Ethernet Cable Comparison - with music samples! 

Std Ethernet 2:05 Audioquest cat700 Pearl. 5:06 Shunyata Venom 7:59 Shunyata Delta 10:48 Shunyata Alpha 13:54 Audioquest Cinnamon 16:53

Every video from you that I saw was really worth watching. Tx for the work. I check out your shop for shure. Coming from Cologne it won’t be out of reach.

Scramble them and not one audiophool could pick out the Alpha. That’s a vid to make!

This is a really interesting test. Great video.

I recently swapped my so so ethernet cable (better than stock) for a Kubala-Sosna Elation ethernet cable. It made a huge difference. Highly recommended.

For your home made CAT7, did you terminate the shield on both ends of the cable, or only the end plugged into the optical to ethernet converter? This is why the cables have a direction - not because the electrons travel faster one way, but due to which end has the shielding terminated.

Thanks so much, that was a great comparison.

Since Ethernet is a digital protocol, there should be zero difference between cables. You can ask your ethernet port to report the frame errors, and for decent cabling it should be zero. If the exact data gets from point A to point B on all cables, then any hearing difference you hear is imaginary. For a given data rate, you will either need cat 5e, 6, or 7 cables. Since you can go to gigabit speed on cat e5, and it is highly unlikely that this audio equipment goes beyond 1Gbit (only very fast PC's have 10g ethernet), People selling fancy ethernet cables are full of nonsense. Digital protocols are not like analog. There are quality differences in terms of how thick the copper wire is inside; some of the cheap chinese cables uses copper that is just a tad smaller than it should be. The thinner wires will not sustain as many bends before they crap out.

Fantastic work. This is how to do it.

No1 cable std ethernet was generally good. Audioquest was the most open, lively and presented the best. Shunyata was not my taste and I personally would not have chosen it over the std cable. Audioquest was the clear winner and I especially liked the Audioquest cat700 the most.

People here in the comments swearing that there is a difference in the audio in digital signals transmitted by ethernet cables end up explaining to me why there are so many people who fall for scams like cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

Either through ath-dsr9bt or creative x3 + eclipse hd I just can't hear any difference at all. Maybe my ear is too bad or this is just a nonsense mystery.

What exactly is this test? If you copy a sound file from a source, will it be different on the receiving end?

Thanks for the great cable comparison. The sound differences can easily heard but only if one listens thru a high quality equipment (digital out -> DAC -> good speakers or headphones). To my ears the Shunyata cables sound better, more natural and balanced, and Delta & Alpha are the best. I wonder which version of Delta did you use: the original Delta or Delta v2 ?

What exactly is the network topology here?

In order to be comparable, the Audioquest cables that should be used are the Diamond and the Vodka. These two are in a similar price category as the Shunyatas.

good job! thanks!

Are those the rode m5 mics ? Also why don't you put them at the listening position ?

What media converters are you using for fiber to ethernet?

A direction on an Ethernet cable which is using CSMA/CD protocol??

Nice to see you using a proper DAC. I love Metrum Acoustics, and own Adagio, Ambre, Forte, Aurix and Musette :)

what kind of optical converter do you use? Thank you

Bijzonder, dat er zo’n enorme verschillen in 1m kabel kunnen zitten..... dat verrast mij toch wel weer 😮 Mijn voorkeur zou uitgaan naar de Shunyata Venom, zonder dat ik mij verder in de kabels verdiept heb. Voor mijn smaak klink die het best. De instrumenten komen mooi los van elkaar, het klinkt heel evenwichtig, maar ook het meest realistisch ... voor mijn gehoor dan. Zangstem en instrumenten zijn grijpbaar. Mooie test 👍🏻

I love your channel! Yesterday I watched the power conditioners demo. I could not believe what I was hearing. I wanted to like Audioquest because I had my eyes set on the Niagara 3000. I played it over and over in disbelieve. Even on my Macbook Pro speakers I could hear the difference and loved the Shunyata. Now the Audioquest vs Shunyata cables show the same pattern. I love the Shunyata sound. I think I want to bring it home with me 😍Erg bedankt!

