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RE: Ars Technica dissects an AudioQuest Vodka ethernet cable

you could almost certainly use them for 10-gigabit Ethernet over 100-meter runs [but] . . . you can also use other shielded Cat7-equivalent Ethernet cables that cost one-tenth the Vodkas' price for the same purpose, so the fact that they're high quality cables doesn't really justify the price.

Without defending AQ's IMHO absurd prices, it's hard to miss that the product is explicitly aimed at the audio sector. How it compares to mainstream LAN products in conventional LAN settings has nothing to do with the price of eggs. Or fancy cables, even. IOW, it's a red herring, a straw man argument, whatever.

I am not smart enough or educated enough to judge the manufacturer's claim that the silver coating is "excellent for very high-frequency applications, like Ethernet audio," and that the high-frequency signals "travel almost exclusively on the surface of the conductor" and thus "use" the silver instead of the underlying copper.

As JE notes, ML also picked this one up. What it led me to wonder was what qualifications the author does have to review what is, by any stretch, an esoteric product. It's not as if he's even reporting on listening tests.

Note BTW that if his links are to be believed, the cable was bought from an Amazon dealer, not AQ. An e-mail to the latter might have determined whether the rather amateur looking use of masking tape is standard practice or even whether the cable was a genuine AQ product. All that guff about ethical behaviour is a diversion - Ars Technica's was anything but.

Folk here shout at Mercman because he sometimes starts his review procedure by talking to manufacturers. Maybe it's not such a bad idea after all . . .


Edits: 07/24/15
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