I wondered if anybody tried this using usb to rj45 adaptors? Could be an interesting experiment 
This could open up the possibility of comparing high quality USB cables against expensive ethernet cables. Might even sound better, who knows? 
I’ve used a USB to RJ45 adapter on my Macbook as it has no Ethernet port. Works fine.
I sometimes do this to run Roon on the Mac. No reason why it wouldn’t work for any streaming application, it’s all just basic TCP-IP.
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I wonder why anyone would?
Both the sending and receiving units have RJ45 sockets. Using two adaptors means two extra electro / mechanical connections.
Plus, the USB cable has only four wires, two powered and two data. Whereas, Ethernet cable has four twisted pairs eight wires in total.
As such the USB wires must be sharing data over the fewer cables.
DG…
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I should have explained my point in more detail - I just edited my original post with a line at the bottom.
Ultimately, I wonder if USB cables could produce better SQ than ethernet cables? The little usb/rj45 adaptor opens the door to experimentation - and they only cost about £8 for 2.
Oohh… can’t wait!
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You can use RG59 coaxial cable to transmit data over ethernet, so no reason usb cable won’t work.
But who knows how it will sound. Only one way to decide. 
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Take this for example, a high quality type a to type A usb cable. Designed to transmit data, and presumably in a way that translates to good sound quality.
Who’s to say this won’t sound better than a Sigma? 
You are almost going to lose more than you gain in the adapter conversion which will also push the terminating ends outside of CAT6a compliance. That requires the end of the cable to have no more than about 12mm of straightened TP before terminating in the RJ45 pins.
Ultimately, the construction of the cable will be based on it’s maximum supported frequency so a decent ethernet cable should not be any less than a decent USB cable. In many respects, the construction may be similar between a screened cat and a USB cable. So I think doing a conversion is likely to be fiddling for the sake of fiddling. Get the right cable for the job in the first place.
If ethernet is carried it is fine, HOWEVER the crucial consideration for performant operation is that all interfaces and cables are at least USB3.0.
USB3.0 contains full duplex connectivity cables which is important for effective modern ethernet and effective multicast. Lesser USB interfaces and cables only support half duplex, which is a legacy, slow transfer mode, and unreliable UDP over Ethernet, and Naim streamers don’t work their best with half duplex Ethernet.
Unless you are wanting to share other functions such as video and USB power over the ethernet lead, there really is no benefit in using USB3.0 over a regular 4P ethernet cable.
Half duplex USB interfaces and cables are electrically noisy by design as well.(flow signalling works by temporarily un balancing the twisted data pair)
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Totally pointless.
100% @spile, ethernet is the designed for purpose cable, it ain’t broke, there’s nothing to fix.
Experimenting on comparing cables, that could cost hundreds or thousands of £, by introducing dirt cheap adapters.
Have fun, the world is full of surprises!
I don’t agree that ethernet cables were designed for streaming music. They were designed for transmitting data. They were certainly not designed to make digital music sound good and that is the crux of the idea that I have floated.
Manufacturers in recent years have strived to ‘reinvent’ the humble ethernet cable specifically for optimising the sound quality of streamed music. Many different approaches have been tried with varying degrees of success.
My question stands: could a high quality usb cable sound better than an expensive streaming cable?
Good to have your thoughts though, even if you are not receptive to the concept.
Remember that it wasn’t that long ago that people streamed music using the cheapest cat5 cables available believing that it couldn’t be improved on because its just 1’s and zeros.
The connectors on my bjc cat 6a cables are no doubt dirt cheap. But they work brilliantly.
The adaptors are so small and so simple in design/function, there is really no reason they should not be cheap.
I hope that you are aware that what is transmitted down a cable to a steamer is not music.
What is transmitted is Ethernet Frames (i.e. data packets, including control and signalling data) + noise.
Most (but not all) of the data packets are then reassembled into a digital encoding of the music signal (e.g. LPCM), and the noise interacts with the analogue output signal through a variety of coupling mechanisms.
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Acutely aware and hopefully I haven’t said anything to make you think otherwise.
Mike
Kind of, ethernet can be carried via USB C cables and is not unusual in various commercial office spaces where the alternative is wifi and is a legitimate and purposeful configuration and can be more appropriate than using 4P RJ45 patch leads. Ethernet can be carried over several different cable types and encapsulated within various protocols. Ethernet can be carried via certain HDMI interfaces and cables as well
I agree it is pointless if doing just for the sake of it.
Simon, I expect its the usual audiophool fiddle-itis condition.
It should be OK, if as you posted earlier if the cable & the connectors are USB-3 with full duplex.
USB-3 impedance is 90ohm so not far off ethernets 100ohm, but I expect it will get some degradation of NEXT & RL & probably slip some TIA/ISO compliance.
What is pointless ?
The thread, the lan adaptor, or your post?
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Second that (with a Windows computer)