Excellent review, and the differences were clearly audible moving up the price chain of each brand. I wonder if you have hear Dutch brand Tubulus ethernet cables yet as they get good reviews without charging exorbitant prices.

40 years has an audio file ,I’ll tell you right off there’s some cables that after you move them around don’t sound their best

Cinnamon has a very slightly boxed in sound and very slight coloration compared to Cat 700 and Shunyata Alpha. So I give the best marks to both the Audioquest Cat 700 pearl and the Shunyata Alpha. To choose a winner would require me to have them in house for a comparison. Thank you for the video. This really saves a lot of time and expense.

If this should provide differences, so would your computer connection to internet also provide. Just the idea that anyone makes a test like this says alot about the lack of understanding of the theme. You are not streaming audio, you are streaming data. If you take out the network cable during playback. How long does the music last? And does it detoriate?

That was a wonderful demonstration, the Alpha is certainly no.1. For anyone unsure (the differences are are not night & day especially through YT) but go directly from one of the first 2 straight to the Alpha. Thanks.

I really find your clips very usefull and helpfull. I ve always wondered wheather network cables make a difference, and now i can see for myself. I think that there is a very slight difference, but not as obvious as other cables.Thank you, I really appreciate your work. Best regards!

I tried but couldn't hear a difference maybe as I was using a laptop and it's internal DAC etc and some average earphones. I've been trying different cables myself and am about to try a 20mtr Cat7 cable between my telecom providers router and my Auralic streamer and my hiend music system. I live in hope like all other audiophiles (phools?). Love your channel and thanks for all the work you do for us.

Hey Jaap, Leuk onderwerp weer! Zo de verschillen te horen via RU-vid is heel leuk en interessant. Ja als je naast je op de bank zou zitten zal je misschien wel meerdere verschillen horen, maar het is een leuke manier om zo thuis de verschillen te kunnen beluisteren en misschien een doorslag kunnen geven bij het bestellen van een kabel of kabels… Ik heb zelf zitten switchen tussen de Shunyata Delta en Alpha. De Alpha lijkt iets meer te sprankelen, maar afentoe lijkt hij wel meer aanwezig te zijn dan de Delta waarbij misschien de Delta wat rustiger klinkt alleen minder detail heeft. Op naar het volgende onderzoek ;) Groetjes, Yori van Gelderop

Even with the coloration/dynamic range problem with the microphone/recorder there are slight but noticeable differences, makes the argument that a wire is just a wire seem silly.... (except I listened to the test using a quality stock ethernet cable without optical conversion:) I am going to look at the wave forms because an aspect of what I heard seemed to be level differences..... wire with gain? Even I am not drinking that cool aid. The track sounds massively better listening to the CD as the source.... one thing thing that the test has given me is a little perspective. I'd rather spend my money on a better DAC or preamp etc than spend stupid money on a cable. Probably you have done the comparison elsewhere, but would have loved to hear the stock cable and at least one on the others without the optical conversion. Thanks for the test.

I like your Videos very much, thx for the effort. I can hear a difference in sound with my iPhone and coustom molded IEM Rhine’s Stage 5. The „standard“ cable sounded stressed and nervous compared to all others. Between the Shunyatas there is little difference to hear via compressed y‘tube. I liked the CAT7 with Telegärtner plugs the best.

Respect!

Ok the Audioquest and Shunyata are a little more difficult, but i prefer the Audioquest. On Shunyate, voice is a little bigger less tightly focused. I hear more of the inner detail and dynamics of the voice on the Audioquest. They are both improvements over the stock ethernet. I know, heresy, right?

Yup, the Delta combines the qualities of the Audioquest and Venom. Sounds close the the Audioquest. Given the limitations of the Airpods I can only go on that, but the Delta does offer a bigger sound, better focus (like the Audioquest), and perhaps a tad more naturalness. Its very close though. If the Delta cost a lot more than the Audioquest i wouldn’t hesitate to spring for the Audioquest, because the improvements are very subtle.

