Ethernet cable. Cat6 or 6a

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Very good

It may be a Fluke, but I prefer them - itā€™s all sorcery in the end. And if you have enough Vodka you cease to care any way. Though in Chordā€™s case they use the traditional name for the diocese of Salisbury so I guess there is some divine intervention.

The first test record is important so I like to use the DC5ā€™s bits and pieces.

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Unit 4 + 2 = Concrete & Clay (please tap or click)

1+1 = 10

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and for Ethernet cables carrying 100BaseT into your Naim Streamer

10,100,1000 = +,+,0,0,0,-,0,0,0

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Unless itā€™s Gray code in which case:

1 + 1 = 11
(and 11 + 1 = 10)

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Got to back HH up on this. I too have spent a while trying to get recommendations for Ethernet cables and ended up baffled with Cat 5 vs 6 vs 6aā€¦ This length, that length, and no real reccomendations based on what works well and doesnā€™t cost the earth. HHā€™s reply to get a BJC cat 6a and fit and forget, in my mind is the most helpful of all replies that I have seen on any Ethernet cable discussions on here so thankyou!

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As far as cables for our uses, Cat 5e, Cat 6 and Cat 6A are all the same (not to say they sound the sameā€¦ they likely wonā€™t due to noise shaping on and other coupling effects on connected audio devices, but that will be more about cable differences rather than cable Category differences) ā€¦ the one cable I would ignore is Cat 5ā€¦ it is effectively obsolete, and is replaced by Cat 5e

Good:
Cat5e
Cat6
Cat6A

Avoid:
Cat5

These ā€˜goodā€™ cables above are all good to 1Gbps sync speed to 100 metres. Naim streamers use 100 Mbps sync speed.
For sonic reasons with connected audio equipment there are technical advantages to avoid short lengths of Ethernet cableā€¦ say less than 3 metres. But I wouldnā€™t die in a ditch over thisā€¦
With non connected audio equipment then you can use as short as you like with no downside.

Got everything connected up with new cables. Can I tell a difference? Maybe, although not really had a lot of time for critical listening.
What I am going to do post lockdowwn is to resite the phone line, network cables router, NAS and switch to the understair cupboard to get them out of the listening room. It bugs me have in all that clobber in the lounge and probably has a detrimental effect on sound quality being less than a meter from the electronics. Will probably need an 8-10 metre run of ethernet cable from switch to 272.

Is there any difference in flexibility between Blue Jeans 6 vs. 6A?

Best
Gregg

Slightly. 6a is definitely thicker.

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6A should be thicker (and stiffer slightly) as the specification cable thickness are different between 6 and 6 Augmented.
Normally this is why 6A is recommended for infrastructure where there is little or no flexing or movement.

Hi SiS, Iā€™m curious to know why, because that is counter-intuitive, at least assuming a major factor is pick up of noise?

There really is not much noise pick up in a domestic environmentā€¦ and if there was to the point that the twisted pairs were severely compromised it would be unlikely your Hi-Fi would be working or sounding good. Ethernet twisted pair is very robust.

The issue is lack of attenuation of the MLT-3 voltages on short leads appearing at the receiving transceiver at approx 31MHz which is going to cause a degree of coupling. If using very short lengths I would try and use as thin a wire as possible ie Cat5e. Some devices will also length sense and reduce the voltages which will help.

Belden CatSnake Cat6a is more flexible though fatter than Belden bonded Cat6a

Hi Simon, we exchanged a post about this a while back; as I understand it switches with IEEE 802.3az reduce MLT voltage according to ā€˜sensedā€™ cable length.
As far as I can ascertain Cisco (as an example) the lowest voltage setting is around lengths rarely found in domestic installs, it makes me wonder is this really something to worry about.

Per Cisco SMB3267 "Short Reach Mode ā€” This feature provides power savings on a short length of cable. After cable length is analyzed, the power usage is adjusted for various cable lengths. If the cable is shorter than 30 meters for Ten-Gigabit ports and 50 meters for other type of ports the device uses less power to send frames over the cable, thus saving energyā€¦ "

Netgear specs seem to have a shorter minimum cable length ā€œā€¦ When Short Cable Mode is enabled, the device will check the cable length and reduce the output power if the cable length is less than 10 meter.ā€

From a future proofing pov, especially if installing in wall etc. I would recommend Cat 6, as thatā€™s good for 10Gbps up to 55m (who has longer lengths domestically?). Also itā€™s not much more expensive, and if flexibility is needed, can be found without the separator down the middle.

Hi Mike, EEE and Green Ethernet are slightly different. The latter is a superset of the former. 802.3az applies to the formerā€¦

However with EEE there are two key aspects

  1. Low Power Idle: This is 802.3az and reduces the amount of idle signalling sent when no data is passingā€¦ this is nearly always configurable as you must disable in some scenarios and protocols.
  2. Short Reach mode: this is where the encoded voltages (8B1Q4 and 4D PAM-5) are reduced for cables less than 10 metres.(10 metres in Ethernet is considered short) However this is usually, and is with the case of Cisco, only available on Gigabit Ethernet synchronised ports. Switches need to use 100Mbps to sync with Naim so I canā€™t see being active.
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Anyone run their ethernet cable externally?

I have doneā€¦ just need to ensure you use a UV protected jacket or some sort of trunking.