Shunyata Ethernet cable - which models have you tried?

[Don Parkhurst]

I am very happy with my home hifi system. I am running a mostly level 4 Audio Note UK vacuum tube based system with the top of the line Vertere turntable/mc cartridge/phono preamp. The cables in my system are all top Audio Note silver cables (Sootto and Sogon) as these are highly resolving without the analytical downside of some cables. Very natural and musical. In the last year the AC in my area has become very noisy and it is not letting my system shine quite as much as previously. This has caused me to look into Shunyata again as a local dealer feels that it will work nicely with the strengths of my AN UK gear.

I have a Denali 6000s V2 being sent from my dealer (it was his demo) back to the factory, in order to be upgraded to Denali X. I am very much looking forward to hearing the improvement with the Denali X in my system due to the lower noise floor.

I have noticed that in the last 9-12 months, the AC at my townhouse is quite noisy compared to when I moved in 5 years ago. A friend who is also a dealer brought a handy device to confirm that the noise is very high on the household AC ( he plugged it into about a dozen outlets to confirm). I’m trying to get the local Hydro company to do something to improve the quality of the AC, but I don’t feel very optimistic about a successful resolution.

This is making me consider doing as much as I can to remove as much noise as possible so that I can get my system sounding as great as it did previously and also hopefully even better, with the addition of some Shunyata pieces. It means spending more money but the upside is that I can bring it with me when I decide to move at some point down the road.

I am a dedicated analog fan and love my turntable setup. Along with my analog gear I have a new to me addition to my home system that is a digital server and streamer. I am now using an Antipodes DXe streamer which is feeding a Benchmark 3B DAC. This is meant for more casual listening or background music.

Once I decided that I wanted to go down the path of removing as much noise as possible, I bought a used Shunyata Omega USB cable from a forum member to run between the Antipodes and the Benchmark.

I feel that I should add an Ethernet cable to feed the Antipodes server/streamer that is 4 meter to 5 meters long, that is a step up from the $20 cable from Amazon that I have currently (and also removes noise). I am willing to save up for a Sigma-X or Omega Ethernet cable if that is proving to be worth the investment. On the other hand if there is very little difference among models, I will aim for the sweet spot of money vs. performance.

My question to everyone in this forum is this, which Shunyata Ethernet cables have you tried? Have you been happy with them? Do you feel that they help reduce noise in order to let the music flow through?

I appreciate you reading this far and sharing your experience : )

 

[J007B]

I have tried both the Sigma (not X) and the Omega in my previous system a couple of years ago. Both fantastic cables. That said, if you're looking to reduce noise, neither will accomplish that (IMHO). You would need an active cable such as: Audioquest Diamond, Synergistic Research, Ansuz D2. I sure there are more. You can also reduce ethernet noise in other ways, fiberoptic bridge, ethernet filter/network switch. I have a 6' fiberoptic bridge between my router and my network switch and cost somewhere between $100 - $150 and works great.......

 

[Don Parkhurst]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I have had three different streaming setups over the years and I didn’t enjoy making my system more and more and more complicated. It sounded better after installing things that reduced noise on the Ethernet line, but I started to have more problems with my DAC and streamer. They needed more and more time to lock the signal and that’s not much fun when you want to play music.

I really prefer not to go down that road again, but I do appreciate what you are saying.

I guess that I am hoping that a good Ethernet cable will help reduce noise and that I can stick with a simpler system as this is for casual listening.

I try to save my OCD for my analog setup ; )

 

[NaimYourTubes]

An easy way to diagnose ethernet noise is to grab an EMO Systems en-85e inline isolator. It's a medical grade thing, but certainly not the best ethernet isolator on the planet. Just relatively inexpensive and proven to act on noise without causing too much harm. If it barely makes a difference, fiber could be the next step, or perhaps ethernet-born noise may not be the culprit (could be airborne RFI, for example).

 

[Mike Lavigne]

i use 3 Shunyata digital cables in my system and i'm happy with all three.

two of the cables are Shunyata 50 ohm 10 MHz Sine Wave clock cables; one Omega Clock-50 1 meter BNC for between my Esoteric G1X clock and my Esoteric T1 turntable, and a Sigma v2 Clock-50 BNC between the GIX and my TEAC VRDS 701T CD transport.

one is the Shunyata Alpha 75 ohm S/PDIF cable between my TEAC transport and my Wadax Reference Dac.

i've not directly compared these digital cables to others but like what i hear. i did compare the Sigma v2 and Omega clock cables and could hear the difference the Omega over the Sigma v2 made in both spots. not heard the newest 'X' versions.

