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$10K Ethernet Cable Claims Audio Fidelity, If You're Stupid Enough To Buy It

Posted by Soulskill on from the imaginary-audio-quality-is-more-valuable-than-a-car dept.

MojoKid writes: There are few markets that are quite as loaded-up with "snake oil" products as the audio/video arena. You may have immediately thought of "Monster" cables as one of the most infamous offenders. But believe it or not, there are some vendors that push the envelope so far that Monster's $100 HDMI cables sound like a bargain by comparison. Take AudioQuest's high-end Ethernet cable, for example. Called "Diamond," AudioQuest is promising the world with this $10,500 Ethernet cable. If you, for some reason, believe that an Ethernet cable is completely irrelevant for audio, guess again. In addition to promises about the purity and smoothness of the silver conductors, and their custom "Noise-Dissipation System," they say," "Another upgrade with Diamond is a complete plug redesign, opting for an ultra-performance RJ45 connector made from silver with tabs that are virtually unbreakable. The plug comes with added strain relief and firmly lock into place ensuring no critical data is lost." Unfortunately, in this case, there's the issue of digital data being, well... digital. But hey, a 1 or a 0 could arrive at its destination so much cleaner, right?

10 of 418 comments (clear)

  1. a fool and his money... by txoof · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If there's a market, somebody will exploit it.

    --
    This one's tricky. You have to use imaginary numbers, like eleventeen... --Hobbes
    1. Re:a fool and his money... by xaxa · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If there's a market, somebody will exploit it.

      The reason this expensive cable exists is to market the "mid-range" ethernet cables, which are around $200-400.

  2. They are just trolls with lots of money by emj · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You think they are crazy, but as along time audiophile I can till you we are just trolls who are spending or claiming to spend lots of money only to get attention. This conspiracy has been going on for to many decades now, but it's getting old so I'm exposing it here.

    I'm just going listen to Simon and Garfunkel on my built in 386 era PC-speaker now.

    1. Re:They are just trolls with lots of money by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Well, while there is a LOT of snake oil out there, there is still *some* truth in that you get what you pay for....

      A pair of desktop speakers, by LabTec, isn't going to sound nearly so good as my Klipschorn Speakers that I have in my living room. I have them connected to a pair of SE Tube amps from a small online company Decware. I've had them quite awhile and I love the sound of them. To each his own, I like the tube distortion, but I have ever since I was 12yrs and heard a pair of K-horns in an audio store running off a McIntosh tube amp system.

      But I digress. The thing is...those cheap earbuds on an iPod aren't going to sound as nice as my Shure higher end earbuds.....at some point, you do get what you pay for. But one always has to be wary of what's being offered, and do their research, and test things in person.

      That all being said, there are some fun DIY things you can do. I found lots of links years back, on taking multiple strands of Cat-6 cable, and braiding it in various fashions into speaker cable. I did my own variant, and I have to say, I liked the way it sounded...in fact, I still have it on my main front speakers (the khorns).

      So, if you do enjoy GOOD fidelity in your audio, often you do have to pay a bit, but not always.

      Sadly, so many kids today seem to see their music as disposable, and many have never HEARD what a good sound system can sound like...and only know white, cheap earbuds...or worse...the thudding of "Beats" headphones, that so far I've yet to find a tweeter installed.

      But that's a different soapbox to get on altogether.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    2. Re: They are just trolls with lots of money by asliarun · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You bring up some good points in your post. But I have to disagree on one thing. Good quality music reproduction is today more accessible than ever. There was a time when you had to get horn speakers or at least speakers as big as cabinets, class A amplification -solid state or tubes, and a really hard to setup vinyl turntable. Then there was room treatment, speaker placement, and all those shenanigans.

      Not saying this is still not relevant. But today, you can get a decent pair of headphones (sennheiser, audio technical, akg, grado, fostex/MrSpeakers, etc), a decent DAC and amp (Schiit, Audio GD, etc), and good quality source and good quality digital (hi res or even redbook) - all at even a college dorm budget, and similarly compact.

