Into the Ether....!

[madogc]

Hello Everyone, I am new to the world of digital, and have recently bought a DAC, headphone amp and...a beautiful, classy, Innuos Zen Mini Mk2.

I am so happy with the sound, but of course am always searching for improvements.

Due to my current living situation, I do not have a traditional two speaker set-up and am limited purely to listening through headphones.

At the same time, I am unable to connect the streamer directly to my router which is on the ground floor. My system is directly above on the next floor and

I am using a WiFi disc (like a satellite router), which has been paired to the router downstairs. A budget Ethernet cable connects this to the Innuos. The main router

downstairs has the cheap cable which was supplied by the Telecom company.

I have read many convincing articles praising the virtues of quality Ethernet cables, and was about to press the button on a £100 Audioquest carbon.

However, then I thought, don't be hasty. My thought was, if I am not connecting directly, but remotely via this hub upstairs (presumably via WiFi?), would a quality cable

make any difference into the main router?

Or, should I connect it from the Innuos to the satellite router? OR, should I buy two quality cables, one for each!?

I have spoken to three so called HiFi gurus at audio shops in London and no one can give me a definitive answer! I would have thought this would be a straightforward answer!

I would be so grateful if somebody could offer me some advice. Thank you, Steven

 

[Toneranger]

I use a higher level Linkup Cat 8 Ethernet Cable, which I’m not sure has made that much of a difference, it runs from my Wi-Fi extender into my Zen MK 3, the cable that did make a difference was a USB cable from my Zen to my Denafrips Dac, I tested 2 higher level USB cables and the difference was easy to hear, the better cable had more resolving bass and mid bass and a bigger soundstage with a greater sense of ease in the music. Hope this helps. The favored cable is from PineTree Audio its the Banshee USB cable. Very reasonably priced, beat out a Transparent USB cable.

 

[ThriftyAudio]

https://community.innuos.com/members/toneranger.112/

I find it interesting your comment regarding the PineTree Audio Banshee USB cable. That is the cable I ordered today to use between the Pulse and Phoenix USB. Small world...

 

[Toneranger]

https://community.innuos.com/members/toneranger.112/

I find it interesting your comment regarding the PineTree Audio Banshee USB cable. That is the cable I ordered today to use between the Pulse and Phoenix USB. Small world...

Great cable. I think you’ll enjoy it.

 

[Steven]

Hello Everyone, I am new to the world of digital, and have recently bought a DAC, headphone amp and...a beautiful, classy, Innuos Zen Mini Mk2.

I am so happy with the sound, but of course am always searching for improvements.

Due to my current living situation, I do not have a traditional two speaker set-up and am limited purely to listening through headphones.

At the same time, I am unable to connect the streamer directly to my router which is on the ground floor. My system is directly above on the next floor and

I am using a WiFi disc (like a satellite router), which has been paired to the router downstairs. A budget Ethernet cable connects this to the Innuos. The main router

downstairs has the cheap cable which was supplied by the Telecom company.

I have read many convincing articles praising the virtues of quality Ethernet cables, and was about to press the button on a £100 Audioquest carbon.

However, then I thought, don't be hasty. My thought was, if I am not connecting directly, but remotely via this hub upstairs (presumably via WiFi?), would a quality cable

make any difference into the main router?

Or, should I connect it from the Innuos to the satellite router? OR, should I buy two quality cables, one for each!?

I have spoken to three so called HiFi gurus at audio shops in London and no one can give me a definitive answer! I would have thought this would be a straightforward answer!

I would be so grateful if somebody could offer me some advice. Thank you, Steven

Did you make up your mind on this?

I've used wifi a lot, some companies like Devialet and Auralic recommend it, and I currently have 25 audio systems running at 24/192 PCM over wifi.

Ethernet is digital packet data and ethernet cables have international standards of compliance. It is an error-checked protocol. So the most important thing is that the cable is properly constructed and tested. Far and away the most popular cables are CAT 6A. CAT 7 and CAT 8 are shielded (not a good thing as the shield connection eliminates the galvanic isolation that is a feature of unshielded cables). Fancy connectors are totally unnecessary - they are designed to enable quick connections without a crimping tool in data centres. They are only a benefit if you damage a cable that is difficult to replace.

If I were to try a posh ethernet cable, and I never have, I'd go for a well made one using UPOCC copper. Available here for a little over £100.

NEET-3008-1: Neotech Ethernet RJ45 Cable, UP-OCC Copper, 1 metre | HIFICollective

NEET-3008-1: Neotech Ethernet RJ45 Cable, UP-OCC Copper, 1 metre

www.hificollective.co.uk

Neotech are the main distributor for UPOCC copper, which is patented and made in Japan. Neotech are a big commercial business who know about cable.

USB? The sky's the limit. I used a Chord usb-C for over 10 years. It came free in the blister pack of a hifi magazine in WH Smith in Brent Cross. I still have it, but have gravitated up recently to a Supra Excalibur. Again, Supra are a big commercial cable maker, this cable has separate power and signal lines and nice big solid connectors. Also about £100. Having done blind tests, the limitations on soundstage and resolution was the DAC, not the cable connecting the streamer to the DAC.

 

[mikehughescq]

I think you’re a step ahead of yourself. I also have a scenario where the router is upstairs and the Innuos is downstairs. It would take around at least 30m of ethernet and a ludicrous amount of upheaval to connect the Innuos to the router via Cat 5 or 6.

Initially I used a very cheap Vonets repeater and a short run of no name cable to the streamer. That was instructive as it showed that the Vonets was noisy and this could be heard through the speakers. It also showed that proximity mattered because no matter how noisy that Vonets and the cheap run of ethernet I have never heard such musical immediacy. Playing the St. Vincent acoustic Masseducation it was like having her and her keyboard towering above me.

So, I bought a longer run of no name ethernet and moved the Vonets a good six feet away from the streamer. The drop in noise floor was immediate but there was also a drop in that astonishing immediacy.

I like to live with things a good while rather than rushing to judgement but after about 6 months I bought some Chord C-Stream and ran that across from the Vonets instead. There were lots of hi-fi improvements and it was much more musical but it was equally clear that the immediacy was gone albeit replaced by a good deal more musicality.

I did promise myself I would experiment with this further but we have enjoyed it so much it’s essentially been like this for a couple of years.

Finally I gave in and decided to upgrade the repeater to a TP-Link. I make no claims on the immediacy but it was an astonishingly large jump and much bigger than I've had with any cable. A further drop in noise floor and a significant uplift in being able to hear acoustic spaces.

I would seriously look at your repeater before you start faffing with any cables.