After extensive reading of this and other threads on the effect of ethernet cables on sound quality I’ve completed some comparative auditions of my own. I swopped around 5 cables in the 3 legs of the ethernet LAN section connecting my music player to a wireless bridge via an optical leg and switch. On the other end of the wireless bridge is a remote LAN section comprising Modem, router, switch and a NAS holding the music library. The cables covered a wide price range, two (the SOtM & Chord) were loaned on sale-or-return, and the others I’ve had in use for from months to years. Rather than write a long description of what I did and the results, I’ve created the attached spreadsheet (you’ll need to zoom in to see the details).
To summarise I decided to keep the SOtM dCBL CAT7 cable. In my system, dCS Bridge > PS Audio DirestStream DAC > Primare A.60 amp > Harbeth SHL5 Anniversary model, I found this cable clearly sounds better than the Chord Signature Super ARAY cable. Compared with the Chord cable it conveys more space, with richer tones. Sounds are more natural, particularly on piano & voices. Strings have more warmth and detail. Transients have greater impact with better bass definition (attack, solidity & decay). Overall it improved the illusion of being present at a performance. Most of my music library consists of acoustic classical music and jazz so this is important to me.
Other conclusions I came to were (1) swopping two of the better cables between the first and last legs made only a small difference to sound quality with placement of the better cable in last leg giving marginally better SQ, (2) there was little to choose between the Meicord and the CatSnake cables: the Meicord had more clarity while the CatSnake had more bass but was slightly woolly in comparison.
I must admit I did not expect to hear such a significant variations in sound quality from swopping around ethernet cables - it is of the same order as I heard when I replaced the Netgear switch with the EE 8Switch, so I guess I will need to repeat the exercise for the cables in other parts of the LAN. Of course I should add the caveat that these results are for for my system, in my listening room, with my music and my ears.