Ethernet Cable Shoot Out – Shunyata, AudioQuest, Supra, Viablue, Ugreen

T

The Chronicals

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Thanks for the info @The Chronicals. I really like the RME DAC, so will be just streamers for now. Looking to spend around 2.5k max. I mainly use coax output but this will depend on what streamer I go for. Some only provide the option of USB output into DAC of choice. Ifi products look very promising and shall look into them if and when needed.
Ah that . mighty find budget for just a transport! Lumin should definitely be on your list to trial. It has a BNC Coaxial digital out.

Trial the IFI's definitely, you may be surprised at what was 'there' that you didn't know about. I needed to get rid of a digital harshness and no matter what component I tried it was still there, all it took was the Isilencer and Ipurifier.

Look forward to hearing your streamer shootout :)

 
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BakerE

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Very interesting findings. I’ve played about with a handful of Ethernet cables: Melco, AudioQuest Vodka, Supra CAT8 and Chord Shawline. Of all of them I was most pleased with the Supra CAT8: very musical, slightly warm sounding, organic and by far the best value for money. That is until I tried a LinkUp certified CAT8 Ethernet cable....

I’d read on another forum that certified CAT8 cables are the real deal. I purchased the following LinkUp cable from Amazon and it’s outstanding for the money. Compared to the Supra CAT8 it has a much fuller, more balanced sound, very organic, musical and the soundstage is much deeper and all encompassing. The Supra is quite flat in comparison. The LinkUp also has better dynamics, very good bass and more “slam”. Don’t get me wrong, the Supra CAT8 is very good. The Linkup (which is even cheaper) is in another league...

[LINKUP] Cat8 Ethernet Patch Cable S/FTP 22AWG Screened Solid Cable | 2000Mhz (2Ghz) up to 40Gbps | Future 5th-Gen Ethernet LAN Network 40G Structure Wires - 1M https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07VVFB8VX/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_peglEbMVTCV67 

 
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Gaz38

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I openly admit  to being a total IT thicky so I apologise if my thinking is way off base but these Ethernet cable don't make much sense to me

The way I see it the music you listen to at home starts its journey on a server many many miles away from your audio system, this means the signal is travelling a great distance through various cables of varying quality before arriving at your home hub, it then travels a metre through your fancy Ethernet cable which somehow improves the sound quality before it arrives at your streamer. Or have I got that wrong somewhere?

 

greybeard

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I openly admit  to being a total IT thicky so I apologise if my thinking is way off base but these Ethernet cable don't make much sense to me

The way I see it the music you listen to at home starts its journey on a server many many miles away from your audio system, this means the signal is travelling a great distance through various cables of varying quality before arriving at your home hub, it then travels a metre through your fancy Ethernet cable which somehow improves the sound quality before it arrives at your streamer. Or have I got that wrong somewhere?
I use the same logic to save myself a fortune on mains cables too  :D

 
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beermaniac

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I only go by what my ears tell me and they sound different.

I use a 3m Supra cable as it sounded the best from several i tried - however like all things diminishing returns sets in pretty soon and i personally wouldn’t pay more than £50 for an ethernet cable.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Bodgit

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I've just put i Cat6 cable in my house, should I now rip it all out and replace with Cat 8?  :doh:

 

Bodgit

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In all seriousness, I discussed the type of network cable to install with my aerial guy, he said Cat6a was too stiff and not enough performance benefit to warrant the ball ache when installing - Cat6 is way fast enough for domestic use and can be bent with a decent radius.

Cat7 or above would be nigh on impossible to install in a house.

 

Tony_J

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In all seriousness, I discussed the type of network cable to install with my aerial guy, he said Cat6a was too stiff and not enough performance benefit to warrant the ball ache when installing - Cat6 is way fast enough for domestic use and can be bent with a decent radius.

Cat7 or above would be nigh on impossible to install in a house.
It's a fair point. For the kind of cable lengths that you are likely to need in a domestic install, you will be good for Gigabit over Cat6 so no real advantage in going for higher spec. Only really worth doing Cat6a if you want >55 metres or to run a 10Gigs network.

 
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wHIZZY

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I've just put i Cat6 cable in my house, should I now rip it all out and replace with Cat 8?  :doh:
Yes, without delay, you don't want to listen to those arial guys, what do they know about high quality sound they only care about picture quality. 🙂

 
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lindsayt

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In all seriousness, I discussed the type of network cable to install with my aerial guy, he said Cat6a was too stiff and not enough performance benefit to warrant the ball ache when installing - Cat6 is way fast enough for domestic use and can be bent with a decent radius.

Cat7 or above would be nigh on impossible to install in a house.
Fibre cabling would be the way to go to really bling out your home network infrastructure.

It would future proof it nicely too.

Having devices that could take SFP or SFP+ or QSFP NIC's would be nice too.

 

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