Which ethernet cable?

[Forkbeard]

Which ethernet cable would people recommend for streaming from router to streamer?

 

[abacus]

A Cat5e cable with decent connectors on the end, costs about £3 for 1m on Amazon.

Bill

 

[prince albert]

I use cat 6 a

 

[Al ears]

A Cat5e cable with decent connectors on the end, costs about £3 for 1m on Amazon.

Bill

Don't forget he will need one of these too ......

English Electric 8Switch Network Switch From The Chord Company Now Available | StereoNET United Kingdom

English Electric 8Switch Network Switch From The Chord Company Now Available

www.stereonet.co.uk

 

[Forkbeard]

A Cat5e cable with decent connectors on the end, costs about £3 for 1m on Amazon.

Bill

A Cat5e cable with decent connectors on the end, costs about £3 for 1m on Amazon.

Bill

 

[Forkbeard]

Do most people on here use the bog standard cheap grey ethernet cables then? I was wondering if anybody had splashed out on one of the very expensive exotic ones from the likes of Audioquest or The Chord Company?

 

[abacus]

Do most people on here use the bog standard cheap grey ethernet cables then? I was wondering if anybody had splashed out on one of the very expensive exotic ones from the likes of Audioquest or The Chord Company?

Don’t bother, as providing the cable matches the Ethernet cable standards (Cat5, Cat6 etc.) and has decent connectors then it doesn’t matter if you pay £3 or £3000 for a cable as the performance will be identical. (Any other claims are just sales marketing (Including so called audiophile Ethernet cables)

Bill

 

[sonic1]

Cat 6 cable as cheap as you like from Amazon, it can transfer the data as fast as your network can provide which will probably max out at 1000 mbps, the only better option is a fibre cable which your router and streamer don't yet support.

 

[sonic1]

Cat 6 cable as cheap as you like from Amazon, it can transfer the data as fast as your network can provide which will probably max out at 1000 mbps, the only better option is a fibre cable which your router and streamer don't yet support.

 

[sonic1]

Cat 6 cable as cheap as you like from Amazon, it can transfer the data as fast as your network can provide which will probably max out at 1000 mbps, the only better option is a fibre cable which your router and streamer don't yet support.

 

[Simon 13th note]

My advice is go for quality ones used or new but don’t go crazy. I use chord c Ethernet I think it’s called

 

[Jimboo]

What is different in the quality ones?

 

[Simon 13th note]

Try and see

 

[Jimboo]

I did and it didn't do anything except piss off the store I bought it from when I returned it.

 

[Simon 13th note]

Lots will come down to equipment, ears, set up. If you didn’t get on, you found out within that compendium of factors, it’s not for you. Good job either way.

 

[Jimboo]

No Simon , the effect and advertising by cable manafactuaring companies are just BS. Your equipment or set up , components and source. They are nothing to do with the fact that a cat cable is a cat cable. What it does for s few pounds a metre is exactly what one costing a thousand pounds a metre does.
You obviously will never believe this, that's cool as long as it is your money you are spending.

 

[Simon 13th note]

No Simon , the effect and advertising by cable manafactuaring companies are just BS. Your equipment or set up , components and source. They are nothing to do with the fact that a cat cable is a cat cable. What it does for s few pounds a metre is exactly what one costing a thousand pounds a metre does.
You obviously will never believe this, that's cool as long as it is your money you are spending.

I ran a review site for a year - 13th note hifi reviews, and was quite happy to put down poor products. I never advocating going crazy on cables , started to realise most expensive HiFi cables are ridiculous (which I revised my view on since last being on this site) and I told HiFi firms I didn’t want their expensive cables. The ethernet cabling im talking about would cost very little. I sold my 1m chord tuned array cables long ago

 

[Jimboo]

Ah , I like the fact that you trust your ears. Perhaps hifi manafactuaring companies should change their advertising technique. E.g our speakers are so good they only need cheap cabling to sound good , it's in the box not the cable .

 

[Simon 13th note]

Kef blades use cheap chord odyssey in them. You don’t need expensive HiFi cables most of the time

 

[iMark]

Do you get better printed pictures if you use an expensive USB cable to connect your computer to your printer? If cables are so important than wireless if the way to go. You eliminate the cable altogether.

Digital cable only have to deliver the ones and zeros from A to B. A gold plated connector won't make any difference. A digital cable is either working or defective. The only other reason to upgrade a digital cable is when standards change (like ethernet cat 5 to cat 6 or a new HDMI standard).

