kennyb123

Wireworld Chroma CAT8 Ethernet 8ft length I purchased this cable after reading Jay's review on Audio Bacon that's found here. I had similar results to what Jay reported when connecting this to an unused RCA input on my preamp. I no longer use a preamp as I run my DAC directly into my amp. I'm putting it up for sale as I have not found a usage that delivered as much of a benefit as when I used it with a preamp - and I'm also trying to reduce clutter. Details: Condition: Very Good (7/10) - connectors look great, no breaks in cover, a bit of latex paint from my wall came off on the cable - you can see this in the photo - this can be washed off as it's a water-based paint MSRP: $210 Asking: $110 including PayPal fee and shipping Included: Original box Terms PayPal payment only Shipping only to confirmed US addresses My seller feedback can be seen here: https://www.audiogon.com/users/kennyb

GutWire Ultimate Ground Cable 6 ft with RCA connector I purchased this cable after reading Jay's review on Audio Bacon that's found here. I had similar results to what Jay reported when connecting this to an unused RCA input on my preamp. I no longer use a preamp as I run my DAC directly into my amp. I'm putting it up for sale as I have not found a usage that delivered as much of a benefit as when I used it with a preamp - and I'm also trying to reduce clutter. Details: Condition: Excellent (8/10) MSRP: $499 Asking: $300 including PayPal fee and shipping Included: Original box Terms PayPal payment only Shipping only to confirmed US addresses My seller feedback can be seen here: https://www.audiogon.com/users/kennyb

Yes it was the dCBL-CAT7 cable used between B-side and my Innuos Zenith streamer. It's a heavy and inflexible cable, but it sounded great.

I was able to hear the SOtM Ethernet cable compared to my Cable Matters CAT8 in my system this morning. While the CM cable is a screaming deal, it was no match for the SOtM - and this was almost immediately apparent. We listened to “Speak No Evil” from Wayne Shorter’s album of the same name. Timbre was more dead on with the qualities one hears from a saxophone and trumpet passed along more faithfully. Micro-dynamics was one of those qualities that was just more convincing with the SOtM. I was surprised to even hear a more apparent sense of Shorter moving closer and then away from the microphone as he played. A Shunyata Sigma demo cable should be on its way sometime soon. At almost twice the price of the SOtM it better be a lot better. If the additional cost isn’t justified I will pull the trigger on the SOtM and call it a day. The improvements I heard were worth the additional cost over the CM cable - though I would certainly understand if others didn’t feel the same.

I'm thinking it's likely that the choice of SFP will dictate how likely attenuators might be needed. If there haven't been reports of a hot treble from the guys playing with the opticalRendu, it could very well be that the SFP that Sonore recommended doesn't need to be used with attenuators. I selected Startech SFPs based on the endorsement of Emile from Taiko Audio. I have no idea if these would be any better than what Sonore recommends. You could maybe start there though as those SFPs are very reasonably priced - Sonore sells them for $20 each.

Last night’s late listening session confirmed for me that using attenuators as they are meant to be used - on Rx side only - made a positive difference. Big thanks to @octaviars for helping me to get sorted out on that. Playing the same tracks as the previous night, I heard improvements in clarity and openness. I now think the key is to find the minimum amount of attenuation that keeps oversaturation from having a detrimental impact to sound quality. I’ve been using tracks that have a tendency to have a hot treble to assess this. I’m not sure I’m there yet but I’m really close and also starting to burn out on assessing this. It was well worth the effort though. Lastly I should mention that I had been using the stock power supply with the Startech FMC. I wasn’t sure it would be a keeper so I didn’t purchase a better supply for it. I also didn’t think I had on hand a supply that would offer an improvement. Out of curiosity, I finally pulled the “el cheapo” out of the closet and then popped open the lid to set it for 5v. To my surprise this seemed to help. Next steps for me on this is to purchase an opticalModule once they are back in stock. I’m eager to hear how this improves things over the Startech FMC.

I will have to order one of these cables myself. Thanks for sharing your observations.

I’m at a work event tonight so didn’t get much of a chance to listen, but after first sitting down there was an apparent difference. A bit of the hot treble had returned which had me thinking I put the attenuators on the wrong side. A quick Google search confirmed that to be the case so I swapped them and the hot treble was gone. I really wish it hadn’t been so easy to hear the difference. It did seem like the sound was more transparent with the attenuators used incorrectly. It’s unfortunate the treble can get hot. Right before I left, I swapped in 5 dB attenuators. I heard a difference but need to spend more time with it to figure things out.

By "intimacy" do you mean a greater sense of being in the same room as the musicians?

Thanks to the photo you shared in PM, I was able to split the duplex connector. I’m hoping I placed the attenuator in the Rx side. There’s a $25 optical power meter on Amazon. I may buy it. For anyone interested in doing this, note the white wrap is on different sides on the two ends. I got this backwards initially.

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That's a key tenet of their religion. Their entire house of cards would come tumbling down if they were to acknowledge an audible sound difference.

Let me reiterate that my system has never sounded better since implementing this fiber solution along with a pair of 10 dB attenuators on both sides. For most of you using single mode fiber, I’d suggest ordering two pairs of 10 dB attenuators from Amazon. Try them at both ends.

And so begins (continues?) my decent into madness ... Last night I compared two different approaches for applying a total of 20 dB of attenuation. Two pairs of 10 dB on each end vs a single pair of 20 dB on one end. I heard a difference. Then I did some Googling and found this and it gave me a headache. I just ordered a pair of simplex fiber cables so that I can implement the above taking into account the photo that follows from Wikipedia. I don’t think this level of obsessiveness is needed, I’m pursuing this out of curiosity only. I have pairs of 10 dB attenuators on each side right now and it sounds awesome.

See Commandment #3: https://www.controlglobal.com/assets/14WPpdf/140331-BB-FiberOpticCommandments.pdf In my case the over-saturation was causing treble to get too hot on songs that already had that tendency.