recently stumbled into some online articles and reviews of audiophile grade ethernet cabling… anybody done this, doing it? thoughts? Of course the reviews do say there is an improvment in sound. I have a NAS that has about 30 feet of ethernet cabling to my PSA PWD.
There are some here who have compared and found different ethernet cables to have a noticable effect on the sound of the PWD/Bridge combo. Some have gone with ‘audiophile’ ethernet cables such as those from Audioquest and others use common network cables of better than average quality and of specific construction such as cat 7 or cat 6 shielded or unshielded. There are several threads in these forums with plenty of discussion of the choices and effects of Ethernet cables. You might try the following google search and see what you find interesting:
http://www.google.com/#q=ethernet+cable+site:+psaudio.com
J.P.
For those who think that cat.x cables makes a difference:
http://belden.picturepark.com/Website/Download.aspx?DownloadToken=3c0d3baa-7a9c-46f6-a6c8-eb0fe2d7a0ea&Purpose=AssetManager&mime-type=application/pdf
Frode, the link does not work.
Here’s a similar one. Frode’s link was working this morning.
http://www.beldensolutions.com/en/Company/Press/BLDPR307EN0913/index.phtml
Thanks, wglenn.
I think it was a redirect problem.
This one should work: http://belden.picturepark.com/Website/Download.aspx?DownloadToken=e7f145a9-8a76-4a4b-9f33-357f6982fc8f&Purpose=AssetManager&mime-type=application/pdf
CAT 6a is shielded and in spec,s just below cat7 . Shielded is best. The advantage is still a RJ45 type connector and jack. Also the length does matter as well its not how long but certain sizes we should not use like HDMI cables. If you search the web you can get patch cables of this fairly cheap . Cheap enough that is did not pay for me to make them. And I install data rooms as one of my trades. its what I use in all my setups.
When using shielded cables make sure the shield is only connected at one side. The begin side of the cable.
alrainbow said: If you search the web you can get patch cables of this fairly cheap .
Do you have a source for the Belden 6a? Belden, Canare, Mogami are names I trust.
Yes I will post the link in a few to this thread. Wind ad is correct but with the rj45 connectors in use with the dacs I have there is no shielding connections only the cable connectors
recently stumbled into some online articles and reviews of audiophile grade ethernet cabling... anybody done this, doing it? thoughts? Of course the reviews do say there is an improvment in sound. I have a NAS that has about 30 feet of ethernet cabling to my PSA PWD.I have a set of audioquest Vodka's they make a difference the hights are smoother and more transparant, but the lows (Bass) seems a bit thinner. Probably the cables have a bigger spectrum, but can you use that. At the end months of listening I use a 3 euro cat6 utp again.
I also received a set of modificated Vodka's dirrectly from audioquest. The modification was that the screen was connected at both sides. The result was a restless sound.
We’ve been here before …….
http://www.psaudio.com/forum/#/discussion/comment/43988
(As noted before the meicord is unshielded and measures better.)
@wijnand
The shield is always connected to both sides. but unless you have shielded jacks it does not matter, most audio and networks do not. And yes only one side is used to ground…
wijnand said: The result was a restless sound.
A very intriguing description. What do you mean by this?
Start saving 
http://www.chord.co.uk/blog/category/new-stuff/
Oh no… Here we go again. :((
Would someone please comment that wireless finally sounds better!
It would save us all a fortune!
@stereophilus :((
I’ll be trying various audioquest cat7 diamond and vodka cables here before too long.
I do hope and pray to dog that they don’t make any difference.
I replaced my cat5e cables (a mish mash) with cat7 from cables unlimited a while back and noticed no differences.
$700 for a .75m cable is insane, and the vodka is ‘only’ $250.
Fortunately my system only needs 2 short cables.
One thing I did notice was I couldn’t use a cat7 cable from my modem to the router. If I did, I got hummmmmmm. A ground loop was created, what with connecting the grounded shields between the computer and the modem (I assume it’s the house ground vs. out on the pole ground).
Just more data points.
JJ