Upgrade the last mile, use plenum rated and outdoor rated cat 7e or better. run through ductwork. done this in houses, office buildings and factories.
Questions about Ethernet Cabling
PLEASE READ: This is not a thread about the merits or demerits of audiophile-grade ethernet cables, or any cable for that matter. If you don’t believe in spending extra on expensive cables, I respect your opinion but please don’t turn this into a point of contention.
So before I ask my questions, let me describe how internet connectivity is setup in my house:
- [Home office/study] The modem (AT&T), router (Google Nest/Mesh), and switch ($25 TP-link basic switch) are located in the home office/study. I also have a second system in this room as well as other stuff connected through the switch. In other words, I can’t move the switch to another room.
- [Media room] The main audio system is located in the media room which is in the diagonally opposite side of the house (single story). This room has the ENO ethernet filter connected to the Innuous Zenith MK3 streamer, and so on.
[Long ethernet cable] A very long run of ethernet cable (CAT 6/over 100 foot) runs from the [Home office/study] router and terminates into the [Media room] ethernet jack/wall plate. This was done by the builder and it runs through the attic.
- [Media room] From the [Media room] ethernet wall plate, I then use another 6 foot ethernet cable (also CAT 6) that goes into an ENO filter and then on to the Innuos Zenith MK3 streamer.
So here are my questions:
1. Is it worth upgrading only the so-called last-mile ethernet cable, i.e. the one between the [Media room] ethernet wall plate and Eno filter while I continue using the long CAT 6 cable [Study >> Media room]? It is going to be difficult, if not impossible, to replace the long-run CAT 6 cable as it goes through the attic where several spots are not reachable without tearing down some sheetrock.
2. Is it worth adding a second audiophile-grade switch (e.g. uptone) in the media room while leaving the one in the study as is? Or is it better to upgrade the switch in the study first and place the cheaper switch in the media room? Or do I need to replace both switches (not prefered as it adds to the cost)?
- ...
- 138 posts total
@sns -- totally agree with you. Both @yyzsantabarbara and I have tried the opticalRendu and can attest to the benefits that fiber brings to the table. Just like @yyzsantabarbara I too am stumped as to why there are so few companies offering fiber optic-based solutions in the market. I mean if Sonore can do it in a reasonably priced package, why can't other companies do the same. |
@arafiq Most people are not ready for fibre yet. This stuff is pretty complicated for a lot of people. I helped someone setup a streaming system for an audio show recently and they had no idea about all the parts needed. Nor should they have to as a consumer. I think Sonore products are a stop gap for me. The Sonore stuff we have is doing a conversion to USB and also has the LPS in close proximity to the DAC. What I want is the SFP in the DAC itself like the Lumin X1 (so no USB). I just am not willing to spend Lumin X1 money on a DAC. I want the $1500 - $3000 DACs to have SFP just like they currently have Ethernet and USB. Some smart guy or gal will build such a module that the future DACs will incorporate.
|
Career networking dude here (Skywalker sound, Lucas Labs, Pixxar, ILM, etc.) Beware of techno nonsense, which among audiophiles seems to be a primary strategy for separating customers from their money. Noise on Ethernet cables. I agree with the CCNP guy who commented earlier. Unless, you are designing Ethernet signal processing/encoding silicon, you don't need to worry about it. It's not an analog signal, so what you're worried about doesn't work that way. The asterisk to this is a residential technology called PowerLine, and that's a hard no for audiophiles. Cable type. Do you run 40GigE in your house? Neither do I. Decisions about cabling are based on the speed of Ethernet you want to support as well as distance. You can google a chart on it, but cat6 will generally support 1GigE, cat6a will support 10GigE and cat8 can do up to 40GigE. Please do make sure when running cables to make sure you are not violating fire codes when running through, for example, plenum spaces. As far as 'audiophile switch', hang onto your wallet. Residential audio applications are low bandwidth applications that do not require a commercial grade router or switch. What you probably want is something that doesn't use up a lot of power (look for max power load/draw in the specs) or doesn't have fans to make noise. I like the new cisco catalyst 1000 series 8 port switch because its fanless, doesn't draw much power and can even do some simple layer 3 routing. There are other Ethernet switches starting at about the $50 price point which may be fine for non engineering users. Latency. Your intra-switch latency will be on the other of 3-6usec (microseconds) for a store and forward. Humans, starting with elite drummers, start being able to detect viariations in the timeframe of a few miliseconds. So you're fine. Wireless. Packetization delay and its associated variability in delay (jitter) can be avoided altogether because you have existing wiring in place. As far as the decision to put in another switch: Your driving design decision would be to control the length of cable runs (a moot point in a residential home) and avoid needless complexity and hassles in cable runs. If you've got money to burn, I wouldn't buy fancy cables and routers. I would however consider getting a firewall and put in policies to isolate my IoT/security vlan from my engineering, music, guest and production (kids, wife, TV, etc.) vlans.
|
- 138 posts total