 

[treitz3]

Hello, Don and good afternoon to you. I use 3 Shunyata Ethernet cables for my rig. The Alpha, Venom and Omega. While I am very pleased with what they did to my system's streaming performance, I do not think that they will thwart the noise you are talking about, at least from what I gather. Don't get me wrong, they will help, but I have found other things in my rig that made a more effective sonic impact. I actually installed these devices after getting all 3 Shunyata Ethernet cables. Some of the things you may want to consider would be;

Equi=Core 1000 isolation transformer for your streaming devices and LPS's (supporting equipment) (and possibly your TT/Phono pre as well)
Snubway and Main Stream Master Class A/C line conditioner combo
Puron's (I have 5 in my room)

All of these were more effective in my system than the all 3 of the Shunyata Ethernet cables combined. All of the above devices drastically cleaned up the noise on incoming power, but then I also had noise coming in from the Ethernet side. Something that worked extremely well for me was a Muon Pro. Other things that can help would be to add a good switch (I use an EtherRegen with a Mutec master clock). There are endless possibilities but attacking the noise from both the power and incoming cable line are, in my experience, equally important.

Of course, this is not the end of it. There are a plethora of other options out there to thwart the noise from being amplified, but I will say this. The first three products I mentioned as alternatives would not only help your streaming devices, they will also help the sound from your beloved TT setup as well.

One of the things I have discovered when it comes to streaming, is that no one device thwarts all of the noise. No matter what the marketing of said product states. FWIW.

Tom

 

[Don Parkhurst]

i use 3 Shunyata digital cables in my system and i'm happy with all three.

two of the cables are Shunyata 50 ohm 10 MHz Sine Wave clock cables; one Omega Clock-50 1 meter BNC for between my Esoteric G1X clock and my Esoteric T1 turntable, and a Sigma v2 Clock-50 BNC between the GIX and my TEAC VRDS 701T CD transport.

one is the Shunyata Alpha 75 ohm S/PDIF cable between my TEAC transport and my Wadax Reference Dac.

i've not directly compared these digital cables to others but like what i hear. i did compare the Sigma v2 and Omega clock cables and could hear the difference the Omega over the Sigma v2 made in both spots. not heard the newest 'X' versions.

Thanks for sharing that. I have been driven by the somewhat sudden/recent increase in noise on my AC line. I appreciate reading about how you have been happy with what you hear in your system.

I remain impressed with just how many people have had a lowered noise floor on their system with every Shunyata cable that’s added. And…it keeps the system musical and not skewing frequency response into an analytical sound.

So, hopefully this will help lower the noise along with some other changes.

 

[Don Parkhurst]

Hello, Don and good afternoon to you. I use 3 Shunyata Ethernet cables for my rig. The Alpha, Venom and Omega. While I am very pleased with what they did to my system's streaming performance, I do not think that they will thwart the noise you are talking about, at least from what I gather. Don't get me wrong, they will help, but I have found other things in my rig that made a more effective sonic impact. I actually installed these devices after getting all 3 Shunyata Ethernet cables. Some of the things you may want to consider would be;

Equi=Core 1000 isolation transformer for your streaming devices and LPS's (supporting equipment) (and possibly your TT/Phono pre as well)
Snubway and Main Stream Master Class A/C line conditioner combo
Puron's (I have 5 in my room)

All of these were more effective in my system than the all 3 of the Shunyata Ethernet cables combined. All of the above devices drastically cleaned up the noise on incoming power, but then I also had noise coming in from the Ethernet side. Something that worked extremely well for me was a Muon Pro. Other things that can help would be to add a good switch (I use an EtherRegen with a Mutec master clock). There are endless possibilities but attacking the noise from both the power and incoming cable line are, in my experience, equally important.

Of course, this is not the end of it. There are a plethora of other options out there to thwart the noise from being amplified, but I will say this. The first three products I mentioned as alternatives would not only help your streaming devices, they will also help the sound from your beloved TT setup as well.

One of the things I have discovered when it comes to streaming, is that no one device thwarts all of the noise. No matter what the marketing of said product states. FWIW.

Tom

Tom;

Thank you for such a complete and well thought out reply.

A few updates…
Overall I have been enjoying how highly resolving my system is (but really musical), especially on the analog side and was disappointed when It just didn’t sound right for several weeks on end. I started wondering if one or more tubes were going bad but I could not find anything to be wrong with any tubes. I have multiple backups of some very good NOS tubes for each component in each vacuum tube position and have also been discussing this issue with a representative from Audio Note.

