[TheR0v3r]

Update
The Furutech is really, really nice. Voices and instruments have nice… heft? There’s a mass and weight that’s appealing.

How will it do when the music gets more complex?

Update - II
The Belden can’t keep up with the Furutech.

To my ears and in my system it’s on par with my Inakustik Cat6 Premium. The Inakustik is good, so it’s not a bad thing, but it’s definitely not an upgrade. Maybe it’s a question of burn-in but at this point I don’t feel it’s worth the effort because of the quality of the Furutech.

Now the focus will be on the Furutech. Tomorrow I’ll summarise including a comparison with the Shunyata.

 

[camrector]

Update
The Furutech is really, really nice. Voices and instruments have nice… heft? There’s a mass and weight that’s appealing.

How will it do when the music gets more complex?

If you are in the states maybe you’d like to give my Ethernet cable a try.

 

[TheR0v3r]

If you are in the states maybe you’d like to give my Ethernet cable a try.

Thanks, but in northern Europe.

Your cable looks nice

 

[EMINENT]

If you are in the states maybe you’d like to give my Ethernet cable a try.

Holou.

I shall be intrigued.

 

[camrector]

Thanks, but in northern Europe.

Your cable looks nice

Thanks!

Lots of A and D on this. I handmade mine with 20awg OCC 6n silver and air as the dielectric.

 

[EMINENT]

Thanks!

Lots of A and D on this. I handmade mine with 20awg OCC 7n silver and air as the dielectric.

May I try?

 

[camrector]

May I try?

Sure! PM me

 

[Exocer]

Anyone interested in a 3 week old Ifi iSilencer lan device?

If you are in the states maybe you’d like to give my Ethernet cable a try.

looks very nice. I am also intrigued. Will send a dm shortly.

 

[TheR0v3r]

Update - II
The Belden can’t keep up with the Furutech.

To my ears and in my system it’s on par with my Inakustik Cat6 Premium. The Inakustik is good, so it’s not a bad thing, but it’s definitely not an upgrade. Maybe it’s a question of burn-in but at this point I don’t feel it’s worth the effort because of the quality of the Furutech.

Now the focus will be on the Furutech. Tomorrow I’ll summarise including a comparison with the Shunyata.

Summary and conclusion (part 1)
I’m a little short on time today so summary and conclusion will have to be done in two parts.

These are the network cables I’v compared:

• Belden Catsnake 6a
• Furutech LAN-8 NCF
• Neotech NEET-1008
• Shunyata Delta Ethernet
• (Inakustik Cat6 Premium)

All cables are connected to my Netgear GS105E w/ SBooster and the Netgear in turn is connected to the router with an Inakustik Ethernet cable. My Sennheiser HD 600 is used foremost for checking tonality and timbre. It’s EQ:ed in accordance with Sonarworks calibration and I use crossfeed (Goodhertz CanOpener) with it. The Hifiman Ananda Nano is used for everything else and is EQ:ed only with a shelf to better bring out the sub bass, no crossfeed.

Now I know that some will think that the headphones aren’t good enough because they are not expensive TOTL headphones and, somehow, therefore the conclusions aren’t ”valid”. First of all, you’re right in a way because these are just my opinions. Secondly, when it comes to the headphones my experience is that it has been very difficult/impossible to find ONE headphone that does everything ”right”, so for now I’ve decided to use different headphones for different use cases. This may change in the future

Anyway this leads to a fairly time consuming method in having to make several runs with the same music in order to cover the strengths of the two headphones. The music used this time, in alpabetical order:

• ”Breed” - Nirvana
• ”Highwomen” - The Highwomen
• ”Little Things” - Big Thief
• ”Magma” - Yello
• ”Poéme Symphonique for 100 Metronomes” - Francoise Terrioux
• ”Rosanna” - Toto
• ”Runaround Man” - Motörhead
• ”Soothing (Live)” - Laura Marling
• ”The Crusader Prelude” - Saxon
• ”Walking with Elephants” - Ten Walls
• ”Work Me” - Octo Octa

These are not the ”perfect” test tracks but they are all songs I really like or, at the very least, songs that have a certain ”craftmanship” that floors me every time I listen to them. Maybe there are one or two songs here that will be new discoveries for you? (And they cover alot of the ground that needs to be covered in a comparison: tonality, timbre, timing, resolution, soundstage, layering, dynamics etc.)

