curious ethernet cable

Curious Ethernet cable: $440 for 0.8m

The Curious Ethernet cable was developed to compliment the usb and interconnect cables - by preserving the sense of space and dimension as heard in live music.

If you’re looking for an Ethernet cable that gets out of the way - and allows music to sound “real” and “involving”, then the Curious Ethernet is for you.

Listeners tell me the Curious Ethernet is a top echelon cable that deserves a place in the most demanding high-end systems.

Bottom line: If you love the Curious usb cable and Interconnects - you'll love the Curious Ethernet!

The Curious Ethernet is manufactured in Australia using the finest materials known to mankind. Each cable is fitted with "direct contact" connectors - that do not include internal circuit boards.

Curious ethernet cable review

Kurt Lassen - international critic

As far as I remember, I have always been a sucker for good sound, regardless of the price, the chosen brand, and what others say. On the other hand, I find Hi-End cables costing more than a sportscar, or speakers worth (are they really?) the same as a beach house quite ridiculous.

So when my mind comes to an idea to optimize my music system for some little money, I am hooked to try it.

That way I came to try to go the fibre way for my streaming system, inspired by the article on Hifi Pig: https://www.hifipig.com/adot-mc01-fibre-network-kit/

I wanted to order some ethernet to fibre converters but was surprised to find out about the variety and possibilities combined with its complexity and a language (new words like Full duplex or SX OM3 LC to LC Fiber Patch Cable) that I had to learn from scratch.

After reading a lot about this, and ordering and returning several wrong items, I came upon Amazon.de where there was all I needed and the possibility to order matching components.

So I ended up with two boxes called Ethernet Media Converters, two SFP modules, and some fibre patch cable, for the horrendous amount of 80 Euros 😀

The Ethernet Converters are the size of a household matchbox, and as I ordered them as a package together I was told it would be Plug and Play, and not F… and Pray.

One week later the package from Amazon arrived, and yes indeed it was Plug and Play.

So my ethernet got connected and the SFP module was inserted into the first Media converter. The patch cable was also connected to it, and then the full monty was reversed, so I ended up with Ethernet -> Fiber -> Ethernet. All conversion was done in these small boxes.

Happily, I could easily get access to everything on my network, and a speed test showed that there was no speed loss because of this conversation back and forth.

So the next thing then was to try out an Ethernet cable within a reasonable price range, not meaning at a massive cost. As I had a good experience with cables from Curious Cable earlier, I did not hesitate to call for a sample.

Direct connection

Curious Cables have before convinced me that I don't have to spend tens of thousands of Euros for some (world-class) cables. This time Rob, the mastermind behind the Curious brand, again was right in his e-mail, writing “if you like our USB cables, you will love our Ethernet cables too”.

He has made plugs, USB cables, Interconnects, and now these Ethernet cables. And not one stone has been left unturned in his quest for the holy grail of computer audio. I have tested all of his stuff, and I know what this man is capable of.

I will not dig deeper into the construction of the cable, and what’s inside (I’ll leave that to Rob Woodland on his website), but the cable is somewhat unusual as it’s made of four separate cables. And it does not make a click when inserted, I was afraid that this somehow would be a thing to worry about. Rob informed me: “the connector doesn’t click as some do. This connector is a direct contact pin variety chosen for sound quality”.

P!nk noise

If you have tried to put the sound of some pink noise through your system, you can easily judge if your setup has some severe problems according to your acoustics. Pink noise contains all frequencies and is the audio equivalent of white light (which contains all colours). If you play this sound, try to move your head back and forth and you can easily hear if there is a change of sound (which should not be the fact). I have tuned my system to be quite good, and use the fabulous room correction software, Dirac, to do the final finish. All this went through my mind while I was listening to some live recording where the crowd is clapping and cheering at the beginning of the track (“The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin´ Groovy)”, Live at Carnegie Hall, July 1972, Simon & Garfunkel, 24/192). I’ve heard this song thousands of times as it was with me in my childhood so I know it quite well. But never have I heard the crowd so intimate, so live, so agile, so natural. With this cable, it was not more a digital file playing pink noise, but my mind stepped back to my first vinyl record on my old Braun stereo that had followed me through my years in school. The sound of the audience is not pink noise, but lots of happy people having fun. Yes, this is what this cable can do.

And also Paul Simon´s guitar on the same track is soft yet precise to listen to. What a joy! What a revelation!

When I switch back to my no-name cable the sound gets harsh, the dynamics are gone, the soundstage gets smaller, and the fun is gone, just gone. And the before-mentioned noise? Just noise, nothing more. With the Curious in place, that music clicks into one whole. The bass goes lower, and the soundstage gets wider and deeper.

“My Favorite Things” with the newly remastered 2022 version of John Cales album of the same name, now in 24-bit and 192 kHz becomes so shockingly real that my feet never stopped tapping all the 13 minutes and 46 seconds the music lasted.

Music

I will give you some more examples of what I was listening to:

The beginning of the “Fanfare For The Common Man” (Aaron-Zubin Mehta) is big. Very big. And even bigger with the Curious in place. Also, this is just fun to listen to. Or try to put on Saint-Saëns “Habanera” performed by Filippa Giordana. Wow, just wow, with this cable it’s just amazing music, without it its just music I am listening to, but not getting involved in.

Another thing I like to mention is that you don’t have to play at party sound levels, this cable is so revealing that listening to extremely low levels (kid sleeping in the next room) is just as enjoyable.

This next song gives me the shivers when played through the Curious, it is Moby´s version of David Bowie’s “Heroes”. Shivers, just shivers!

The deep rolling thunder from the song “Solo For Zarens By” fra Den Sidste Slæderejse (Knud Møller) just fills the room and the low end is extended to the abnorm. I never have heard my low frequencies like this. Wow!

Many HiFi lovers know the singer/songwriter Allan Taylor for his great-sounding music and touching lyrics. This English gentleman of 71 years has made a collaboration with the young Dane Jacob Dinesen (27 years of age), and together they perform the track The Jokers Hand. This song is about these two guys meeting up and Taylor is mentoring the young and upcoming artist. Please hear these voices, they are a match in heaven. And also a match in heaven is this ethernet cable from Curious with my HiFi system.

But also internet radio like Radio Paradise is worth a try and listenable to with this black and yellow cable. I forgot (because of some kid in the next room) that I had switched from my no-name cable to the Curious some hours earlier. And I was shocked by how good internet radio stations (some only MP3s) sounded.

Velvety yet ultra-precise was another superlative I found in my notes from the late-night sessions.

Only $480.00 for the one-meter version of absolutely Hi-End sound, that’s a bargain. And if you, like me doubted that Ethernet cables (or any digital cables at all) could make an audible impact, Curious gives a 30-day money-back guarantee. But I am sure you will not use it. Very sure.

I have made a Qobuz playlist with some of the songs used in my writing, you can find it here: https://open.qobuz.com/playlist/9866178

Stream on you crazy diamond. And thumbs up. This is world-class.

https://curiouscables.com

curious ethernet cable

Curious Ethernet cable: $440 for 0.8m

Review of the Curious Ethernet Cable

Curious ethernet cable review

Kurt Lassen - international critic