Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems What cable will you use for SpeakerLink?

In all honesty we never got to that topic.

This was a (seriously) good round of questions and it took us two and a half hours to go through them with nearly zero interruptions.

John you received a question about whether using SpeakerLink is better than coax, or I hope you did. That followed the seemingly inconsistent info reported as coming from Meridian.

I do not recall you received a question about the quality of the Cat5 cable. However, I hope to soon receive some info about this because it is a very important issue to me after using the wrong Cat5 cable for about 9 months. I will pass on what I receive. I suspect I will purchase the M brand of Cat5 because there will be no info for a while about hearing test comparisons with other brands.

I'd agree with DanW. There can't be much that CAT6 or CAT7 will offer over CAT5e, or any specific Meridian cable. CAT5 STP is well under a pound a metre, the metal plugs can be a couple quid each but we're still talking not a lot. As an installer it means we can pre-wire several rooms for our customers without having to spend a lot on cable meaning you can move your theatre around different rooms in the house (or I can tempt you into buying a second system easily!).

While the coax versus SpeakerLink debate rages (or not: where are you Tonepub?), I tired of waiting.

My system was set up(not by me)as follows:

808i.2 > 7200 master cat 6 UTP

7200 master > 7200 slave cat 5 UTP

We learnt from the data sheet Meridian sent out to Dealers last summer that cat cables should be shielded i.e. STP not UTP. We also know from statements made at Bristol last year, and since repeated, that some cat cables sound better than others.

I could only source cat 7 if I bought a whole reel. I found only two suppliers of cat 6a by Excel: 2 x 3 metres including delivery (not next day) came to �21.79. You will see that with cable this cheap I am not going to be emotionally committed to it. I chose cat 6a for the better plugs and shielding offered over cat 6.

The result is what I can only describe as a significant improvement. This involves all the usual categories of tight, tuneful and extended bass; clarity; tonal purity; greater image focus etc. All of this is highly subjective. To my ears it is probably the cheapest significant upgrade I have ever made. It certainly demonstrates the advantage of using industrial cat cabling for upgrades compared with exotic and pricey hi-fi coax stuff.

How this compares with the Meridian branded SpeakerLink cable is still an open question. But if they are using cat 5 STP the shielding is probably not as good as cat 6a. If I have made a poor purchasing decision at least it didn't break my bank.

And many thanks to those on this forum who have educated me about cat cable.

Also Asa, your system my just be bedding in nicely, either way. Enjoy, you lucky man. Cheers, Chris

Digital cables and "a significant improvement" shouldn't really exist in a Meridian all digital world. One of the key 'advantages' of digital speakers was to get way from the cable debate.

Have to admit to being a little troubled that it creeps back in to my safe and happy cable-worry-free world.

Schrodinger (I think) teaches us that by observing an event we may change the outcome.

I wonder how many changes to the system sound relate to (i) the unplugging and replugging of connections, wiping any corrosion at the points of contact and/or (ii) the switching of the equipment off and on while doing so or (iii) the physical effort of reaching behind a crowded rack and fiddling at arms length with the connection, followed by the relaxing as we listen to the new component?

I recently replaced the Meridian blue cable between my 518 and 568.2 with another Meridian blue but longer. Result? Clearer tighter bass, less background hash, more separation. All subjectively clearly audible. I am sceptical that the cable caused this change because I am sceptical whether the change actually happened. My mind plays tricks in many ways and I suspect this is one of them. But I can also believe that the cable change did cause this to happen irrespective of the other possible causes. Either way I hear it is better so it is better to me.

I believe reading this thread will make my gear sound better so I am going to re-read it a number of times .......

Thought for the day!!

We live in a world of illusion, and you become what you think about.


Nothing in my world is real, the reason for a thing is the reason I give it.

Go Figure........... Chris

I know where you are coming from but what I reported was mostly about shielding and RFI rejection. If you look at the cat specifications ther is no mumbo jumbo or snake oil just different specs for different jobs.

I think that I emphasised the different specifications of the various cables, all of them with industrial not fan, fad or whimsical applications. We would expect there to be performance differences, though some of these relate to using long lengths of cable, which I am not.

I think I also emphasised the wholly subjective nature of my findings. The plus point for others who may wish to experiment (the point of reporting my response) is that no great cost is involved by hi fi standards.

Ow! I'm having a flash back to my physical chemistry class. Schrodinger gave new meaning to the phrase, "You do the math."

He also gave us an equation that we can use to predict the position of the electrons in an atom. We have to use a cable that puts the "good" electrons in the right position to achieve a perfect digital signal and keep the "bad" electrons out of the atom's outer valence shell. Such a cable would, of course, be very expensive but I hear that Monster Cable is applying for the patent