Hi Margot,
Wow! The Blue Jeans article is certainly eye-opening, and everything it says strikes me as technically persuasive. But on the other hand keep in mind the following:
1)As long as the ethernet link conveys the bits reliably and consistently, the fact that the cable may not meet cat6 or even cat5e specs is irrelevant. By its nature data transmission via ethernet cannot affect sonics as a result of jitter, waveform degradation, or other such issues that can certainly have relevance in the cases of S/PDIF, AES/EBU, USB, etc., unless the problems with the ethernet link are so severe that dropouts occur. See the paragraph entitled "Jitter and Networked Audio" in this paper by Steve Nugent of Empirical Audio. (Scroll down to just past the middle of the page).
2)Regarding testing the quality of the cable, the one suggestion that occurs to me, if practical, would be to network two computers together such that the cable is included in the path between them, and transferring a number of large files back and forth from one to the other.
3)My perception has been that anecdotal reports of dropouts or other performance problems with wired ethernet connections in home environments seem to be exceedingly rare.
4)One or two members here whom I consider to be particularly credible have reported in past threads that in their systems a perceivable sonic benefit was realized by upgrading their ethernet cables from unshielded cat5 or 5e to shielded cat6. Presumably that resulted from the shielding providing a reduction in RFI or digital noise being radiated or coupled from the cable to unrelated circuit points or grounds within the system. That kind of effect, however, if it occurs at all, figures to be highly system dependent and placement dependent. If you do end up replacing the cable I would suggest asking Blue Jeans if they can supply a shielded variety, but my instinct would be to not go to the trouble of replacing the cable based on that consideration alone.
Best regards,
-- Al
Wow! The Blue Jeans article is certainly eye-opening, and everything it says strikes me as technically persuasive. But on the other hand keep in mind the following:
1)As long as the ethernet link conveys the bits reliably and consistently, the fact that the cable may not meet cat6 or even cat5e specs is irrelevant. By its nature data transmission via ethernet cannot affect sonics as a result of jitter, waveform degradation, or other such issues that can certainly have relevance in the cases of S/PDIF, AES/EBU, USB, etc., unless the problems with the ethernet link are so severe that dropouts occur. See the paragraph entitled "Jitter and Networked Audio" in this paper by Steve Nugent of Empirical Audio. (Scroll down to just past the middle of the page).
2)Regarding testing the quality of the cable, the one suggestion that occurs to me, if practical, would be to network two computers together such that the cable is included in the path between them, and transferring a number of large files back and forth from one to the other.
3)My perception has been that anecdotal reports of dropouts or other performance problems with wired ethernet connections in home environments seem to be exceedingly rare.
4)One or two members here whom I consider to be particularly credible have reported in past threads that in their systems a perceivable sonic benefit was realized by upgrading their ethernet cables from unshielded cat5 or 5e to shielded cat6. Presumably that resulted from the shielding providing a reduction in RFI or digital noise being radiated or coupled from the cable to unrelated circuit points or grounds within the system. That kind of effect, however, if it occurs at all, figures to be highly system dependent and placement dependent. If you do end up replacing the cable I would suggest asking Blue Jeans if they can supply a shielded variety, but my instinct would be to not go to the trouble of replacing the cable based on that consideration alone.
Best regards,
-- Al