$340 Audiophile Ethernet Cable Tear Down

prime2515102 said:
According to that article, the copper conductors are silver plated. That is not a shield, it's a plating.
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Even if that is the case, would it make any sense to plate the entire thing? I always think of plating (at least gold) as something you do on contact surfaces to avoid corrosion, even though it isn't really necessary.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041749761 said:
Even if that is the case, would it make any sense to plate the entire thing? I always think of plating (at least gold) as something you do on contact surfaces to avoid corrosion, even though it isn't really necessary.
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I believe it actually violates standards to plate the conductors.
 
prime2515102 said:
I wonder how many people that comment on stuff like this have ever even heard uncompressed audio on a high-end system...
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Add to that, typical room acoustics almost always mask any noticeable difference. Walking into a well treated recording studio is a huge treat for anyone who hasn't done so before. Of course, acoustic treatment is another area where tons of snake oil salesman lurk.
 
Blown 89 said:
There aren't any bigger suckers than audiophiles.
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I always find it interest people on this forum shit on audiophiles all the time, then have simultaneous orgasms over pics individually sleeved cables and other frivolous items inside PCs.
 
Well, case building is an aesthetic thing, not some belief that you can get extra cycles from it.
 
prime2515102 said:
According to that article, the copper conductors are silver plated. That is not a shield, it's a plating.
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This is true, missed that last picture. Was hard to tell in the cutaway.

I won't deny that the cables are coated in silver, but it's not necessary for reliable transmission of a digital signal.
 
These expensive cables always jarr me out. When I first heard of that concept I thought it was some kind of gag, but it actually is a thing, and people actually pay that kind of money. It's crazy hilarious.
 
ocellaris said:
I always find it interest people on this forum shit on audiophiles all the time, then have simultaneous orgasms over pics individually sleeved cables and other frivolous items inside PCs.
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Because you are only allowed to be an enthusiast if you are in the same group as the rest here. It really is all just about if whatever you bought was worth it for you. I play on a core2quad pc with a gts660, but on a 5.1 infinity sound setup. My tv is a cheap sharp lcd. My hearing is good my vision sucks so i focus more on sound (that my budget/woman allows).
 
Steve said:
Have any of you guys paid that much money for a cable?
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I have paid $380 for a cable before....Tuning cable for my car, nothing special about it, cant use the tuning software without it though and a USB key.
 
Quix said:
It's false when it comes to everything. Even solid gold analog audio cables don't outperform cheap copper ones.
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This is true. High frequencies ride the outside of a conductor. This is called skinning. Can read about the skin effect in any electronics book. High frequency transmission is always done a multi-strand conductor. Solid conductor is typically only used for 60Hz transmissin
 
damicatz said:
It is not better. A $10 CAT 7 cable (http://www.amazon.com/Tera-Grand-Pr...?ie=UTF8&qid=1437673414&sr=8-1&keywords=cat+7) will easily outperform it.

In addition, this $340 cable does not comply to CAT cabling standards which means that there is no guarantee that it will actually work within specifications.

AudioQuest is nothing but a scam operation designed to sucker gullible rich people out of their money.
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County thing is in the late 90's they were a fairly reasonable interconnect. Maybe 10 bucks for a cable. Overpriced but not insanele priced
 
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jroe52 said:
is cat7 backwards compatible to my cat5/6 supported router and nics?
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yes, but its overkill. its meant for 10 gigabit over copper. 6A is just as good, and Cat 7 isn't recognized in TIA/EIA-568.
 
alxlwson said:
This is true. High frequencies ride the outside of a conductor. This is called skinning. Can read about the skin effect in any electronics book. High frequency transmission is always done a multi-strand conductor. Solid conductor is typically only used for 60Hz transmissin
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Weird. My gigabit rated cat5e seems to be single strand.
 
ocellaris said:
I always find it interest people on this forum shit on audiophiles all the time, then have simultaneous orgasms over pics individually sleeved cables and other frivolous items inside PCs.
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Well, the equivalent in out community are things like gaming nics and gaming routers, but as pointless as these items are, the markup compared to their - equally capable - conventional counterparts is a lot less than a $350 for a cable that does the same job as one that costs $3.50
 
I used to spring for nice RCA cables when I was doing car audio because the cheap shit would pick up every damn noise in the car and send it to the amp. Also the highs would sound muted like someone was choking the lead singer. But when I say nice I mean $50 or less. After a couple of installations, I learned to buy bulk cable and connectors and make my own cables. Have solder; will travel.

I even made my own headphone cables once and I thought the thicker wire I used made them awesome. I didn't think they sounded better though other than the stock wiring was shit, and had a short in it 5 days after the return policy ran out.
 
canna said:
Actually there are some directional cables. IE. Redmere has an active component that helps long HDMI runs work better. It's actually a legit technology.

If you're just talking standard copper, then yeah directional is BS.
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actually if its a proper cable then no, while not *really* directional you should only attach your shields on the source side when using shielded pairs...
 
Have you checked the spot market prices on fairy dust lately? $340 for a 1.5m directional ethernet cable is a bargain.
 
canna said:
Actually there are some directional cables. IE. Redmere has an active component that helps long HDMI runs work better. It's actually a legit technology.

