Talk to me about CAT 6 in wall cable

Why is it that with anything involving audio, for many only the most extreme overkill available will barely suffice? I bought and remodeled my house in 2003. I had the house ethernet wired with Cat 5. I think Cat 6 was just coming out but less available. The difference didn't seem important at the time. Twenty three years later I can say that for sure the difference wasn't important. I have several audio systems and computers around the house, all using the network and have never experienced an issue. There is WiFi too but the wire network is more solid and reliable. There were originally two switches used in rooms that had several devices and not enough wall connections. I still use those switches. They have always worked fine. They are invisible in the network. The network has handled all the audio and video data I've ever sent through it from any point to any point with zero problems. It had more than enough capacity for that purpose when it was set up and still does.

Whenever I put network cable in I always double up. You should really put a Fibre cable in as well. SM or single mode fibre. Cat6 just like the data centres. Armoured SM cable. You just need to make sure the people doing the cable run know what they are doing with data cables. Hope this helps.

As a network person CAT6 is too thick and hard bend or manage. For things like connecting a network DAC or network streamer I prefer fiber, this is of course assuming you don't need PoE for anything. I actually switched from CAT6 to fiber, and I think the fiber sounds cleaner. I really like simonb comment/idea.

Unfortunately, I think putting in fiber could be problematic. I have a long run over my house, which is two stories and the audio room is a dedicated room, which stands on its own at the farthest point from my router. I am not sure I can trust the installer to make the install.

Every ethernet cable sounds different. Get 2M runs of each one you're considering and have them terminated. Let them break in for 2 weeks anywhere in your network, and then do some listening comparisons. That will give you an idea of what you want to install. It may well be worth spending more at this stage.