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my ethernet cable?

Hi all-

Another beginner question. So I am planning to set up a device (either an Auralic Aries or a Sonos with Empirical Audio's Synchro-Mesh and Dynamo power supply) to stream Tidal. When I was having a TV installed last year, I had the guy pull an ethernet cable to my stereo cabinet with this purpose in mind. I thought I was being smart to ask for him to get and install cat 6 instead of 5e, which was what he usually uses.

Later I read that cat6 can be a lot trickier to install correctly, and sometimes its safer just to go with 5e. (and I note the adapter plate on the wall actually says 5e.) And then I read this article from Blue Jeans cable about how most of the cat6 cable on the market is crap.

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/is-your-cat6-a-dog.htm

So all of this has me wondering if I should buy some cat6 from blue jeans (or even 5e given installation quirks with cat6?) and have this redone? Or is there a way to test the quality of the cable I have and know whether or not it is up to the task?

It seems a bit excessive to replace the cable, but on the other hand, that will cost a fraction of what an Aries streamer does, or a year's subscription to Tidal, so I am wondering if I shouldn't make sure my fundamentals are all solid before proceeding.

Any advice?

Thanks!

Margot
mcanaday
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
Just speculating, but it seems to me to be possible that even if both of the cables Cymbop compared were unshielded, differences in their characteristics may have resulted in differences in the coupling of RFI or digital noise from the cable into his system, resulting in the sonic differences he perceived. If so, I would not expect a great deal of consistency between the results he experienced and the results of a comparison between the same two cables as performed in different systems, or even in a system comprised of the same components but having a significantly different physical arrangement.

And I would expect that any relation between the improvement he experienced and the fact that the Blue Jeans cat6a cable is spec compliant, while the Monoprice cat6 cable may not have been, would be an indirect one at best. Spec compliance helps to assure that the cable will perform its function reliably, but does not have a direct relation to minimizing possible effects of the signals and digital noise being conducted by that cable on other cables or power cords or component circuitry which may be nearby.

Best regards,
-- Al
cymbop
315 posts
 
Margot, it doesn't look like the Bluejeans 6a is shielded, but my perception of the sonic improvements agrees with Al's hunch that they are somehow related to noise rejection. Also the shorter run means that it's not a scientific comparison.

As I've said before: Almarg for President 2016.
mcanaday OP
169 posts
 
I agree about Al. Where do I send my campaign contribution? :)

Thanks so much, everyone. Much appreciated!
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almarg
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Margot & Cymbop, thank you most kindly. If truth be known, though, I would much prefer listening to my stereo system to dealing with the tribulations of serving in that office :-)

Best,
-- Al
kriskdf
12 posts
 
I would also suggest taking a look at your network switch/router. Many sold are still 10/100 and if you want maximum network speed with the Auralic you would need a gigabit switch. The sonos only has a 10/100 port on it, so no big deal.

Cat5e and Cat6 can both handle gigabit if installed correctly. Cat6 installed incorrectly (or patch cable manufactured incorrectly) can be worse than a good job with cat5e, so who installs it is almost more important than which cable you choose.

Al's proposal for testing is exactly what I do for my home installs. When I paid professionals to do it for work, part of their deliverables were the test reports.

Also, a last bit of advice for anyone else doing this is to run an extra cable or two. You never know when you may need it. I only ran two to my living room and am kicking myself. You could imagine a tv, home theater, xbox, dvd player, and sonos all needing an Ethernet connection. You could always put another network switch in the living room, but then you are splitting your gigabit home run amongst all of those items, not to mention eating up one more electrical outlet. Best case scenario is that only one is actually doing any serious transfer of data at once, but you've still added one more item in between your source and destination.
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