Can anybody suggest me the best Ethernet cables??

Anything that is (ethernet) specification compliant will do. Anything beyond that is snake oil and money wasted. Cat5e or Cat6 will do. I use a 100' CAT6 cable between my NAS and ND5 XS for which I paid $14.

What is transmitted over an ethernet cable -- for devices that use it for TCP/IP transmission, like Naim streamers -- is raw packets of binary data. The hardware at the receiving end reconstructs it into audio data. As long as the cable is compliant, it works...no better, no worse. It just does what it does. There is no such thing as an "audiophile" ethernet cable. Those that are billed as such exist to separate money from people who don't know better.

Go for a well build Cat-5e or Cat-6 cable. I wouldn't buy the cheapest one but what you definitely not need are so called "audiophile" Ethernet cables. That's just "voodoo" and a waste of money.  

As for a "place," for me Amazon works out great.  Monoprice is a great vendor too.  All depends on whether these vendors ship to your location.

Generally, online retailers have much better prices on stuff like ethernet cables; there is tons of markup on them at the chain stores.

My hi fi store installed a lot of ethernet cable in my walls, and they did not use anything special or very expensive.  Given that they sell $80,000 speakers and $6,000 power cables, if they had an inkling that they could get me to pay for highly-priced ethernet cable, they surely would have at least asked.  They didn't; it never came up.  They just use the stuff off the big rolls.

I'm agreeing with everyone else here.

However, I did buy a very cheap 30m Cat5e cable recently with terrible results (1Gbps link dropping down to 100Mbps).  Any normal Cat5e cable should be fine.  If you're paranoid, I can recommend Cat6e simple because its better isolated (foil screened etc) so will not interfere as much with other wires in the wall (picking up as well as inducing noise).

I'd refrain from calling out a single brand used in Enterprise Installations (enough IT geeks around   but for home installation I can't see how it would bring any benefit versus an average priced proper quality cable).

Marthinus, if your Cat 5e cable dropped from 1 Gbps to 100Mbps that would because the manufacturer cut back on the number of twisted pairs to cut cost. 100Mbps uses 2 pairs of wires and 1000Mbps uses 4 pairs.

Simon

Cat6e is only worth getting if you get the correct screened sockets and you have the correct screening ground for the whole network to be connected to, otherwise you are totally wasting your money as the screen simply does absolutely nothing.

It's a pain to work with - each individual pair is screened, (x4) plus the outer screen. That's ten screens to deal with per cable. 

Cat6 *should* be more than adequate unless your network is in a microwave :-)

Just my thoughts.

Hi Simon

I actually checked and it has 4 pairs The cable just looks and feels ridiculously thin and cheap.  Managed switch reported multiple disconnections and Rx/Tx rate changes - so you get what you pay for

Steve2701: hehe I agree it is a pain and you have to do it *properly* to get any benefit - hence starting the suggestion off with paranoia! I guess if (when?) a comparison of ethernet cables to interconnects starts on the forum some late alcohol-induced friday night my bet will be on whether Belden or Systimax is the Chord Sarum T/A of the network world...

Oh look, it's almost Friday

Hi, it sounds like there is a faulty connection in either RJ45 end or a hairline crack in one or more cables connected  to pins 4,5,7 or 8, which could be fooling the switch it had different cable types connected to it.

Those are the pins exclusively used for 1000Mbps.

There is no protocol that I am aware of for switches to downgrade links on link errors.

Normally if you check for damaged cables, you look for frame and bit errors on the managed switch. If these are clocking up regularly, you have a damaged cable, or a cable experiencing interference.

Simon 

& now it is Friday, and I'm trying to wake up.

Having just gone through the whole network thing, it taught me a fair bit.

First, if your going to do it, do it right and allow for redundancy  - ie, just go with cat6 as the rules keep changing and data transfer is not going to slow down, indeed, you may even want to start streaming hi res movies at some stage - who knows. 

Put in more points than you currently need, or have the wires buried in the trunking / walls at least, ready.

Get cable that is all copper - not copper plated steel ;-) That would really drop your transfer rate. Yes, I know they are all supposed to be copper - lessons learnt here though.

Also, match the terminals to the type of wire.

Some use multi stranded wire, which requires screw down terminals to work correctly. While more flexible, they are a right royal pita. Who needs flexible cable once its buried somewhere?

Most use solid core twisted pairs, which is fine for the more usual IPC connectors as you can use a push down tool. 

Just about every manufacturer has slightly different ways of construction, I just got a good quality one, which includes a spacer down the centre of the 4 pairs. This all helps keep it within the correct spec.

Patch cables are different again - ie, the ones used to connect kit to the wall plates. They are usually multi stranded to offer flexibility needed.

I simply cannot yet be bothered to hand make those as there are just so many available.

As for the physical wire - depends on how much you want to believe in differences for digital cables. 

I aint going there.

So I used "excel" (Delta cable) one of literally hundreds available.

Check the specs and get a decent one is all I would say.

Finally - get the matching sockets (cat6 in my case) and your done.

Re the slow down in data transfer cable - daft question, but it wasn't wired as a crossover cable was it, or either of the sockets wired as such? Ie - type A wiring to type B. or some combination of that within the socket/cable combination.

Thanks to everyone for the reply.. I really appreciate them...

There is no such thing as Cat 6E - yes I know some manufacturers offer Cat 6E cable but as there is no recognised Cat 6E standard - they cannot offer cables to meet a non-existent standard.

There is a Cat 6a standard but  why use this when normal Cat 6 or Cat 5E is perfectly adequate for the task in hand.

Because maybe you make the wrong assumptions about what is to be considered 'adequate'?

cheers

Aleg

As mentioned already, any cable that is compliant to ethernet standard for Cat5e or Cat6 and of reasonable quality (i.e. won't fall apart, decent connectors) is perfectly adequate. Nothing fancier is necessary.

Is it not the case that Naim Ethernet ports only support 100Mps so this is what you would expect if you plug one end into the Naim equipment and the other into a 1Gbps switch. The switch will recognise that Naim can only support 100Mbps and switch it to that speed accordingly.

Scillyisles, you are correct, Naim equipment supports upto 100Mbps which is hugely more than adequate for the task in hand.

To the earlier posts in the thread, I really would question the merits of anything other than standard Cat 5e in the house, with the possible option of using screened cable physically near your audio equipment.

For planning future domestic  infrastructure capacity I would be tempted to use twin Cat5e runs or possibly twin fibre in ducts. 

The ducts will allow you to swap out cables in the future with minimum disruption.

Twin feeds allows for redundancy (if your LAN equipment supports it..) Often using something called Spanning Tree Protocol or one of it variants, or bonding/link aggregation using something like EtherChannel to increase bandwidth (again if your LAN equipment supports).

For me these aspects are more relevant in the majority of cases over more expensive cables where I can't help feeling the consumer may be sometimes exploited as cables are an easier concept to understand.

Simon

For me it is dead simple.

It needs to support 1 Gb/s speed and then if it sounds better than the old one, then the old one wasn't adequate, in whatever known or unknown aspect that influences sound quality.

PS:

No, I don't try every cable out there, but if sufficient reliable people with a hifi set of sufficient level (not the Radio Shack type) report an improvement, then I consider trying it for myself if the price is right (enough) and there is a plausible story being told.

Cheers

Aleg