Do router and ethernet cables affect sound quality?

[firearm12]

Here is an interesting test of network switches on audio (with livestream). It's not for objectivists. Please believe or disbelieve on your risk.

Alpha Audio NET - Multitest – The best switch for streaming audio

Data is data… A 1 is a 1 and a 0 is a 0. Right as rain. So why are we testing network switches? They don’t make data errors, do they? After all, there are ancient protocols for data tra…

alpha-audio.net

If anyone wants my experience or belief in this as was the thread title, i believe power quality and power supplies matter alot in audio. They can affect in case of network switches also, especially the one that's just connected to your streamer, and it's the only reason if any for change in audio characteristics. But it's my personal opinion based on just experience.

Here are some samples of music they tested. What do you think, do you feel any difference?

Sample Test - Five Audiophile switches

This time: five audiophile switches! We link them to a Netgear X12 router and connect them to our reference system.

alpha-audio.net

I am making it more simple and blind. I have downloaded and changed names of one of these songs for blind testing. Lets blindly test these to find any differences. Please comment if you find any difference and also if you dont


1). https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_A4J8kJ9rw8XpdZpQYZPdSNnoOeyaa_7/view?usp=sharing


2). https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LbcVCLhw9M9Y9x-zi_uJV_G5WjTb6Vyk/view?usp=sharing


3). https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tZfe9uX2wHr9rOSDRsbo0xKStUuODkSk/view?usp=sharing

 

[drkrack]

But they can be useful for us as individuals to explore and find out for ourselves.

Yes, But we'll have to keep the conclusion to ourselves, because the moment we mention it to someone else ; it will be called a Subjective Opinion, the need for objectivity won't be satisfied with individual ABX testing.

There are probably dozens, if not hundreds, of ethernet cables connecting dozens of pieces of networking equipment between that spotify/tidal/whatever server and the computer in your house.

an audiophile ever saw in inside of a data center or enterprise or service provider rack installation room, wonder what they would do?

There's another side to this argument, Instead of Looking from a Server Side, Look from the Streamer side ; its the first meter of Etherenet Cable that Connects it to Whole World wide web, for Your Streamer that cable is of utmost importance. Similar analogy is given for power cables, irrespective of what happens at the grid to home MCB, power cable is the first meter of wire that connects it to the Power Distribution Network, that's why that first 1 meter of cable is important to your device and its performance.
Well, it matters how you look at it.

You hear the difference because your brain tells you it seems different - your brain tells you that because you want it to be different, and hence you hear different. But is there a real physical difference - very likely not. Any physical change is measurable with the instruments we have at our disposal. I am not saying that our instruments can measure every single thing,

Part of Human brain, the auditory Cortex is part of human listening system, you can not differentiate it from the ear, that's why your ears are not same as the Umik, because hearing apparatus is quite complex and its a complex interplay of neurotransmitters between Cortex and Ears that gives you a final experience of listening to the music, not to forget the interactions with emotional and reasoning part of the human brain. Don't ever assume that oversimplification analogy of ear as mic and brain as decoding software is foolproof & final word.

personally believe , in our hobby , If you can feel something makes a difference and are confident about it (as long as it is not really affecting anyone) , go ahead and dont get affected by what others tell you, unless it is useful information.

This is a very good way of putting things on a personal level, especially for decision making.

Personally; In my experience, everything through which your signal passes has an important role to play in the final SQ outcome. I'm not implicating that you spend XXX amount on every device in the Chain, but don't take any device for granted just because XYZ people couldn't hear a difference(&Vice Versa) . Anything be it a device or cable which comes before power amplification will have an effect on the SQ which gets amplified , whether its perceivable or perceivable to what extent, depends on how resolving the overall system is and how keen/experienced the audiophile is in this hobby.

 

[Analogous]

we'll have to keep the conclusion to ourselves, because the moment we mention it to someone else ; it will be called a Subjective Opinion

Sure we can mention it; as our personal experience. This is obvious as everyone has different hearing capabilities that change over our lifetime. A-B listening tests are totally subjective and can never be otherwise. This can be mentioned too.

 

[firearm12]

Personally; In my experience, everything through which your signal passes has an important role to play in the final SQ outcome.

This is also my personal experience. I have seen disbelievers turn into believers but no believer that has turn into a disbeliever.

 

[alpha1]

This is also my personal experience. I have seen disbelievers turn into believers but no believer that has turn into a disbeliever.

Human beings are brain wired to be religious.

 

[reignofchaos]

Bumping an old topic. Recently moved from my micro rendu to an optical rendu. I already had a switch near the streamer which supported fiber. So I connected two optical modules - one in my switch and the other in my optical rendu connected by dual sfp cable.

The difference between my old microrendu and this one while using the same power supply for both is pretty massive. Biggest difference is lack of emi noise and as a result a completely black background compared to my old microrendu connected via ethernet.

If anyone says sfp doesn't make a difference, he hasn't every tried or even bothered hearing it.