Which Ethernet Cable?

Standard good quality CAT5 from Maplins will suffice. Snake-oil when applied to CAT5 is a bit rich IMHO. When I say "good quality" I mean something with booted connectors and a decent grade of cable. CAT6 would be better just because of the higher spec involved but really, we are talking about a couple of metres so it's not that important!

I am using factory Belden CAT6+ and AMP CAT6 cable for my naim's streaming 

Any CAT 5 cable or above will do.  As the wired connection is 10/100 you will be fine.  Once you get into gigabit connections then it is better to go with cat 6.

Try Audioquest (snake oil) ethernet. You may be pleasantly amazed.

Cat 5e is all you need, with RF chokes around it near the point of entry to your Naim, useful if you have a  noisy  switch/router or bad RF in your house. Clamp on ferrite chokes until youhear no difference. They are usually dirt cheap  so is Cat 5e. You can buy boutique cables  that do this for you for a price... Ultimately your choice.

If you go for Cat 5e, try and go industrial quality from a computer/office reseller or quality cable stockist  rather than cheap consumer from a chain store. It's all in the twists....

Simon

Of course, you could borrow some leads from your dealer and convert your choice into an informed choice.

 I have used chokes and stil do on my remaining Cat 5 lead. When my sceptical wife heard the Audioquest leads she was astounded and said so without being asked. She didn't commented when I added the chokes! I believe the entry level cables are not much more than Currys Cat 6.

Keith

I'm picking up the new Vodka today (three of). I still find the concept irrational but they work. So this fool and his wallet are happy. Not that any cable won't work. I was happy to knock it until I tried it. There's no harm in listening and if the difference is not significant (or not apparent) then fair enough.

This standard £400 cable should suffice you don't need anything special. It ensures the purest digital audio you've ever experienced. Made of high-purity copper wire no less, it's designed to thoroughly eliminate adverse effects from vibration and helps stabilise the digital transmission from occurrences of jitter and ripple. A tin-bearing copper alloy is used for the cable's shield while the insulation is made of a fluoropolymer material (now that impresses me - maybe I'm turning in to Brad Friedel) with superior heat resistance, weather resistance (essential really), and anti-aging properties (wish I had those). The connector features a rounded plug lever to prevent bending or breaking and direction marks to indicate correct direction for connecting cable (how uselessful)

Personally, I use one from Maplin (the holiday camp in hi-de-hi) to connect my UQ, but I'm sure one of these would sound much better ... shame it sounds so good now or I'd rush out and buy one. 

Can anybody recommend the best cable to use for wireless connections? 

To the OP, there is so much hype in this digital audio malarky that we all get confused ... my simply rule is it is that a player like the UnitiLite cares much more about what speakers you attach to it and how you cable those ... don't get hung up on the digital side ... unless you are using NDS/552/500 level kit I wouldn't worry about what Ethernet cables you are using. My UQ sounds great. 

You omitted the inky blackness. Or did you just lose the will?

Our snake oil is in now. I don't think the blacks are there yet, but it will take two years to run in.

The great Shadok inventions

Umbrella for dry weather

Hi MooMoo,

I detect a degree of scepticism, which is understandable. After all, who, in their right mind, would pay good money for snake oil ethernet cables? Well, on this thread that would be the two people who have heard them. 

They start at £25, by the way, so not that mad. The outside world might consider this quite sensible compared to the cost of the Hi Lines and Powerlines which you and I own.

cat 5/6 doesn't matter BUT the quality of the plug and its electrical connection the mechanical fit is still important. 

*and* the quality of the device at the other end of the patch lead. 

The matter here is RFI and the dirtiness of the sent pulsed signals and imbalances between the balanced signals. These are largely determined by the peer network controllers.

I am afraid any talk of low jitter etc really is quite mis leading to an Ethernet patch lead. Jitter at Ethernet is controlled by QoS parameters where differentiated service levels are required on different frame types. This is controlled by the switch/router and typically only in managed devices. The cable *must not* and luckily can't interfere with this. Also for home streaming TCP is used which makes this area irrelevant anyway.

If you find boutique Ethernet cables make a difference then IMO you have an issue elsewhere such as a noisy switch or a source of RFI which I would prefer to fix first.... But it's clearly a valid option if you have the cash and it makes your system sound better.

To me if this area was troublesome in a setup I would be tempted to look at an Ethernet isolator... Tend to be commercial devices for hospitals etc so not cheap but they do the job properly with a defined technical specification.

Simon

KRM,

It was just a picture that sprang to mind when I read Guido's joke (I love the Shadoks' absurd humour).

I'm sceptical indeed, mostly because I don't understand the internals of all this as I'm not an engineer. I'm not in the "bits are bits" or "cables don't make a difference" camps as my experience showed me that strange things do happen, and I don't question others experience when they say they can hear a difference. In the case of Ethernet cables, fortunately Simon and others took a lot of pain to explain for quite a while now what it could be all about, and I plan to experiment with this in due course (and probe the Forum collective knowledge to hopefully get a better understanding).

ATB

Maurice

We've conceded so much in the audiophile world. Over the years it's become clear that silly things make big differences. Interconnects, speaker cables, mains leads, mains spurs and hifi racks have gradually been accepted (to the amusement of the wider public plus many scientists and engineers).

We switch off LEDS, dangle burndies and fuss about getting felt mats the right way up. But, Ethernet cables? No way! The fight-back starts here ;-)