A thought on where best to use your posh Ethernet cable

I’ve just had a very interesting couple of days evaluating a Chord Sarum Super Aray Ethernet cable in my system. My objective was to see if it improved on my Audioquest Vodka which runs from a switch in the wall behind my HiFi and feeds my NDS. After a day of switching back and forth I concluded that whilst the SSA made the Vodka sound relatively coarse and fruity, it just didn’t move me and the music simply wasn’t as entertaining with SSA in place.

I was ready to leave it at that and return the SSA, especially since this result rhymed with my experience a couple of years ago when comparing DIN/DIN Interconnects, SuperLumina vs Chord SSA, but being intrigued I read online some reviews of the SSA Ethernet cable, notably the one in the magazine, The Ear. This review was glowing, but also happened to mention that they thought the improvement in sound when using the cable between NAS and switch was even greater than when using it between switch and streamer. So, with nothing much to lose I tried the SSA  in place of a Chord C-Stream between my Netgear NAS and switch, leaving the Vodka on NDS feed duties.

Transformation would be no exaggeration. All the sonic ‘fidelity’ improvements of SSA, but now with not only just as much verve, but considerably more than the Vodka. Equivalent to a black box upgrade? Absolutely. At least. My Gob is heavily smacked and my wallet is running for cover..

If there’s a potentially useful message for others here it may just be to try using your best Ethernet cable running from your Server, NAS or whatever you use to store your files into the switch rather than use it to feed from the switch to your streamer. If my experience is repeatable you may be very pleasantly surprised.