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RE: Shifting focus from more controversial parts - here's what's aligned perfectly.....

I have no first hand experience comparing different Ethernet cables since I don't normally stream music over them. At present, I use them only for Internet access (no music except the occasional MP3 sound clip as part of a purchase decision) or downloads or file backups.

I have compared computer playback (using a sound card on a PCI bus and to several USB DACs) under the following conditions. I list them in order of decreasing sound quality:

1. playback out of a RAM disk
2. playback out of a local inboard disk via SATA
3. playback out of a file folder via a SAMBA share over Ethernet from a NAS.



I have also compared the following out of that RAM disk to various DACs. Again, I list these in order of decreasing sound quality. I haven't haven't tried all the various combinations, optimatizions, software configurations, etc. that are possible.

1. Playback of WAV files
2. Playback of FLAC files that are read-time decoded


The results do not surprise me. In each case, the choices that I found to sound best were the ones that placed the least processor load on the computer system.


My USB Regen is supposed to arrive tomorrow. I will be conducting a new serious of experiments to see how much this hides the various computer differences (all of which were bit identical in terms of what was sent to the DAC). If I am still hearing differences, I may try interposing a low powered computer to serve as HQPlayer "Network Audio Adapter" and see what this may do, but at present the 7 watt Intel Nuc is busy being a server on my LAN.

Tony Lauck

"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar


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