If you're just talking standard copper, then yeah directional is BS.
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Yeah but if you're running such long HDMI cable might as well just buy a HDMI to CAT6 extender kits which can bounce a signal up to 100m, instead of having to buy really expensive HDMI cable and hope it can produce 1080p at distance.
 
Anytime you have 80+ reviews for a $14K HDMI cable................................

http://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-Di...pebp=1437686488046&perid=0P9Z29CMS51R0WT8PBFJ

As far as the frequency and conductor, technically that is correct. In a perfect world with perfect amps, speakers, acoustics, and hearing............you still couldn't tell the difference between silver plate vs plain copper. Interesting to note that most of the new high voltage transmission lines have reverted to DC current because of this and other phenomena with AC.
 
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Megalith said:
I had the Vodka cable but ended up exchanging it for this one. The bass is much punchier now.

lcpThqQ.png
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There has got to be one better then this. :eek:
 
Kaitian said:
I didn't know that ethernet was used for audio purposes.
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There are audio setups that use an ethernet device to supply the audio (a PC or digital audio player) connected to a device with a DAC (another PC with soundcard, external DAC).

The PC to PC methods are used to reduce processing noise in the device with the DAC as used by Jplay users, this is a true audio streaming method.
The PC with the DAC does nothing except feed incoming data straight to the DAC.
http://www.jplay.eu/
I've tried the JPlay free demo with a single pc via USB to my DAC and it amazingly does give higher fidelity but once I changed to a better USB cable it didnt do as much extra and was a bit of a pita to use so I stopped using it.
I havent tried the ethernet method and dont intend to, but a decent ethernet cable 'might' help for a high end Jplay setup.
Jplay is worth a try, but it probably wont do much for you unless you have a good DAC. You dont need an ethernet setup.

I use an ethernet setup feeding files from my PC to an Oppo 105 Blu Ray player/DAC.
This is not true audio streaming, its passing a file to another device which is then playing that file.
This is not much different to connecting a USB hard drive directly to the player.
A high quality ethernet cable would do little except give someone some more pocket money.

I can tell the difference between USB and optical cables fed to the DAC but I wouldnt spend large money on any digital cable, especially not ethernet.
I made a USB cable that worked out well and I found a pretty good optical cable in a box that I bought years ago :) Other cables I have must cause some data loss and/or cause jitter.
Note that USB and optical cables stream playing audio data. Most ethernet setups wont, they will send files.

I realise its contentious saying that any digital cable can affect audio quality and I didnt believe it would.
But I tried it and they can.
The optical cable is the nicer sounding of the 2 cables I use, not by much though.
Comparing the 2, there is a slightly harder edge to the sound coming via USB, or the optical sounds a bit mellower, whichever :)


I will hold my breath condemning the high quality ethernet cable because it might work for someone using Jplay.
But that type of setup is the only one that it 'might' help.
And of course, the cost is daft.

Other uses, a waste for sure.
 
I think one of the funnier reviews I read on BB about an Audio Quest HDMI cable was a guy who said the cable is so good that it made his VHS VCR looks like Betamax quality. (Obviously, it doesn't make sense since VCRs don't have HDMI, but ignore that fact and it was funny, at least to me at the time. :D)

haste. said:
Damnit. I bought 2 on Prime Day for $13,495.75 and thought I was getting a steal of a deal. :(
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If Amazon offered a "subscribe & save" option to save 5-15%, I'd be in. But otherwise, it's too expensive. :(
 
Before you say that we are bashing audiophiles, it should be noted that many of us on [H] aren't softcore when it comes to audio quality. There are some of us who have shelled out for say Sennheiser's HD800 and are running dedicated stacks to drive headphones. We can easily spend just as much as we do speakers as we do on video cards.

Calling out cable snake oil is something that we ought to do. That money could've been spent on soundproofing and whatnot, instead of being squandered out like that.
 
Actually, I doubt they even make anything. These cables are likely assembled in China by the thousand by some huge manufacturing company.
 
Reimu said:
Before you say that we are bashing audiophiles, it should be noted that many of us on [H] aren't softcore when it comes to audio quality. There are some of us who have shelled out for say Sennheiser's HD800 and are running dedicated stacks to drive headphones. We can easily spend just as much as we do speakers as we do on video cards.

Calling out cable snake oil is something that we ought to do. That money could've been spent on soundproofing and whatnot, instead of being squandered out like that.
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^This. To me there's a difference between a true audiophile and an audiosnob. A true audiophile is someone that just takes their sound seriously. An audiosnob is the kind of idiot that falls for this crap.
 
Seen many 'audiophile' DVD players etc. that when torn open have a $10 PC DVD drive in them.

That's why as an IT guy I stopped buying 'high end' audio gear 15+ years ago. I could see what was going to happen.
 
Zepher said:
I used to use Monster Cable interconnects on all of my A/V gear back in the day.
I still have them, they are sitting in a drawer now, and they probably still function fine being 25 years old.
They sound no different than the cheap interconnects that come with A/V gear, but they are durable.
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I remember being told years ago, buy the gold connectors they will last forever. 3 years later buy a new TV and it needs new cables. Now those cables that will live forever have no purpose...
 
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