Ethernet help

I’ve read so many forums and I’m still lost in the wilderness.
So, I’ve just found a cat 6e and 7 Ethernet cable. Current using 6a from router to nd5xs2 + Qobuz. Now occasionally, I am unable to stream hi res audio but okay on such radio services @ 320kbs.
Will an improvement on Ethernet make hi res more stable and improve sound quality or is this just a case of poor internet in a rural setting regardless of cable type?
Thank job

It could be your internet service is too slow…i use a 300 mbps broadband from Virgin, and Qobuz hires works fine. It might be worth checking your speeds online and posting here, there are plenty of experts to advise. Its unlikely to be anything to do with your cables.

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Any Cat5e or higher cable is more than enough to carry audio data, including HiRes. The only exception is if the cable is faulty, perhaps due to a poor termination or a tight kink. Your internet service is a more likely culprit.

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Thanks guys, my internet is poor full stop. It might as well come via the post on an AOL CD - it’s that bad.
Pleased to understand more on the cables. Anything to improve sound quality I’m all ears… it’s just getting harder to separate the facts from snake oil.
Thank you

The fact you mention rural broadband is a clue to the likely cause in this case. Like others I’d imagine it’s more likely something outside of your home (and direct control) that’s the culprit here. You can certainly try with any basic Cat 5e Ethernet cable and also try different ports on the router to make sure nothing is mechanically at fault, like a bent/damaged pin on the RJ45 port for example.
It’s also worth noting that the different cable designs aren’t constructed with audio data specifically in mind.
The ND5 XS2 has a 100 Mbit/s, 100 BASE-TX interface so any Ethernet cable built to Cat 5e specification is compatible, using Cat 6/7/8 type cabling is primarily going to alter the screening and signal noise characteristics of the cable and give more bandwidth to support speeds beyond 1 Gbit/s towards 10 Gbit/s, none of which are things that an audio streamer requires or benefits from.

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A solid option in your case is to store the audio locally and stream it from the local source entirely within your local area network. Streaming anything from the Internet puts you at the mercy and limitations of the network between you and the music services servers located on the Internet.
Bandwidth isn’t necessarily the main issue here, latency and jitter will effect the performance of your streamer more and the intermittent nature of your connection to the Internet will play a role in how big an impact that actually has, with the worse case scenario being the buffer on your ND isn’t kept full and you have loss of audio data and silence or drop outs during playback.

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Cables are a very personal choice like other hifi purchases. There are a number of threads if you use the search function. A good dealer should be able to advise and loan you demo cables to try at home…though are normally the more expensive ones. Others have taken a punt and bought catsnake or blue jean cables off the web…and seem pleased. Its quite frankly a bag of worms and there is no clear consensus on the forum. For what its worth i use Audioquest Vodka as the last link to my streamer.

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I think the best way to think about the various Ethernet cables available is that they act like a tone control or graphic equaliser within the system. The cable construction and materials used will influence the resulting sound output relative to your system. That can be interpreted as adding brightness, or a faster sound or more organic presentation as examples.
My interpretation of that topic (which can run in to the 1000’s of comments and opinions) is that it’s somewhat like speaker choice which tends to be particular to an individual and listening environment.
Any part of a system can influence its overall performance and sound presentation, when it comes to Ethernet cables the best advice is probably to start with the basics and work up within your budget till you find something you like the sound of, more money spent doesn’t necessarily translate to more reward or enjoyment ultimately.

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What line speed do you get? You don’t need a huge amount to stream reliably at CD quality. It may be worth contacting your ISP, some of them can be helpful in trying to optimise your line, and that may mean trading bandwidth for stability. If they are unwilling to help, try a different provider.

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Cables. Chicken or the egg. Flat earth. Another great debate. imho they do make a difference so I’m all up for purchasing and going through the trial and error. I really can’t complain about the SQ on my system but like most here, acknowledge that lots of little improvements add up to make a big difference… it was Ethernet I never really thought about, the more data, the faster data got there, what the limitations of the streamer are, what component materials the termination points are made from etc again so much sound advice form the Naim community

It’s Shameful ChrisSU but 90% of the time it can handle Hi Res. It’s c25mps on a good day - there’s only 3 houses so investing in an infrastructure offers the providers very little ROIC so I can’t imagine it will get any better regardless of ISP.

Then you have more than enough bandwidth. I can reliably stream 16/44.1, and just about get away with 24/96 from Qobuz if the network is otherwise quiet. That’s on a 4.5MB rural ADSL line. If you can’t get reliable service with 25MB I would suggest that you hound your ISP remorselessly until you get it working properly, and jump ship if they fail.

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This, plus as far as I can tell the ethernet port on Naim units is 10/100 Mbit anyway

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Just to add, I only have 50 Mbit down, occasionally dropping to 40, and I can even stream HD video without any problem ever. 25 is more than enough for hires audio at least when there are no other heavy users stealing bandwidth. Like Chris already said, your provider should fix it if broken cables and the like are ruled out

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As a test you could try Wi-fi to help eliminate cables and the sockets each end

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So, I tested both cables and was there a difference… nothing. It’s almost certainly an exchange issue as I experienced a drop out on my cat 6a as soon as I got home (WiFi and Ethernet were already down) hooked up the 6e, waited 20 minutes, hit ‘roger waters us + them’ 3 tracks in and drop out. Hooked up the 7, 10 minutes later, replayed the tracks, drop out and finally back to the 6a where it’s been stable since… just something I’m going to have to put up with I guess.
Once again, thank you all for your help, advice and contributions to my question

25Mbs is more than enough. That’s the speed Netflix recommends for streaming 4K video streams with embedded surround audio. A two channel audio stream won’t have any issues if the signal is stable.

Also Cat 5e cable can already handle 1000Mbs.

And your tests confirmed this all. It’s most likely signal drops etc.

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Another thing, seeing that you have a nd5xs2: The internet uplink must have pretty severe dropouts as the new streaming platform can buffer approx. a full song or so. I can reboot the router while playing music and there is usually no dropout before the router comes back on. (And it’s a cable router and takes quite some time to establish an upstream connection)

A decade ao when we moved into our ‘new’ (1909) house, we were having major connectivity and speed issues with DSL. Finally we decided to change carriers, which involved the phone company coming and checking our line. Turns out the overhead line to our house was literally hanging on by a thread. When the wind blew just right it would press together and make something of a better connection, but when not it was just a single strand and would either entirely drop out or slow to a crawl. We’ve since moved on from DSL, and even having a landline. Not saying your issue is anything similar, but sounds like it’s a networking issue vs anything you have set up.

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25mbps is good basic speed for broadband and for ADSL is unlikely to be better anywhere whether town, suburb, village or countryside and more than enough for most users. Sure if you have a family all using it and streaming/downloading at the same time then it might not be quite enough, but for one main user when streaming audio is way more than enough.

If you were below 10mbps then you might have problem streaming 192/24 FLAC, but there is not much of that.
So I would check what else is accessing your internet or wifi when you see the glitches.