Originally Posted by Akimo
Originally Posted by 3dit0r
Although, as I said, I personally can't hear any difference between Ethernet cables carrying data (as opposed to SL) I question whether this kind of A/B/X blind listening test is really as 'scientific' as it appears. I have pointed out on this forum before that no less an authority than Bob Stuart himself believes they are flawed for various reasons. Given how well versed he is in audio engineering and psycho-acoustics, his is not an opinion I would dismiss lightly.
In addition to Bob Stuart, Nelson Pass also believes that A/B testing for audio is fundamentally flawed and ignores key general cognitive and psychoacoustic learnings.

For my own purposes, I find that I get auditory fatigue so quickly that trying to use that approach gets me nowhere.
For my comparison of cables I adopted the following procedures:

1. play some music. This allows the system to warm up and everyone to get used to the sound.

2. play only short extracts of music between switching cables so as to concentrate on certain key elements.

3. play longer pieces, usually whole tracks, so as to be able to relax into the music.

4. switch backwards and forwards between cables.

Please note that I am not expecting anyone to buy cables on the strength of what I have written. Nor am I making particular claims for my methods. I did what was practical and what I wanted to do. I made two suggestions:

1. if your system allows, try home run rather than daisy chain if you are not already doing so.

2. borrow some demonstration Audioquest and Chord cables and decide for yourself in your own system whether you prefer them to cat7 or cat6 SSTP spec.

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