My dealer loaned me a 1.5 m length of Audioquest Diamond, their latest maybe called Plus, I forget. I have only this one length installed, between my Cisco switch and the Bridge. My NAS uses generic Cat 6 and connects to my upstairs router and then back down, maybe 150 ft. So I’m very surprised how much my SQ is improved with just 1.5 m, I was not expecting much if any improvement. I hear additional clarity/less veiling of the sound, better imaging and soundstage depth. Now the bad, $695 for just 1.5 m, but I’ll probably bite, it’s hard to go back.
I only tied the 1.5M Cinnamon from my switch to DS/Bridge then I couldn’t go back either 
Now I’m waiting for the 5M to add on the 3 dollars crossover adapter, then I will crossover from my computer to DS/Bridge directly after problematic network streaming, hope it will show me much improvement from generic crossover cable…
I use Audioquest Vodka between my NAS and switch, and between switch and DS, with good effect. I was thinking about getting a Diamond between the switch and the DS, but I decided that since the music has to go from the NAS via the switch before reaching the DS, it made no sense to put an expensive cable on the second half and a cheap one on the first half. Two Diamonds were a little beyond what I wanted to do right now. The Vodkas are smooth and detailed.
I recently watched a friend spent about 6K on cables [most were A’gon and used] as he was completely “re-tuning” his rig. He researched and shopped for a couple of months to reach his choice decisions. His response to my obviously puzzled look was " I can always resell them".
So the cable market is still strong?
As Wi-Fi connections continue to become more stable and reliable, is it not a decent replacement for Ethernet? And, is USB next? While in the digital domaine why not go wireless all the way to the DAC?
Magister, Have you tried just one Vodka compared to the two, to see if the DS location is better than the NAS or visa versa ?
rogerdn said Magister, Have you tried just one Vodka compared to the two, to see if the DS location is better than the NAS or visa versa ?I have not. I bought two and wanted to get them both broken in. Maybe next weekend I'll try that. Never occurred to me, actually.
magister saidrogerdn said Magister, Have you tried just one Vodka compared to the two, to see if the DS location is better than the NAS or visa versa ?I have not. I bought two and wanted to get them both broken in. Maybe next weekend I’ll try that. Never occurred to me, actually.
Thks, would be useful to know expensive as they are.
Well my 412+ does do wireless I see, using a USB adapter from my OPPO.
I have tried both wired and wireless with the Aries and cannot tell any difference in functionality or SQ. Auralic does recommend wireless for best SQ but I have not heard others comment yet on this.
I do not have a NAS so for now I use JR or Minim on my Mini and daisy chained firewire drives… This will change when the USB input accepts a HD. I suppose a NAS could be plugged in or just remain being seen on the network. I suppose a NAS would make sense in my case but I am still hoping for a solution that rids me of the extra computing and spinning hard drives. [$$ being a consideration].
The Aries will see a NAS on a network automatically so there is no need for it to be wireless. Only the Aries is connected by wifi to the router. It appears to be well thought out from a logical functionality perspective with new updates and features monthly. In fact they must have read some of our forum posts about Silent Sirver wish lists.
[I moved the last couple of posts to the sources discussion as they are much more about the Auralic Aries than Ethernet cables.]
EDIT by Gordon
Sorry, I moved it back.
Not meaning to be argumentative but the arbitrary moving of posts can be confusing and tends to break a conversation between the active parties who are aware of the context. Perhaps asking before moving or deleting an unoffensive post might be more condusive to a fluid and friendly forum.
{Elk Response: The move was anything but arbitrary. The topic was best cables, not the Auralic and not wireless. I cleaned up the mess. Rather than overruling my efforts, perhaps asking would be a better approach. Yes? 
No one has previously complained when I moved off-topic posts to an appropriate thread. However, to resolve your issue, we will leave the off-topic posts and modify the topic title instead. Problem solved. }
rogerdn said Well my 412+ does do wireless I see, using a USB adapter from my OPPO.That could be an interesting experiment.
The unit wired or wireless, for now, must all be linked via the router so two wireless connections could mean two less cables. I like the concept.
But have not been able yet to see it on my network or mconnect, but DSM recognizes it. Maybe it’s because the OPPO adapter is not on Synologies confirmed list.
If we use Sonos as an example, it creates a parallel network for wifi and also can be wired.
I’m not sure exactly how they do it [channels?] but it seems to be robust. Each node also becomes a repeater and helps to create a mesh that extends the signal when it is discovered. This is where their initial R+D $$ went. Granted, it appears limited in resolution capability but I suspect it is the actual hardware rather than available bandwidth or speed limitations.
In our case the router becomes the hub, so any node that is capable of connecting to the router by wifi hould appear as a selectable option on the network. So if the “controller” [ipad] app is able to select a server [NAS or computer] and a “bridge” that puts the DAC on the same network, then the music should be rendered efficiently depending on proximity to the router and the amount of obstacles [walls, floors etc]. This is how I am set up now and, so far, all is good. I have the ability to hardwire the Mac to the router but it does not seem to make any difference in stability so now I’m playing around to see if I can hear any difference in SQ. I have some “good quality” cat-6 cables vs the wireless but I do not have the premium ones you have mentioned. Based on what I am hearing now, convenience and lower cost shall prevail.