Thank you very much for the video. Since there is indeed no difference in sound, it means I can continue living peacefully with the $5 Amazon cable.

😂 Use kinked unshielded 20 year old CAT5 cable with a loose connector and place a transmitting GSM phone on it for extra interference. There is no difference to be heard, except for a little echo because of an empty wallet.

Great work Jaap! Love your channel. Btw, this is a remote shot but can I put in one selfish request... which is if (and when) possible to have more English speaking video in the future? I just discover your channel and now, I wish I know how to speak Dutch so I can watch all the other great uploads you'd made in the past...

Can you explain how a UTP cable can effect the sound? Assuming that the bit stream is on all cables smooth and in phase.

Standard sounded most natural. The others sounded scooped. If I was going to use a very expensive ethernet cable and media converter to act as tone controls, I’d probably just use EQ during playback instead. Listening on headphones, maybe I’m missing something more…will try studio monitors as well.

The differences are very subtle, i just hear like the standard has some hiss in vocals or siblings if you wish, and a bit of different tonal balance.

If you browse through the Internet you are downloading pictures for which the data has gone through hundred of meters of standard Ethernet cables - does that influence in any way the downloaded picture? Of course no... The same is true if you transmit digital data representing audio over Ethernet - the cable does not know if the bits are encoding a picture, a mp3, a wav a video file or the binary code of a computer game. A CAT-5 cable could transfer data with a rate of 1000 MBits/second with a typical bit error rate of 10 ^ -12 . So if you transfer the data of 180 CDs in average 1 bit will be transmitted wrong but this error is still detected and causes a retransmission.

Don’t forget that most dacs buffer the data. Hard to see in this instance why there would be any difference. Not sure I heard any differences, but this was through my iPad.

Cables burned in ?

The guitar is slightly suppressed with the Venom, compared to Cat700 Pearl.

Moeilijk te horen zo op RU-vid. Ik meen te horen dat de Shunyata Alpha voor mij de winnaar is. Maar.....ik ben, denk ik niet erg objectief. Heb de Alpha thuis beluisterd in vergelijking met de Sigma en dan hoor je pas echt wat de kabels in hun mars hebben. Heb toen voor de Sigma gekozen, omdat die echt alle kabels die ik ooit beluisterd heb VER achter zich laat. Wat een verbetering, geweldig!! En iedereen die hier kwamen luisteren waren met stomheid geslagen. De Alpha was een goede tweede. (getest op dCS Rossini DAC/Clock en Roon eigen bouw computer)

Shunyata Alpha vs Cat 700 Pearl about even in quality, but with differences. Cat 700 voices and some background instruments are more vivid and present. Not necessarily more forward, just more vivid. Alpha is mellower and easier to listen to, compared to Cat 700 Pearl. Very slight horn like sound with the Cat 700 vs the slightly mellowed sound with the Shunyata Alpha.

What was your final decision?

what is your opinion on using CAT8 vs CAT7/6/5 .. I can get good 10% Silver content, American made cable for $200.. worth the money?

HD600 on SMSL SU-9 / SH-9 stack, balanced, reporting no difference.

I think aquest 700 is the winner ,more texture ,wide bandwith ,nice sound . Shunyata venom the second .

Audiophile ethernet cables? Are you kidding me? XD Some people just WANT to be robbed.

I can clearly hear the sound of dollars flying out of some sap's wallet.

Final, just checked prices. Shunyata Venom $450, Delta $850, Audioquest Cat700 Pearll $59. Audioquest the easy winner. The difference of the Delta is really minute. One would have to be a loon to pay an extra $800 for that over the Audioquest. Shunyata are not a good value for money at all here.

I feel like this may work when you are connecting via network from a PC’s hard drive (flac files) to router/switch and then to a player, in other words within your network. However, when you are streaming from Tidal for example, I would think you need to have the home wired (with said cables) from demarc to device, not to mention beyond. That being said, I did hear a slight difference between the standard cable and the Cinnamon cable, not sure if it was better or not, but the voice sounded totally different.

