Cat 5 - 6 -7 or 8

One would have expected a 9 to be in there.

Supra CAT-8

I'm holding out until there is a "10" !!!

Whatever works for your length and bandwidth, but I recommend shielded near the gear.

1 GigE is plenty of bandwidth for audio, or 4k video, by the way. 

All joking aside, I heard 6 is the ticket, although I can’t say why? Just heard.

erik_squires - Hey Erik, "Whatever works for your length and bandwidth, but I recommend shielded near the gear. 1 GigE is plenty of bandwidth for audio"

Whatever all that means (to techie for me) ya gtta link?

He's saying Cat 6 is great. :-) I went to it.. I love the terminal end tightness, the ribbon design with a tough outer skin and increased DL and UL speeds..

Sound?

It is faster 5X on the average from a fancy Cat 5 my Kids gave me.. It sounds better because of that.. I ran 3 new runs, best 100.00 spent here in a LONG time.. Really pleased. 15,25,35.00 dollar cables..  15,25,100 foot runs..

regards

Either Cat 5e, or Cat 6 are plenty fast and I recommend shielded around audio gear.

Best,

Erik

Cat8 can produce ground loops between connected components through the unshielded metal plugs. Otherwise it all depends on connectors, shielding and quality of copper used. I have good experience with cat6 Meicord Opal. Also using an EMO filter for galvanic isolation helps

OK, thanks all, cat6 it is!

I like cat 6e or better with outdoor shielding.

It's not the speed or length, the terminations and shielding are much better with the newer cables. I use a AQ cat7 Ethernet cable

as the grades go up they are characterized for higher speeds, which means a better pulse/rising/fal;ling edge response. This is just plain better for timing information.  So later is better.

Will it make much difference?  That depends on what equipment is being used and how close to the edge you are pushing it.  In general i'd say "no". Bu it certainly won't hurt and will prepare you for future speed increases.
 

G

Hey antigrunge - what about cat8 (which i admit i have never looked into, or franklly, seen) that creates ground loops? What did they change?

TIA,

G

For music streaming, the speed of CAT 5e and up Ethernet cables should all be adequate and I doubt any speed differences would be audible. If differences are audible, my guess is they could result from shielding (STP) vs. no shielding (UTP), wire gauge, number of twists, termination quality, and possibly solid core vs. stranded wire. Here is an article that explains some of the differences from the perspective of audio uses and this article explains the differences between CAT 5, 6, 7, and 8. I find it interesting that many here stick with CAT5e or CAT6 Ethernet cables while the well-regarded Supra cable is CAT8 and SOtM’s highest level network cable is CAT7. Here is a listening comparison of different Ethernet cables by an audio reviewer.

I have dbillion cat8  at the in coming signal from modem to router and PC . In comparison vs that of Cat 6 flat unshielded to my gear the Cat 6 booted up faster even though the Cat 8 has the highest overall speed (up to 40g tested) but pixelated a bit when used to Nvidi shield before locking in fully but tested to the PC its rock solid with a substaial speed increas over cat 5 I previously had in place all cables are carefully  of course . In the end I went the safe route to my gear using a TP Link 2000mbs powerline adapter with unshielded Cat 6 to my shield and AVR . Why? Pontentialy the grounding scheme reqiured for Shielded applications can be tricky, if there is more than one grounding path from your home, you could be turning what you think is a shielded cable into an antena  behind your gear!

That's all I know about it for now!

Thanks all, one more question: Does the cable need to be shielded through the entire house or is it just the shorter that runs from the wall outlet to the router, switch, audio equipment, etc?

Personally, I'd just stick to cables around the audio rack.

@eric_squires,

your answer applies in low density, rural areas. Anywhere else, and in particular near radio and telephone masts I'd stick to shielded.

@high-amp ,

If you are wanting the best quality sound, then use a grounded cable from the box into your house.

I found some nice Cat 7 cable for cheap and ran it directly from the Fios Box to my equipment. Having it grounded as far as I can possibly go, provides peace of mind.

Having Cat 7 allows for any future streaming demands.

B

While in general (eg from router to computer) shielded is preferred, if you are connecting a component (eg DAC) to a network switch or directly to a router or computer, check with the manufacturer of the component before deciding.  I recently acquired a dCS Rossini DAC.  I asked the manufacturer for recommendations re an ethernet cable.  The response:

"Thank you for contacting dCS. I hope you are enjoying your Rossini so far, if you have had a chance to try it out?

The short answer is that no, there is no sonic benefit to using 'audiophile' Ethernet cables in an audio system. A basic, unshielded CAT5e or CAT6 cable is all you need. 

The longer answer is that such 'audiophile' cables can introduce a host of problems that are simply not present with an appropriate cable - the main two being that they frequently cause ground noise issues in audio systems resulting in a drop in audio quality, and the very rigid cable paired with overly large connectors can cause damage to the Ethernet port itself. Take a quick look at our FAQ on this here.

The mindset to take with your network and with streaming is that you are aiming for a network which is stable and reliable, not one which sounds good. With Ethernet, using standard networking gear the sound quality takes care of itself. 

I hope this makes sense, but please feel free to let me know if you have any questions and I'll be happy to elaborate. "

Incidentally, dCS has been excellent in terms of customer support, quickly answering email questions.  

craig - great stuff craig, thank you!

CAT 6, use the best quality connectors and switches .

Don't go crazy!

curlyhifi - Thanks. I found an old roll of unshielded cat6e at work, is that ok? Ans I see Blue Jean cable sells a cat6a, never heard of the "A" before?

Not sure if anyone is still following this thread but I was about to order some ethernet cables from Blue Jeans and Jeff stated this to me in an email this morning:

"The only thing to avoid is mixing shielded and unshielded"

I emailed back and asked:

I just wanted to clarify something, if I have an unshielded ethernet cable throughout my house, running from room to room from my centralized router. I shouldn’t run a shielded ethernet cable from the same router (or switch) to say my music streamer of my stereo. I should keep everything unshielded?

His answer: "Yes, that is correct"

Now, Jeff didn’t explain why, but some here have suggested running shielded RF cable close to the audio equipment itself.

Can anyone elaborate on this?

craig - maybe you nailed it!