Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Meridian Speaker Link Cable Debate ...

Save you money and spend a bit on something like this.
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Hi Stuart,

That's a good article about networking but, this topic is about SpeakerLink (or alternatives) cables carrying AES/EBU digital streams which is not related to networking protocols.
I'm struggling to find the relevance in the context of this topic, but may be I missed something.

Regards,
Carl

It still uses the hardware side of Ethernet to transmit.

Nope, the only commonality is that SpeakerLink uses a RJ45 "ethernet" lead, but how that cable is used is completely different to a LAN connection.

Check out SpeakerLink used as Digital Out (XLR or SPDIF) plus COMMS and RS232 for some details.

Regards,
Carl

I don't think it does. How I understand it, the multi lane cables and connectors are used to send both AES/EBU and comms over one cable.
They could have developed their own cables, but this works well. I don't think any LAN is used in SpeakerLink.

So it’s only layer 1? I didn’t expect that.

Anyway spending £400 plus on a cable from one of the world great foo makers doesn’t seem sensible to me.

Similar Shunyata cables cost significantly more - and many folk on here have purchased them.

What I did to try and find something comparable was to look at the description of the cat 7 cable on Russ Andrews site and try and match features (cat 7, shielding on the twisted pairs as well as the cable overall, copper conductors, gauge of linked cables is slightly thicker. I think the description didn’t specify foil or braided sheathing on the pairs, hence 2 linked options).

Of course, other factors could possibly make a difference. Copper quality and dielectric material are claimed to make a difference for analog cables with some scientific rationale. Other than good shielding to avoid interference with the signal, I don’t know what else might make a difference for a balanced SPDIF digital signal. I believe that I was able to hear differences between some different 75 Ohm SPDIF cables in the past, so I wouldn’t want to dismiss the possibility of differences between cables meeting cat 5 or cat 7 specifications in audio performance. I would like to understand the scientific rationale for the differences though.

I do wonder why Meridian didn’t develop a DSP update to incorporate an endpoint into the speakers so packets could be streamed directly to them and unpacked internally - it would make for such an elegant set up and presumably make cable differences even less relevant.

When I had SL DSPs for a few years, I ran a few different cables on the endpoint to DSP SpeakerLink runs. While I came up with a few which sounded better in some areas than the Meridian flat cable, it was overall the best sounding to me. The only issue was that they didn’t make it in lengths which were suitable for home run stereo pairs in an average British lounge size (around 2-2.5m), so minimum was 5m with a lot of spare cable coiled around. I haven’t tried the Meridian install cable, which would have been my next step had I not moved back to a legacy setup.

I didn’t try more exotic cables, such as the Audioquest, though, I was, as ISB, experimenting with other well-specified “normal” cables. The best one I found after the Meridian cable were these from Universal Networks. I liked the fact that they were a very high quality cable from a known manufacturer and they are individually Fluke tested. They also come in a range of colours.

If I have SL DSPs again in future, I’ll just use the Meridian cables, though. Meridian have already done all the testing for me and I trust them, as all their products always sound spot-on.