Shunyata venom es la mejor para mi.

Thank you to the creator for making this video. It took a lot of effort and I just want to say that I rally appreciate you taking the time to do this for everyone’s benefit. The fact that you don’t even try to press your opinion on others is great. Despite that, some of the comments are still so dismissive and smug. The whole point of the video is that if you think there are no differences, now your beliefs are confirmed. If you think there are., you are also correct. Listen and see. Life is not all magic nor is it all science. Keeping an open mind can yield great results. If I showed an iPhone to Einstein he would call me a witch. There are many many things we don’t understand.

I use Pixel Buds Pro and can’t hear any difference at all.

I can't hear a difference between them; they all sound the same to me.

The standard ethernet cable has the best midrange sound. I think its slightly boosted over the others, but doesn’t have the crystal clear highs that the others have. The best sounding overall would be the Shunyata Delta. It has a flatter midrange than the standard cable but has the nicest sounding highs. The audio quest and the others are very similar in that they have a reduced midrange and slightly emphasized treble frequencies. The audioquest is my least favorite sounding cable as it sounds too thin. It seems to be suppressing the midrange too much and the treble frequencies, while greater than the standard cable, also sound thinner. So my two favorites would be the standard ethernet cable for midrange and the Shunyata Delta for treble. With a slight EQ tweak on either the standard cable to boost the treble frequencies you could probably come close to the sound of the Shunyata (I’m guessing.) However if you boosted the mids slightly on the Shunyata Delta it might match or beat the midrange in the standard cable. That’s what I heard. edit: i just looked up the price for the Delta and at $450 it wouldn’t be worth the upgrade on your system. I think you would need a much higher resolving system that would cost you in the $100,000+ category to warrant these cable upgrades. Standard ethernet cable is good enough.

Except the standard and Alpha, all other cables are more suppressing parts of the music like the 'wind' in the background of the music. Best hearable in the beginning.The standard is most clear, does not 'filter the music' and I believe technically it would have the highest bandwidth. By the way, I am playing RU-vid Premium 4K (this goes with higher res audio) settings and I am using the MacBook Pro with Dragonfly DAC and Airpods Max cabled.

Ethernet cable?!... Wow

Why is this better sounding than other comparisons done with the same devices?

An Ethernet cable should not make a difference because the data is buffered.

Amazing video. Thank you. Could you, please, explain more about the fiber converter? A video about that would be nice. Thanks!

Waarom steeds weer het geluid via de luidsprekers en dan in de microfoon en dan naar de stream/video. Doe de uitput meteen in de stream/video! Dat is voor de luisteraars veel beter!

Wow! At 6:36 in went back and compared the standard with Audioquest. I did not expect that there would be any difference, improvement or not. So surprised that the ethernet cable has an impact. The Audioquest is not only different, but converys more of the musical performance..

Great post! I surely did hear differences. I liked the Shunyata Alpha the best but I think the Pearl has a nice dynamic sound and for the price I think it's a steal. Incidentally, I received the AQ Forest yesterday and on the first listen I immediately found that an upgrade compared to the Pearl. Just a little less aggressive so smoother a wider stage and more black. Strange because the much more expensive Cinnamon was too smooth in my set and I returned it. My conclusion so far: More expensive is not always better in every set, the effect on the sound depends on the rest of the set. Logical actually, but nice to experience that for myself :) Swapping cables like this is a nice way to finetune your set.

Thanks for the hard work and saving us tons of money. A good Ethernet cable is fine. The rest is a waste.

Believing that "audiophile" Ethernet cables can change of even improve digital transmitted music is like believing that replacing the display of an pocket calculator through a different one with higher contrast leads to more accurate calculation results. Fully nonsense

The AQ Pearl and Cinnamon and the Alpha are the best, IMHO. By comparison the standard cable seems slightly muffled.

Alpha sounds good!

