Ethernet Cables, do they make a difference?

I have no audio on Ethernet but I can't imagine the quality of the cable NOT having some influence. I work for a company that  we specialize in Industrial Automation products. Everything talks to one another over Ethernet or in my world Profinet. PLC;s talking to Variable Frequency Drives, Industrial PC's etc. We DO NOT use your Radio Shack / Walmart cables. We use a industrialized cable that is shielded to protect the signals from noise. We actually terminate the cables with shielded Metal connectors made specifically for this cable. I am not sure you would need that, but if you think you would let me know.

When someone tee's up a track in Tidal on their 100Mb/s cable modem and they pull the Ethernet cable and the song still plays what is actually happening from a cable perspective at that point? 

@ burgh 

I wired up heavy machining plants in Wixom, Mi, Cleveland, Oh, Youngstown, Oh, Mentor, Oh etc...

Didn't matter if it was Ethernet or 485 Serial it was always shielded because all the 3 phase power and large inductive motors. 

Homes don't have these challenges. So the shielded designs don't help, but they could hurt if the shield ties end points to chassis and creates a ground loop. Floated shield would be fine however and the costs are minimal if it makes the audiophile feel better.

No one is saying don't use quality cabling. But the fact remains that the highest performance Ethernet cable out there is Belden's 10GX and it's about $2/foot terminated. 

You can get their normal bonded pair CAT6 for ~$1.40 a foot. 

I've personally had Ethernet cabling from $27 a foot to $233 a foot and compared directly to 315 foot of BerkTek  CAT5e. No difference. 

Homes don’t have these challenges. So the shielded designs don’t help, but they could hurt if the shield ties end points to chassis and creates a ground loop. Floated shield would be fine however and the costs are minimal if it makes the audiophile feel better.

I agree that shielding is not needed in a home environment to assure that communications on the ethernet link are robust and reliable. However I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that it could make a difference with respect to RF noise that may be coupled **from** the cable **or** from the input circuit of the receiving device to circuit points that are downstream of the ethernet interface in the receiving device. Such as to D/A converter circuits, where timing jitter amounting to far less than one nanosecond is recognized as being audibly significant. (See the section entitled "Jitter Correlation to Audibility" near the end of this paper).

In addition to the effects of shielding on radiated emissions, shielding would presumably also affect the bandwidth, capacitance, and other characteristics of the cable, in turn affecting signal risetimes and falltimes (the amount of time it takes for the signals in the cable to transition between their two voltage states), in turn affecting the spectral composition of RF noise that may find its way past the ethernet interface in the receiving device. Also, small differences in waveform distortion that may occur on the rising and falling edges of the signals, as a result of less than perfect impedance matches, will affect the spectral composition of that noise while not affecting communication of the data.

When someone tee’s up a track in Tidal on their 100Mb/s cable modem and they pull the Ethernet cable and the song still plays what is actually happening from a cable perspective at that point?

Obviously noise that may find its way to circuitry of the receiving device that is downstream of its ethernet interface, as a consequence of the signal it is receiving, will be eliminated. On the other hand, airborne RFI may increase since the cable would no longer be connected to a termination that would absorb the signal energy. Which of those effects may have audible consequences, if in fact either of them does in some applications, as I indicated in my previous posts figures to be highly component and system dependent and to have little if any predictability.

I’ve personally had Ethernet cabling from $27 a foot to $233 a foot and compared directly to 315 foot of BerkTek CAT5e. No difference.

I don’t doubt your experience. However, I also don’t doubt experiences that have been reported by members such as DGarretson, Bryoncunningham, Grannyring, and others here who are similarly thorough when assessing a change.

Regards,
-- Al

jinjuku

I’ve personally had Ethernet cabling from $27 a foot to $233 a foot and compared directly to 315 foot of BerkTek CAT5e. No difference.

That’s interesting. Can you please tell us more about your comparison? Was it based solely on measurements? If you conducted listening tests, can you please tell us how they were conducted? Which specific cables did you evaluate?