color you like as long as it's instrument gray."The XP-22 will replace the XP-20 in the Pass Labs lineup; the older model ($8600), remains in the line for now. Colburn told me that the XP-22's circuits are actually closer to those in Pass Labs' pricey, top-model line preamp, the Xs ($38,000), than to those in the XP-20. Like the luxury Xs (get it?), the XP-22, Colburn said, uses cascoded JFETs in a patented "Super-Symmetric" topology, with output MOSFETs (footnote 1) heavily biased into a constant class-A by an optically isolated controller"—ie, an optocoupler. "We use an optically isolated transistor in the output bias circuit for a couple reasons," Colburn said, "the first being that the transistor is isolated from any input control signal, so there are no artifacts from such a connection, and also because the LED which controls that transistor has a consistent voltage characteristic which is also free of thermal drift."The XP-22's circuits are more heavily biased into class-A than its ancestor the XP-20. "The higher bias in the output FETs lowers the distortion a bit, and some additional tweaking managed a few dB less noise," Colburn told me. A single-stage volume control, featuring an Avago-sourced encoder with good bearings and a nice feel, lowers the parts count. (The XP-20 has a two-stage controller.) Colburn said it's the same volume control used in the XP-30, Pass Labs' costlier three-box preamplifier ($16,500), which John Atkinson reviewed in the April 2013 issue.All of these changes render the XP-22 "quieter and more dynamic than the XP-20," Colburn said. "We experience these improvements as offering a better sense of space and improved dynamics." Still, Colburn didn't try to oversell the XP-22's upgrades. "The sonic differences between the older and new designs are fairly subtle," he told me. "We are simply making the product incrementally better."Tweakers be warned: The XP-22's owner's manual includes this note: "We can't guarantee that your audiophile grade fuse, won't blow at a different in-rush current threshold, than your stock commercial fuse. Use of other than approved fuses, may invalidate your product warranty and result in product damage."Footnote 1: All transistors are new-old-stock Toshibas, "which have long been a reference standard for quality in high end audio," Colburn wrote in an e-mail. "They were discontinued years ago, but we made large purchases and continue to use that inventory to produce the best possible products." NEXT: Page 2 COMPANY INFOPass Laboratories Inc.13395 New Airport Road, Suite GAuburn, CA 95602(530) 878-5350www.passlabs.comARTICLE CONTENTSPage 1 Page 2 Specifications Associated Equipment Measurements Log in or register to post comments COMMENTS Personally, I don't know much Submitted by CG on May 17, 2019 - 1:03pm Personally, I don't know much about perception bias or any of that stuff. But, I do know a bit about engineering. 2ff7e9595c
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