At the risk of beginning a discussion between believers and non-believers on whether to pamper bits and bytes or not. Having heard a difference between different digital cables on an ok system myself and wishing the best structural set-up also for the future, I am confronted with a dilemma.
I used to have my router very close to my audio system. The router was connected by a 1 meter Audioquest (Cinnamon I think) Ethernet cable to my streamer.
I moved recently to a place where I will probably stay for many years. The router (download speed > 100 Mbps) is nowadays + 10 meters away from the streamer. To give an idea, my current partial set-up is a Bluesound Node 2 streamer used as a DAC for streaming (unfortunately through wi-fi atm), connected by a Transparant Musiclink Interconnect to a NAD C372 ampli. Van den Hul Hybrid speaker cables then lead to a pair of ProAc Studio 125. Happy with the components, but they might be upgraded over the following years.
I do not want to go through wi-fi for streaming. I will pull an ethernet cable leaving from the router direction streamer through an existing PVC cable conduit (currently hosting an unused old TV cable) over the entire 11 meters. I don’t want to replace this cable too often for upgrading purposes.
I guess I can choose between:
I used to have my router very close to my audio system. The router was connected by a 1 meter Audioquest (Cinnamon I think) Ethernet cable to my streamer.
I moved recently to a place where I will probably stay for many years. The router (download speed > 100 Mbps) is nowadays + 10 meters away from the streamer. To give an idea, my current partial set-up is a Bluesound Node 2 streamer used as a DAC for streaming (unfortunately through wi-fi atm), connected by a Transparant Musiclink Interconnect to a NAD C372 ampli. Van den Hul Hybrid speaker cables then lead to a pair of ProAc Studio 125. Happy with the components, but they might be upgraded over the following years.
I do not want to go through wi-fi for streaming. I will pull an ethernet cable leaving from the router direction streamer through an existing PVC cable conduit (currently hosting an unused old TV cable) over the entire 11 meters. I don’t want to replace this cable too often for upgrading purposes.
I guess I can choose between:
- Cheap ethernet cable CAT-6/7/8 over 11 meters connecting router and streamer. If that went without saying for me, I wouldn’t be writing this post.
- More expensive ethernet cable over 11 meters connecting router and streamer, e.g. AudioQuest Forest or Cinnamon (I leave out the hyper expensive stuff like the AQ Diamond or Nordost stuff, that’s way beyond my budget, especially for + 10 meters). Maybe good to know: I’m not sure the RJ45 connectors can be pulled through the cable conduit (several 90° curbs), I may have to use a long ethernet cable fixing the RJ45 connectors afterwards myself.
- Cheap or half cheap ethernet cable over 11 meters connecting the router to a (cheap ? quality ?) switch, which will then be connected to my streaming device with the short Cinnamon ethernet cable I have already.