      I remember the days of the walkman and audio cassettes, and for sure, the progress has been dramatic. The only irony being that the single most important piece - the quality of mastering and quality of recording - has largely gone for a toss. Today, it is all about loudness wars and auto tune. But that is a different matter.

      When people pursuing any hobby go beyond a certain expense level, they make purchasing decisions for most things other than money. Why is there no Slashdot argument about people paying $3 million for a vintage Ferrari or a Jag? Is there any basis to that price! Is the buyer, no matter how much an auto enthusiast, ever going to take his or her vintage Jag for a really rough spin that could risk damaging the car?

      Maybe the analogy is not accurate. Fair enough. But a lot of audiophiles with really high end systems do find a difference in sound even with trivial component swaps. They will even claim that placement of certain objects in the room alters the sound.

      But before dismissing them as twats, it might be worth thinking about how idiosyncratic and bizarre other people are who are equally immersed in their hobby or pursuit. The guy who is cooling his Intel CPU in liquid nitro to get the last bit of over clock - really, what practical purpose did he serve? And he probably spent a bunch of money on his rig too.

      The strangest thing of all is that music is one of those strange beasts that changes quality with every trivial change in component, room, source, you name it. That is what gets audiophiles hooked. Maybe and probably it is psychoacoustics. But if you can hear the difference, it is there, right?

      Now how much tweaking and money you want to throw at this pursuit, that is a very subjective thing. But dissing it and ridiculing it is also wrong. It is only one of the many things that continue to fascinate us as a species. And music is indeed very very special to most of us. We just don't pay enough attention to this sense.

  3. My favourite cable by thegarbz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am truly sad that I forgot the brand, but my favourite snake oil product in the audio industry was an RCA interconnect cable. It was unique compared to all the other cables. Rather than using some weird alloy hand picked by Hathor the goddess of music, they decided to eliminate the pesky metal altogether and replace it with .... optic fibre.

    Yes gentlemen they did the impossible. They produced the first RCA cable which actually had a measurable performance impact on the sound. By modulating an LED on one end and picking it up with a photoresistor on the other the cable selling in the thousands of dollars introduced in the order of 0.2%THD to the signal, orders of magnitude worse than a cheap amplifier, and infinitely worse than any other cable which produces no measurable change at all.

    I am really annoyed I forgot the brand of it, but believe it or not people actually bought into this shit and said it sounded amazing.

  4. Come on... by Roy+van+Rijn · · Score: 4, Interesting
    From the article:

    "My first change is from Supra Cat-7+ to Audioquest Cinnamon playing a piece from Eric Satie, a performance by Alexandre Tharaud of Gnossienne No. 1. I immediately notice an increase in air and a wider stage with the Cinnamon. The recording room has grown and the playback is a little more fluid, more natural I would say."

    Can someone please do a bit-wise compare between what is received just before the DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter)...? I doubt there are any missing bits using the 'cheaper' cable.

    --
    My blog: http://www.redcode.nl
  5. Lawsuits coming? by fgouget · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How come these companies don't get sued into oblivion for false advertising (claiming an impact on sound quality, unidirectional data transfer, 100Gbps compatibility). And why don't the reviewers get sued too for professional misconduct?

  6. Re:Audiophile market by AK+Marc · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If they're stupid enough to be taken in by this crap, they deserve what they get.

    So all frauds should be legal because, caveat emptor?

    --
    Learn to love Alaska
  7. Re:Audiophile market by amxcoder · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The same company sells a $13,500 HDMI cable: http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ...

    a $550 2.6ft USB cable: http://www.amazon.com/AudioQue...

    a $6900 standard power cable: http://www.amazon.com/AudioQue...

    and $13,000 speaker cables: http://www.amazon.com/AudioQue...

    "a fool and his money are easily separated..." comes to mind.