De hamvraag voor mij is hoe ik een zo subtiel verschil tussen ethernet kabels kan vaststellen via mijn eigen internet netwerk vanaf een IMAC. Ik wil nog wel geloven dat er een summier verschil in kabels is, maar dat kun je naar mijn mening alleen maar vaststellen in de luisterruimte zelf. Dat geldt in feite voor vrijwel alle componenten. Maar aandacht voor het onderwerp kabels is op zich goed en de installatie zelf lijkt mij een heel mooi op elkaar afgestemd geheel.

Cat700 Pearl was more natural, more present, and slightly larger imaging that the first cable.

The Delta is the most natural. All those filters on the higher end mess with the mid range i fell. The low end sounds more liquid but it feels less natural. Everything is too much polished to my taste. Even the home made stuff Wich is less transparent is at least realer than the filtered ones.

This is just hilarious. A video on RU-vid that tries to demonstrate sound differences on ethernet cables. And one should hear it from a RU-vid video! Too funny. You guys are nuts.

I think the Shunyata sounded more natural

Dear freinds, i vorry that the position of your microphone is not the ideal position in regards to room/speaker/listener positioning. I would be very happy if you could put the microphones in the listening position. This comment is not to be irritating, but it origins after i heard the powerconditioner test with Niagara, Denali ect . on that video i heard almost the opposit than what you concluded. Just my 5 cents :O), best regards Asger

I cant hear any difference, but that might be down to the computer and youtube's digitalised resolution, or there is actually no difference? given the TCP.

Thanks for this, could definitely hear some differences. Unfortunately, the higher priced cables being the improvement (at least among these). Melco cables would be another interesting comparison.

Come on guy...BE SERIOUS !!!

The alpha was the best More detail and texture, deeper more controlled bass

Delta and Alpha were the best. It would be interesting to compare without fiber convertor.

lol just use some off the shelf STP Cat7 and call it a day

Of all audiophile absurdities I have read in years this THIS is just madness! Ok, Ethernet is a signaled transport layer 2 protocol AND it uses a multitude of frame error detection algorithms precisely to withstand phisical interference and transmission errors (frames are stored in a cache), unless you live under an electricity transmission pylon (you don't) you can LITERALLY use the cheapest crappiest UTP cable, even one chipped away by rats will work, but if you are so concerned about electronic interference just get an STP cable which is specifically engineered to shield transmission wires and it cost a fraction of all these ridiculously priced cables. Honestly people, use common sense and educate yourselves.

The Shunyata Alpha won easily by presenting a more FULL and closer to the music presentation. The vibration harmonics had a natural presence and fade out. Not sure it will retain that quality over time, sometimes they may fade slightly with use. I don't own one that expensive to know for sure, just what I have experienced with some cables of other type. Great comparison.

One thing people forget about ethernet cables is while the data is digital, the signal is analogue and suffers from EMI and jitter effects. I definitely heard a difference on your compressed video even. The streaming application is time sensitive versus bog standard computer TCP/IP with retries and error correction.

Even though some people may hear difference, it’s just not worth the extra money over a standard cable IMHO. The first demo sounded just as good as any other (what I mean is, if you hear it you don’t actually miss anything at all).

You don't like tube gear ?

Digital data is digital data...unless you have some kind of EM interference I can't see how such a short run would have any impact at all. What happens if your out in the middle of nowhere with very little interference? I think data cables are the least of anyone's worries and I would be more worried about the signal once it turns into analog after the dac. No? Once wifi and internet get really fast this will become even more ridiculous. LOL!

Great, no difference as expected... save your money 💵

Great 👍 for i don't hear any difference between cables, they all sound exactly the same!

I know one great ethernet cable made by 7notes audio. More open, faster and precise than audioquest

Standard cable seems to be the most musical one to my ears. The rest seems to trade the soul of music for audiophile enhancements. I hope he can demo better than standard but won't lose musicality one in future too in future.

What do you hear as you are hearing it live. I hear no difference

Man, I can hear no difference at all...

I think i heard something

The only remotely interesting "test" here would be to see if anyone could tell a difference if you did NOT disclose what cable is being used. Once you tell people what they are listening to, the comparison becomes meaningless.