I have looked at searches for optimising my streaming set up after recently purchasing a 272/250. I am still a relative novice but all seems to be working well. Interestingly with my previous system I was dedicated to cable management but in my haste to set up the new system I paid little attention to this.
Having taking a trip away for the weekend I powered down and realised things were a mess. On returning I have separated mains from ethernet cables etc. I have also ordered an ifi ipower 12v for my netgear gs208 switch after reading on the search facility.
I also noticed that the ethernet cables I'm using from nas/switch/272 seem to be very basic cat5e efforts. No idea of the make. I therefore completed further searches and meicord and AQ cables seem popular. I have had trouble fathoming the screened and single component grounding situation in my set up. I wondered if anyone could help if I outline my current Lan.
Currently the router is sited in the lounge/listening room. This is connected to netgear gs208 switch which appears to have plastic ports. Next to this is a 4 point rj45 walk socket connected by 4 runs of cat5e, two to the kitchen for TV and Muso and two to the snug wall socket which are not connected to anything currently. The switch connects the Synology nas to the 272. With these components connected I am not sure how to prioritise the 272 as the ground (if this is the correct thing to do)
I seem to remember reading that if the switch has plastic ports with no metal hoods then the grounding issue is irrelevant. Does this sound correct or am I talking g¿¥¬`€$"#°¶§?
Am I better to use screened, unscreened or a combination of the two?
Thanks
Posted on: 21 November 2017 by ChrisSU
If your streamer is working reliably, I wouldn't worry too much about any of this tweaking that fills endless pages of this and other forums. A regular Cat5e cable running to your router or switch will be fine. By all means try alternatives, but in my experience, unless you have a major RFI or mains power issue, prepare to be underwhelmed by the results of your tweaking. Online retailers must offer the right to return items if you decide you don't want them, and I would suggest that you experiment with this in mind, knowing that you can send back any PSUs, cables etc. that don't give you an audible improvement.
I'm not saying that you won't hear any differences at all, and I confess to having dabbled a little in this area myself, but my experience was of very subtle differences, or no difference at all. Have fun!
Posted on: 21 November 2017 by Huge
I agree with Chris. Screened Ethernet cables are useful if you have a lot of RFI (I do).
In my case I have unscreened (UTP) cables from my computer and the NAS to the switch (metal cased) and a screened cable (SSTP) from the switch to the 272. All these cables have clip on ferrites attached (I've found the the ferrites from Würth Electronik are the best of the general purpose types).
Posted on: 21 November 2017 by Mike-B
No you're not talking g¿¥¬`€$"#°¶§?, just the oposite. In domestic environments screened (STP) is not really required as RFI & EMI is low & unscreened (UTP) will do the job perfectly well. If you do want to use STP, no problems provided you're careful to avoid grounding (earthing) it at two points on the same network. However your point about using STP in a network with a plastic ported switch like your GS205 is correct, you can use STP anywhere & everywhere without concerns as the SG205 breaks any screen interconnections.
The more exotic cables like AQ are expensive in comparasion to others without the "audio" label. Its up to you & your budget, but if you do want to experiment & considering your house has installed cables & wall sockets, I suggest get used to it on basic cable & when your ears are settled with it all, get a home demo cable from your dealer on just the 272 leg & let your ears decide.
I started with all Supra Cat7A (STP), then changed to Meicord (UTP) & later changed the Netgear GS105 (STP) switch to a Cisco SG110 (UTP), & like Huge I have a ferrite clamp on the ends of each of the branches. The move to UTP was all positive - however as always YMMV
Posted on: 21 November 2017 by Simon-in-Suffolk
Yes a good quality regular commercial grade CAT5e UTP cable will be absolutely fine... sure you can try shielded, but the main purpose of shielding is to stop interference affecting the cable from sources of high EMI... very unlikely in a domestic environment.
Most Ethernet cables will ‘sound’ different through the nature of the analogue RF interaction of the cables with the connected devices... I have posted a TI engineering design paper on cause, effect and mitigation on this several times to this forum... Some confuse change in audio with so called quality cables, but the same effect can be had with cheap and expensive cables alike. I guess with so called audio grade cables one is obtaining a more reliable, although not gaurenteed, cable audio outcome as you are paying for some one having done the trial and error rather than trying the hit and miss approach of cheap 10p a metre cables... you might get lucky however
Posted on: 25 November 2017 by stuart
Had chance to get into some serious listening this week. A definite improvement with the ipower in place.
I have to say that this pairing is sounding superb - yet another big fan of the 272/250. I can only imagine what it would be like with an xps or 555. That will have to wait for some time however.
Took a punt on chord c stream ethernet on a black Friday deal. Should arrive next week. The next job will be to try and rearrange positions as the switch, router and nas are all within 12 inches of black boxes. Not sure if this will make a difference?
Posted on: 25 November 2017 by Mike-B
Good to hear you have found it's all working out OK. Re the iFi iPower, I have one on my setup, at the mo its on the Cisco SG110 switch. I tested it when it first arrived & I was most impressed with the voltage stability. It was first used on a Netgear GS105 switch, however its not the same with the Cisco switch, maybe the Cisco switch is not so fussy. I also suspect that with my system now heavily loaded with ferrite, it has suppressed a lot of the SMPS noise to some extent or other.
Re proximity of switch NAS & black boxes. I have my BT HH6 on top of a small cabinet that houses NAS & switch (& UPS). Originally this was almost touching close to the NDX, Supernait & NAT rack, I've since moved it 0.5m further away & found that did not make any difference that I could hear.
