What ethernet cables are you using?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by LeeS, Jan 29, 2019.

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  1. LeeS

    LeeS Music Fan Thread Starter

    Location:
    Atlanta
    Curious what has worked for members here....thanks.
     
  2. chili555

    chili555 Forum Resident

  3. captwillard

    captwillard Forum Resident

    Location:
    Nashville
    Pre-terminated ones for networking have worked fine for me.
     
  4. LeeS

    LeeS Music Fan Thread Starter

    Location:
    Atlanta
    Apparently Blue Jeans offers an accuracy graph for each set. Has anyone tried that brand on ethernet?
     
  5. vinylontubes

    vinylontubes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Katy, TX
    Blue generic ones. I have some better ones. Apparently I'm too lazy to swap them out.
     
    Doug Walton likes this.
  6. LeeS

    LeeS Music Fan Thread Starter

    Location:
    Atlanta
    Lol.
     
    vinnn likes this.
  7. rebellovw

    rebellovw Forum Resident

    Location:
    hell
    99% silver braided using all virgin silver lightly forged - cold water bath.













    Kidding. Blue cables that find from various datacenters.
     
  8. mongo

    mongo Senior Member

    I'm using a Bluejeans ethernet cable for connecting my NAS to my Oppo-205.
    I think they're CAT-6.
    I trust Bluejeans to be solid and the cable runs inside a wall, across the attic and down another wall to an outlet box in the living room, I wanted to be sure that I wouldn't have to run another one.
    This is the very most I would spend on an ethernet cable.
     
    Encore, mds and LeeS like this.
  9. Eigenvector

    Eigenvector Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southeast PA
    This:

    [​IMG]

    I bought 500 feet and had my contractor pull it through the walls (because I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of climbing through a damp crawl space) and terminate it with a wall jack at each end. One end at my router in the den and the other end everywhere I want it connected to a stereo. It does what it’s supposed to do.
     
    vinnn, timind, Helom and 1 other person like this.
  10. Carrman

    Carrman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    Used tons of different brands. The only type that ever gave me issues was monoprice and that was when I was passing video through it via HDMI extenders.
     
    LeeS likes this.
  11. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    whatever I have around...
     
    bru87tr likes this.
  12. TheVinylAddict

    TheVinylAddict Look what I found

    Location:
    AZ
    I am going to laugh my ass off if this turns into another "cable thread!" :)

    For those of you about to say "But it is a cable thread" you know what I mean...
     
    Leonthepro and bru87tr like this.
  13. SirMarc

    SirMarc Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cranford, NJ
    Audioquest Pearl from my router to my Bluesound Node 2i. Why? Because it was cheap enough, and all my other digital cables are Audioquest, so I figured what the hell...
     
    Doc Diego and Eigenvector like this.
  14. TheVinylAddict

    TheVinylAddict Look what I found

    Location:
    AZ
    I currently use Cat 5 / Cat5e in my house, as in the 2000 timeframe I hard-wired Cat 5 / Leviton terminals throughout my walls and attic, at the time the rage was 10 /100 so that's what went in. Have no real need to change it, 10/ 100 is more than sufficient and will be into the foreseeable future --- so no Gigabit components or anything beyond Cat 5e here.

    If I were to do it all over starting today, I would probably do it different!

    As far as type / brand of cable, I probably have 20 different types around the different locations --- including patch cables I made myself with a spool of Cat 5 , crimpers, etc.... I have quite the wired and wireless network here, I probably have 7 or 8 10/100 switches, with three different access points, and a hard wired home run to one room in the middle of the house from five separate locations (this "hub" room is now where my sons' have their gaming stations and office for college studies these days --- used to be my office, but these days Dad has been demoted to an office / bump out in the finished garage! :))
     
    LeeS likes this.
  15. hvbias

    hvbias Midrange magic

    Location:
    Northeast
    Audiophile USB cables were a laughing stock around 2010, now every audiophile company makes them. I give it another 4 or 5 years when streamers have really caught on then we will see many more audiophile ethernet cables and they will become ubiquitous.
     
    MGW, Lebowski and LeeS like this.
  16. art

    art Senior Member

    Location:
    520
    Yeah. But streaming sounds worse so far than actually playing the same-mastered file. Things have a ways to go yet sonically on the streaming end before an ethernet cable can really help.
     
  17. Carrman

    Carrman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    And the question arises “what is it being used for?”

    Sending audio from an in house media server to different rooms is different from steaming from online sources.

    As I mentioned above, I’ve only had real issues when using Ethernet for video over twisted pair which is a different data requirement than the 2 other examples. Now I need to make sure I’m using high quality Cat6 shielded for all intranet video applications.
     
  18. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    Lee is likely using a PS Audio Network Bridge in a DirectStream DAC. That setup should do OK.
     
    Rolltide and LeeS like this.
  19. Josquin des Prez

    Josquin des Prez I have spoken!

    Location:
    U.S.
    Nothing special about ethernet cable. It doesn't transmit audio data anyway in standard network protocol applications. It either works or doesn't. Any standards compliant Cat5 or Cat6 should work for any home audio applications (i.e. streaming on a home network; e.g. from a NAS to a DAC). Anyone spending extra on boutique ethernet cable is throwing good money after bad.
     
  20. LeeS

    LeeS Music Fan Thread Starter

    Location:
    Atlanta
    That is correct. AT&T router to Network Bridge about 20 feet away but need 30 feet to work around the corners.
     
  21. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    If you're going to be trying to route the cable cleanly and neatly around corners you'll want to consider the bend radius of different ethernet cables. Some cables are designed to be able to do tighter bends than others. Google for CAT5e CAT6 bend radius for more info. Generally the ethernet cables with smaller diameters can handle tighter bends while still maintaining full performance.

    You may also want to consider locating a 4 port hub near the audio rack. That way you'll have extra ports to use when you review or try different audio devices that need a network connection.
     
    LeeS likes this.
  22. 56GoldTop

    56GoldTop Forum Resident

    Location:
    Nowhere, Ok
    I like CAT6. It's robust. What I don't like is terminating it.
     
    gd0 likes this.
  23. Josquin des Prez

    Josquin des Prez I have spoken!

    Location:
    U.S.
    Switches perform better than hubs with multiple devices connected, and the unmanaged ones are not expensive.
     
    chili555 and Ham Sandwich like this.
  24. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    Yes, switch. I don't know why I said hub.
     
    Josquin des Prez likes this.
  25. mongo

    mongo Senior Member

    Can't believe this "cable" thread is only 1 page so far.
    I'll throw an extra buck 280.
    Talk to anyone who works in IT for living regardless of their discipline and they'll tell you the same thing.
    Ethernet and other proven data protocols like USB & TCP IP, they are fool proof.
    All of the byte packets are buffered and arranged in order.
    It make little difference in the cable as long it meets spec.

    Audio is not that bandwidth intensive compared to video.
    People need to get over their preconceived ideas of what is required to transmit bit perfect digital signals.
    Spend the big bucks if it comforts you, otherwise you wouldn't be able to tell in any kind of A\B comparo.
     
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