[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by W9TR

Yogi notes that the ‘downloaded bits’ sound better with the better cable, even when the cable is disconnected and the music is playing from a buffer.

This is a very interesting observation because ultimately it eliminated cause/effect of the EMI performance of the cable, leaving nothing but the bits, and Ethernet with CRC and retransmission on error is indeed bit perfect.

I can’t explain that one. I’ll add it to list.

The issue is.....its not the bits. The bits are just math; what gets transmitted from source to DAC are....analog square waves, and these are not "perfect" anymore...they're "smudged" much like a smudged fingerprint due to the impact of noise factors and lack of galvanic isolation on the Ethernet cables used to transmit them, the RJ45 jacks, and even the winding of the isolation transformers in switches and RJ45 jacks. Also the clocks that sent them from source (e.g. music server or computer) to distination and any components (e.g. routers or switches) along the path create addditional degration of the analog square waves. Then there is the impact of low- and high-impedance AC leakage currents from switch-mode power supplies on the analog square waves, as well.