Ethernet cable question

Well, power cables follow the same pattern and they impact the sound...

Cat 5 should be good ... up to a 1000 M some such spec ...

Cat 5 is 100m, Cat 5e is NOT rated at 1000m but supports it.

As far as speed it depends on; Your incoming bandwidth, what your using your internal network for. If your 5e you are Gigabit and should be good, if you had more than 1 Gigabit coming in then you would have a reason to upgrade internally.

Sure you could upgrade critical runs like to your router, to the Node 2i to say, Cat 6. Would you notice a difference from 5e to 6? Probably not, now if your talking about upgrading the quality of the cable that is another debate and someone else can field that one.

By the way your Node 2i is ethernet and wireless? If you are using it wireless than you need to be looking at your wireless speed.

Wait a minute do you mean from the jack on the wall to your Node 2i?

In that case you want that piece of 6 Ft or however long cable to also be 5e like you have inside the wall.

Will

flrun I am talking about the jack on the wall to the node 2i. In the wall is Cat 5e. I have my Node 2i setup using ethernet and not wifi. Our Comcast service is 600, we do not have gigabit in our area, we are in farm country. 

600 is not bad at all...

You will want jack to Node 2i to also be at least 5e otherwise it would not be getting the full Gigabit. Is yours 5e?

If you replaced the jack to Node 2i with Cat 6 your not going to see any improvement, you would still get the same 5e speed. Again if you are considering going to a high quality cable like Wire World for improvement someone else can address that.

Thanks flrun, yes it is 5e in the walls. I ran ethernet to all the rooms where I thought we would need it when our home was being built 8 years ago. 

My mistake: " The maximum length you can run Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6 and Cat6a cable is 100 meters or 328 feet. If you require a longer run, you will need to put an active component, such as a router, in-between the signals."
Thought it might be longer length limit.
At less than 300 feet total length you are still good.
Also the number of connection points should be limited for best results.

Best Regards,

R

I believe that the SQ of an Ethernet cable only really matters AFTER a HiFi switch (Bonn N8 on up)
If you have ain't got one don' worry 'bout it.
If you do I'd go with ViaBlue.
https://viablue.de/com/cables_ep7_ethernet_cat6a_t6s_rj45.php
Otherwise a Cat8 from Monoprice will deliver all you can get outta the wall.

basic Cat 5, up to 100Mbps

that's 100,000,000. bits per second. 

how does 40khz translate into bits per second?

You could probably get Cat 6 or 6a patch cable for the same price as 5e, try monoprice. What are you using now? Does it work? 

If you want to pay insane prices for Ethernet there is ample opportunity to do so. After a lot of research and/or rationalization I have come to the opinion that for ME either the Swedish Supra Cat8 ethernet cable available on eBay or if you want a more upmarket (?) cable, the DH Labs Reunion ethernet Cat8 cable offers the best bang for the buck. Has anyone been able to hear any SQ differences between the above cables and the $1000 cables from the high end cable makers?

You do not want to use ethernet to stream.
Use fiber.
Available on Amazon 25 meters for $30. 
Much better than metal.

Now you may have to break some drywall to install it.

You have multiple networks: internet, private internal, wireless, and maybe a guest network. All networks can have different speeds. Hopefully you built a 1G internal private network, an AC wireless network, and up to a 1G fiber internet network. Unless you have dozens of people streaming at the same time, a 1G network is plenty fast.  Music files are small, you don’t need a 1G network for music.
Cables do make a difference. I use cat7 throughout the house with a cat7 Audioquest cable from the wall to the dac.

cat5 is good for about up to 300 feet at 1 Gb/sec.  You have no worries.

If possible, get fiber into the house.  Biggest bang for your buck.

From everything to the switches (top of the line SOTM then Regen in series) I use wireworld cat 8. In my system this was a huge upgrade from everything else (including audioquest diamond, though other friends report just the opposite in their systems) I tried 3-4 years ago.  The yellow one works for me but some friends report better results from the more expensive wireworld ones.  

It should be mentioned that the rest of my home is connected to the switch with copper.  Removing this connection for serious listening is a great pop up. 

So last night I was listening to my system after just switching the Node 2i over to ethernet the day before (i had been using it on my 5ghz wifi prior to that because the wall plate and jack were not finished at the stereo until the day before). Something was different, I did not enjoy it as much as I had been. It sounded more closed in. I listened for a while and it sounded good, detailed, but not like as open as it did previously. I took the ethernet cable out to let it go back to wifi, and now its back to what I was enjoying. I then did a quick search on wifi vs ethernet and found the John Darko video on this topic. I am sure mine has to do with the cheap Cat 5e cable that is in the walls when I ran these cables 8 years ago when our home was being built. Its about a 40 ft run to where the system is located. Back then when I was running this I wasn't thinking about audiophile streaming. I am sure with good insulated ethernet cable it may have a different outcome, but for my setup I am going back to wifi as it definitely sounded better.

