Audiophile Router?

[Lossless]

My current cat 5 Ethernet cable.



I have about a 30 foot run from my ISP modem to dedicated Hi-Res audio PC. The run will go through basment past electrical wires, gas lines, water lines, furnace duct work, and phone lines.


I’m gonna give it a try for $26.00. The added shielding couldn’t hurt.

 

[W9TR]

Well, if the shielding is connected to the metal ends of your cat 6/7 cable and the corresponding RJ - 45 jacks are also shielded and connected to ground in your equipment you could be injecting digital noise into downstream components through the shield. So, yes it could hurt. But hey try it out and see what happens.

 

[techguy0192]

Bits are bits but likewise noise is noise. ISO-CAT6 uses an isolation transformer to reduce noise. I replaced the CAT5e with CAT6 in my home network and use linear power supplies with cable modem and router for the same reason. Sonore has an updated version of my ultraRendu endpoint with one supporting optical ethernet for galvanic isolation.

I cannot speak to this specific product, but have found the reduction of RFI noise across many types of cables can improve transparency via a lower noise floor.

This link is everything I would wordsmith into a response.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/201...40-audiophile-ethernet-cable-and-look-inside/

Note the audiophile grade masking tape....

The manufacturer claims that the silver plating is "excellent for very high-frequency applications, like Ethernet audio."

View of the wire with some of the silver abraded back by an X-acto knife. "These signals," continues the manufacturer, "being such a high frequency, travel almost exclusively on the surface of the conductor."

 

[Lossless]

This link is everything I would wordsmith into a response.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/201...40-audiophile-ethernet-cable-and-look-inside/

Aren’t these from the same reputable company that brought us the $500 battery operated speaker wire?

 

[W9TR]

http://www.myhifishop.de/Devices/AQ...e-Network-SWITCH-8-Ports::75.html?language=en

 

[W9TR]

Aren’t these from the same reputable company that brought us the $500 battery operated speaker wire?

Yes sir. That at least had a patent behind it and was designed to minimize dielectric absorption.

 

[cpt_paranoia]

The manufacturer claims that the silver plating is "excellent for very high-frequency applications, like Ethernet audio

Well, gigabit Ethernet is quite high frequency...

Admittedly, I manage to get away with bog-standard cat5e from the pound shop. Without the audiophile masking tape (sorry, I mean the "electron spin aligning membrane").

 

[techguy0192]

Aren’t these from the same reputable company that brought us the $500 battery operated speaker wire?

What....did you think Audioquest was going to let MIT get a leg up on them. Let's take a look inside the MIT magic box....

https://orronoco.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-mysterious-box-of-mit-cable.html

 

[techguy0192]

Well, gigabit Ethernet is quite high frequency...

Admittedly, I manage to get away with bog-standard cat5e from the pound shop. Without the audiophile masking tape (sorry, I mean the "electron spin aligning membrane").

You do realize that we are talking digital signals....1s and 0s. An analog wave form does not traverse a network cable.

 

[cpt_paranoia]

You do realize that we are talking digital signals

Of course I do. I'm pointing out that gigabit ethernet does use a rather high frequency digital signal.

The rest of the puff is a lot of audiophoolery. Did you not get that message from the piss-taking in the rest of my post? Or do you believe in electron spin aligning membranes...?

 

[W9TR]

Wow - if he is correct and that inductor is 0.2 mH that that’s 25 ohms @ 20 kHz!

I’ve seen other MIT terminators that had aircore linear couls that we’re about 100 uH.

 

[W9TR]

You do realize that we are talking digital signals....1s and 0s. An analog wave form does not traverse a network cable.

Sure it does - happens to be a square wave but it is analog until it is detected at the receiver.

 

[cpt_paranoia]

Sure it does - happens to be a square wave but it is analog until it is detected at the receiver

1000base-t is a bit more complicated than that...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabit_Ethernet#1000BASE-T

 

[W9TR]

Agreed. I was trying to keep it simple.
1000base-t uses an modulation scheme called PAM5 - a five level phase/amplitude modulation scheme that is very analog at its core. The receiver has to differentiate between 5 separate analog levels. Lots of dsp echo cancelling and other signal processing on top of that but at its core it is analog.

 

[techguy0192]

Of course I do. I'm pointing out that gigabit ethernet does use a rather high frequency digital signal.

The rest of the puff is a lot of audiophoolery. Did you not get that message from the piss-taking in the rest of my post? Or do you believe in electron spin aligning membranes...?

I like my cables snake oil free.

 

[W9TR]

Snake oil stuff like this gives the word ‘audiophile’ a negative connotation. Too bad.

http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina31.htm

There are real technical reasons why Ethernet may impact audio system quality. But with this stuff going on it’s hard to have a conversation about it.

 

[PabloX]

Sure it does - happens to be a square wave but it is analog until it is detected at the receiver.

I almost thought it was going to have to be me who got pedantic.

 

[E-Stat]

This link is everything I would wordsmith into a response.

Don't recall anyone talking about Audioquest cable.

 

[E-Stat]

Well, if the shielding is connected to the metal ends of your cat 6/7 cable and the corresponding RJ - 45 jacks are also shielded and connected to ground in your equipment you could be injecting digital noise into downstream components through the shield. So, yes it could hurt. But hey try it out and see what happens.

Which is why I use CAT6. It offers lower crosstalk and noise without the potential of sending noise to the target device via the shielding.

There are real technical reasons why Ethernet may impact audio system quality.

Exactly.

 

[techguy0192]

Don't recall anyone talking about Audioquest cable.

Nice attempt to dodge the facts clearly demonstrated via the photos in the post....which you just so happen to not include when you quoted my response. The brand is irrelevant, this is simply a prime example of people having the wool pulled over their eyes by a sizeable portion of the cable industry.