Just don't let price bias influence you. We tend to think that something more expensive will perform better. That's sometimes the case but not with digital cables.

 

[Markmaguire]

Just get one that has decent plugs on. The clip tends to snap off on very cheap ones. But no need to spend more than £10 for a couple of metres. amazon do them under brands like UGREEN , Veetop and KASIMO.

 

[Markmaguire]

Don't forget he will need one of these too ......

English Electric 8Switch Network Switch From The Chord Company Now Available | StereoNET United Kingdom

English Electric 8Switch Network Switch From The Chord Company Now Available

www.stereonet.co.uk

I honestly couldn’t believe what I was reading when I first saw that. Won’t make a blind bit of difference over a decent ‘normal’ network switch.

 

[Hawkmoon]

There will always be two camps when it comes to cables - the believers and the non-beiievers. In this case one side says it's all 0s and 1s so should not make a difference. If this is the case then it should also extrapolate to digital coax and digital optical cables I presume? I was rather sceptical about those until I recently compared some digital coax cables by different brands at different price points and I could tell them apart in blind listening tests 60-80% of the time. This was using them to link my network streamer to my DAC. So my thinking is that if different digital coax cables can sound different in theory different ethernet and USB cables could too. I think the best advice is to try before you buy if you can. decent hi fi stores will let you borrow cables or have them on a 15,20 or 30 day return and then you have nothing to lose.

 

[record_spot]

You won't need to spend more than a tenner. For music, Cat5e is more than enough for the data throughput needed. For 4K or 8K video and hi-res soundtrack, you might want to look at a higher standard. Just get one that's well built and not flimsy, most aren't. By all means spend hundreds on one from a boutique manufacturer. Make sure you can return in 60 days if not satisfied however. Personally, I think they're a waste of money and almost as big a shill as MQA.

 

[Hawkmoon]

You won't need to spend more than a tenner. For music, Cat5e is more than enough for the data throughput needed. For 4K or 8K video and hi-res soundtrack, you might want to look at a higher standard. Just get one that's well built and not flimsy, most aren't. By all means spend hundreds on one from a boutique manufacturer. Make sure you can return in 60 days if not satisfied however. Personally, I think they're a waste of money and almost as big a shill as MQA.

As a scientist I really wanted to believe that cables don't make a difference in the digital domain and I was keen to try to be scientific about testing this. That would certainly have saved me a lot of money if all cables sound the same. But then, having recently upgraded my DAC, I compared three digital coax cables of different brands and prices doing blind a v b comparisons with the help of my wife and alas I COULD tell a difference 80% of the time across listening to 4 different tracks, this was repeatable and my preferred cable stayed the same each time. Sadly, for me, my preferred cable was the most expensive one. So, if cables can make a difference with the 0s and 1s going through a digital coax cable, I think in theory they could affect the data transmitted through an Ethernet cable. That's my take on it but I know there are many who share your view that it's all snake oil.

 

[record_spot]

As a scientist I really wanted to believe that cables don't make a difference in the digital domain and I was keen to try to be scientific about testing this. That would certainly have saved me a lot of money if all cables sound the same. But then, having recently upgraded my DAC, I compared three digital coax cables of different brands and prices doing blind a v b comparisons with the help of my wife and alas I COULD tell a difference 80% of the time across listening to 4 different tracks, this was repeatable and my preferred cable stayed the same each time. Sadly, for me, my preferred cable was the most expensive one. So, if cables can make a difference with the 0s and 1s going through a digital coax cable, I think in theory they could affect the data transmitted through an Ethernet cable. That's my take on it but I know there are many who share your view that it's all snake oil.

Been there done it with cables, both analogue and for digital purposes. Most recently an Audioquest Cinnamon USB, which originally went for about £100 or so. I bought one NOS a year or so back, had to pack some stuff up a while back and ended up with the stock USB cable that came with the external hard drive. Months later I was marvelling at the sound only to go round the back of the stereo and...yep. The Cinnamon was in its' box. I tried it out with my usual four favoured test tracks and the differences were, well, minimal at best (which I guess is my way of saying that if both were delivering the right sound for the tracks played, then you couldn't easily tell them apart). The Audioquest went on Ebay a few weeks ago, followed not long after by a couple of mains power cables.