I wired my modem to my BlueSound Node 2i using CAT6.  The local dealer said that was better than CAT5.  Hope the dealer advised me correctly.

Larry, it may be for your situation. However for me it was not. It would be worth your time to A/B wifi and ethernet.

@jmphotography , It seems to me that you may want to look into the Modem and Router if you are experiencing a marked difference between WiFi and Hardwire. 

Which do you have Cat 5 or 5e, you mention both? Cat 5 is susceptible to crosstalk 5e not so much. If it's Cat 5 your wifi might sound better, 5e I would  check connections etc... I have Cat6 (compareable to 5e) never noticed a difference except for occasional dropout with wifi. 

There is a designer from Sweden makes CAT8 and claims you can run it as long as you want.  Supra Cables. Find them on Ebay. I got my USB from them and the noise I was used to disappeard. He twists the power leads and the data leads and adds a separate shield. In fact this cable made a bigger improvement than the ifi iSilencer+.

http://www.jenving.com/

Just get a mesh router, out a node by the stereo and bypass all that Cat5.

I have a 80 feet Belden Cat7 run from the router to the streamer. When I installed  SOtm sNH-10G network switch and dCBL-Cat 7 ethernet cable next to the DAC. Awesome improvements, so much less muddy, overall staging so relax and distinctive. This prompt me to add a cheaper Angel silent bonn n8 network switch next to the router using the ethernet cable provided by the bonn n8 kit. Again there was a step improvement. 

I agree with the above post, Ethernet cable differences are there but it's very subtle stuff and you need the right system to stand a chance of hearing something at all.

However a good Ethernet switch between your bog standard router and your system can make significant improvements relative to Ethernet cabling. Then further down the line if you want to go deep in an Ethernet cable you only need a good short one for the last connection.

I recommend uptone audio Etherregen,  you can try it on 30 day terms if you don't like it it's going to cost you return postage. $660 thereabouts, I put a linear power supply on mine and got another good jump in SQ. 

Hi discopants,  In my set up, my Modem / router and a giga bite switch are both in my office remote of my listening areas.  I also have my Nucleus+ in my office direct to the router.  Then cables (cat5E) travel through walls to my  DAC / Streamer endpoints.
1) Will the Etherregen improve this system?  Does it go between my router and switch, and if so should then all important stuff come out of the switch and not the router?
2) Does adding a better cable (cat 8) downstream of a Cat5E cable improve things (from the wall jack to the DAC /Streamer)?
Thanks!  Ken

I dont know much about ethernet cables but I do have experience with using them and the cable between the wall and router making an improvement.  I used the SoTM cable with the filter between the wall and a SoTM router, it was a big improvement over a simple Cat5 cable.
I also have added an Etherregen and it is worth the money.  I found it is best between the wall and the SoTM router.  I am not sure how important the cable is before the Etherregen is.  In spite of what Uptone says the SoTM cables between the Etherregen and SoTM router and the cables after the SoTM router to my music servers make a night and day difference.

Thanks anzaanimalclinic,  I looked at the SoTM website; very confusing to me.
What router and filter do you have?
Thanks, Ken

Belden 6a. Little pricey, but not boutique. Insulated and near impervious to interference. Connect to a network switch powered by a diy linear PS. You can find pcb's on diyaudio. That will firewall noise from your main. Make sure the switch is dedicated to your audio, and when you feel the Belden 6a, you'll know. Its stout.

fastfreight-
Sorry I lost this thread. This is confusing to me also.  The cable is  https://www.sotm-audio.com/sotmwp/english/portfolio-item/dcbl-cat7/.  I have 2 of the cat7 cables.  I also have a  https://www.sotm-audio.com/sotmwp/english/portfolio-item/iso-cat6/ with SOtM Black ethernet cables.  I use these with an Etherregen and SOtM switch  https://www.sotm-audio.com/sotmwp/english/portfolio-item/snh-10g/
The cables clearly improve the sound.  I just added an English Electric 8Switch, it has a very positive effect on weight and richness.  I may add another 8Switch as I liked the effect.

Zosion’s Cat 8 cable can capably and consistently support high-speed data transmission rates. In particular, this specific cord can support up to 2 GHz of frequency bandwidth, with up to 40 Gbps of data speed rates. In this case, I like how dependable this network cord is in terms of data speed capability.

I swapped out a 5 to an 8 and herd a real difference from my router to my streamer node 2i , one of the biggest upgrades Ive ever done , I got a Link up 22 awg cat 8 for $34 I couldn't believe it . 

I swapped out a 5 to an cat8 and herd a real difference from my router to my streamer node 2i , one of the biggest upgrades Ive ever done , I got a Link up 22 awg cat 8 for $34 I couldn't believe it , no BS. 

I just installed a new sotm sNH-10G switch with a Farad3 linear power supply and a AQ Hurricane source power cable...

Does anybody have an idea what the burnin time could be for these 3 components?

Thanks in advance.