All for now, I’ll be back with part II later today.

 

[TheR0v3r]

Summary and conclusion (part 2)
So without any further ado, in order of preference:

1. Inakustik Cat6 Premium
2. Furutech LAN-8 NCF
3. Belden Catsnake 6a
4. Shunyata Delta Ethernet
5. Neotech NEET-1008

The Inakustik is my preference - what a surprise (and purely by chance)! After writing yesterdays post I decided to give the Belden Catsnake another shot. So I disconnected the Inakustik from the router, connected the Belden so that it at least could ”burn-in” over night. That gave me the chance to try the Inakustik against the Furutech, which I hadn’t planned initially.

The Furutech is a really, really nice cable. It leans ever so slightly towards warm and soft, as opposed to thin and harsh. It has a certain ”heft” to its sound that is very appealing to me. As I listened to track after track, switching between the Hifiman and the Sennheiser, I enjoyed every second of it. It’s more of a laidback sound and slightly less dynamic and ”punchy” than the Inakustik. This softness is the main difference between them. Otherwise they both have a wonderful balance across the frequency range with nice extension to the sub bass and upper treble. The sense of space and layering is also great. In the end, let’s call this difference rather than one being better than the other. I prefer the Inakustik

This is not the case with the Shunyata. I feel comfortable in calling the difference between it and either the Furutech or the Inakustik as being not as good (worse sounds so harsh!). Its tonal balance lends itself to systems with bloated bass. This is a cable that is lean, lacking the lowest bass, and therefore gives an impressive first impression as it comes across as having great ”technicalities”, ie separation etc. In the end it just doesn’t sound right to me, too bright - ”look at me!”. Enough said.

I’m keeping the Belden Catsnake. It replaces the Inakustik in connecting the router to the switch. It’s a sombre black cable that is more discrete than the Inakustik, looks cooler/more expensive and does no harm at its place behind my rack. One day I’ll compare it to the Inakustik, but not today. The Neotech is just too unwieldly so I didn’t even bother...

That’s it. Looking forward to your comments

 

[Duke40]

I’m keeping the Belden Catsnake. It replaces the Inakustik in connecting the router to the switch.

Great review, thank you for taking the time to do a comparison.

From the quote above it is clear that Belden Catsnake is between router & switch.

You listed your number 1 ranking as the Inakustik Cat6 Premium ... I checked your last few posts, though not sure where you are utilising this [if at all].

Curious if it is still being utilised, what is Inakustik Cat6 Premium cable connecting to?

Once again, great comparison.

 

[TheR0v3r]

Great review, thank you for taking the time to do a comparison.

From the quote above it is clear that Belden Catsnake is between router & switch.

You listed your number 1 ranking as the Inakustik Cat6 Premium ... I checked your last few posts, though not sure where you are utilising this [if at all].

Curious if it is still being utilised, what is Inakustik Cat6 Premium cable connecting to?

Once again, great comparison.

Thanks, appreciate your feedback

I now have the following:

iFi LAN i Silencer -> Router -> Belden Catsnake -> Switch -> Inakustik Premium -> iMac (Roon and Audirvana) -> USB

The funny thing is that I started with this:

Ifi LAN iSilencer -> Router -> C2G Cat5e -> Switch -> Inakustik Premium -> iMac (Roon and Audirvana) -> USB

Then I moved the Inakustik with the intention to replace it with a better cable:

IFi LAN iSilencer -> Router -> Inakustik Premium -> Switch -> < ? > -> iMac (Roon and Audirvana) -> USB

So in some sense I’m back to where I started

The idea behind a more structured approach when buying stuff is that I’ve had a tendency to fall for marketing speak and hyperbole, often more expensive being the better thing. Now I force myself to sit down, use tracks I know and then compare by actually taking notes. The process forces me to be more critical.

 

[Tubewin]

The Neotech is just too unwieldly so I didn’t even bother...

Ah, that's a shame.

 

[TheR0v3r]

Ah, that's a shame.

Sorry

Have you tried it? Or curious?

 

[Tubewin]

Sorry

Have you tried it? Or curious?

I was just curious. I went straight for the neet 3008 because of my experience with the neotech copper usb vs the silver usb, as you know from the usb thread.