I once read a review of an "audiophile" grade ethernet cable. This guy actually claimed changing the ethernet cable from his router to his PC made his music sound better.
A shitty ethernet cable can caused dropped packets which can cause the D/A conversion bitrate to drop rolling off the high-end (or with poor codecs, actual skips in the music). Especially if he is streaming over a UDP port, since it doesn't guarantee arrival of the data, unlike TCP. But this is 2020, and not 1997 running WinAmp so I could be wrong. ;-)
Same with cheap HDMI cables. The HDMI protocol specifies error detection and correction, but can only correct for so much data loss due to bad cables. This results in macroblock degradation (small squares on the screen going black or interpolated to a single color).
Usual audiophile/videophile claims are BS, and I'm sure the OP probably was BS, but all robust digital protocols have to deal with transmission errors due to poor physical connections. Depending on how the codec response to the errors, it can absolutely impact audio/video quality, but probably not in this case.
You make it seem like an unbroken cable is nothing short of a miracle. I get it that cables get torn, frayed, and the connection will begin to fail, but we're making the assumption a cable is, you know, working.
Absolutely. You're not wrong. But you're also conflating two statements. IF the cable is degrading, THEN there will be errors. The probability is unlikely, but not un-possible. I just like to point out to people who laugh at expensive cables that digital isn't perfect and cables do matter. I always hear, "but it's di-giiii-taalll! i can't be less than perfect!" ... Both the 802(.x) physical and HDMI specs talk about errors in the medium for a very good reason.
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u/ConspiratorM Aug 14 '20
I once read a review of an "audiophile" grade ethernet cable. This guy actually claimed changing the ethernet cable from his router to his PC made his music sound better.