When a friend came for a visit who is a HiFi distributor, we discovered the noise on the AC line. I ended up running ground cables from all of my components (sometimes more than one from some) to my preamp. After ensuring proper connections everywhere the noise has dropped quite a bit.

OK, so off to a good start but there is still some noise. As I mentioned above to J007B, I’m really hoping to not have to get really complicated with my streaming setup like I did a few years ago with multiple add ons (media converters, Mutec MC3+, linear power supply for my Roon, SPDif converter amongst other items).

Mainly because of the frustration with slower locking of the digital signal. I had to power down or restart components in a certain order for everything to work ideally. A bit tiresome.

So, I recently decided to add some Stack Audio AUVA isolators beneath all of my components as something to help lower any other contributing noise. I am quite impressed with just how effective these devices are proving so far.

In my system with my components, with my room acoustics, these have proven to be quite impressive! So much so, that I followed up with an order for AUVA 100 isolators for my speaker stands. As I had made a mistake on my initial order, I missed isolators for my Vertere Imperium Motor Drive and my Benchmark DAC3B.

Those arrive in a couple of days. I look forward to hearing whether they also contribute to the cleaning up of noise while making the system even more musical : )

Lastly and most importantly, I have ordered a Shunyata Denali X (Denali 6000S v2 dealer demo that is factory upgraded to the X). I get that in about 2 weeks. On top of that I have ordered a Shunyata Altaira for my system to run all grounding cables. Probably about 3 weeks away. Waiting to hear back from my dealer on an expected delivery date.

So, a very long response (sorry!) but I am happy with how things are cleaning up the sound. I look forward to hearing how the two upcoming Shunyata upgrades improve the sound even more.

 

[Don Parkhurst]

I should have added that when all of this is done, I will try each of those suggestions to see if they help - if the noise hasn’t dropped off enough.

For the record, my latest AP 1 step records are now sounding fabulous on the analog side. Happy days.

 

[mxk116]

I am very happy with my home hifi system…..

….My question to everyone in this forum is this, which Shunyata Ethernet cables have you tried? Have you been happy with them? Do you feel that they help reduce noise in order to let the music flow through?

I appreciate you reading this far and sharing your experience : )

In my system, with a WADAX Studio Player, I continue to use the same ethernet "front end" (including 2 ShunyataOmega Ethernet cables) I have used for the last couple of years.

Shunyata Omega Ethernet from the wall to a TrendNet TEG-SS1 SFP (off the shelf switch available on Amazon for ~$50.00 USD) with output from the TrendNet via a Finisar SFP. Due to the location of the wall mounted Ethernet port to the equipment rack, there is a 12 meter single mode fiber optic cable break to the Finisar SFP on the "A" side of an UpTone Audio EtherREGEN that resides on the rack. The EtherREGEN is powered by an UpTone Audio JS-4 LPS. A second Omega Ethernet cable connects the EtherREGEN's isolated "B" side RJ45 output to the ethernet input on the Studio Player.

I've used this configuration with 4 different DAC/streamer combinations during my evaluation process before settling on the Studio Player. The first Omega Ethernet from the wall to the TrendNet switch is probably overkill but this setup is so quiet and musical I don’t have the urge to change anything.

 

[PYP]

Lastly and most importantly, I have ordered a Shunyata Denali X (Denali 6000S v2 dealer demo that is factory upgraded to the X). I get that in about 2 weeks. On top of that I have ordered a Shunyata Altaira for my system to run all grounding cables. Probably about 3 weeks away. Waiting to hear back from my dealer on an expected delivery date.

I received my Denali upgraded to the X on Sunday, so very early days. But even from this short period, I think you will very happy with the Denali X and that you can check off that box.

I have found that lots of noise travels via the ground from SMPS-powered devices -- computers, printers, routers, TV, TV box, etc. Even a dedicated line (in my setup anyway) does not completely prevent the noise traveling into the hifi. I haven't had much luck with grounding my gear, but have found surprising benefit from using Akiko devices that absorb HF noise, which I placed in the same outlets as the computer/printer/LED desk lamp and TV/TV box/router (two locations). Have read a lot of positive feedback about the Altaira, however. As many here know, Shunyata is an excellent company that builds quality products. The turnaround on the Denali upgrade was exemplary.

 

[Re-tread]

Hello @mxk116,

If you don't mind, I have a few questions for you about your new UpToneAudio JS-4 PSU. I don't want to take this thread OT, so I hope to send you a PM this weekend with my specific questions. I hope that plan is okay with you. If interested, you can see some of the details of my system in my signature below. Thank you in advance!

Kind regards,
Re-tread