Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Cat 5 UTP vs Cat 6 F/UTP

I've always used a long Cat 5 UTP cable for Sooloos. I've had the cable for a long time. I've just switched over to a flat Cat 6 F/UTP and I swear I hear an clear improvement in sound. I've switched to and fro and I'm convinced (I've convinced myself). I'd get my son to do a blind test but we've been arguing (what with him being a teenager and me being past caring...). In any event I'm pretty pleased!

Where are you using the cable? Into the MC200 and 818? How about from the 818 to your 8Ks?

The 818 should do a good enough job shielding out the network noise into the ID41 but you should have shielded cable going from the 818 to the 8Ks.

Is this used in your network? From what I see in your sig, you have an MC200. So whilst playing music, your cable could be unplugged. So unplugging should improve sound more than a cable upgrade if interference is suspected.
Have you tried that, Chris

Ahh, I didn't see the 818, perhaps Meridian cable should be there?

I know the 818 should shield well enough, no logic for it.

The Cat 6 is just router to MC200.

I have Meridian SpeakerLink between the 818 and 8ks.

Looks like I should do a blind test.

I'll try removing the cable altogether, although it's tempting just to stick with the illusion...

I had 'upgraded' my runs of Cat5 to Cat7 about a year ago and didn't notice a damn bit of difference. Doesn't mean you won't but I certainly did not.

Hi,

I posted a tread about ethernet Has anyone compared the Furutech LAN-10G with standard ethernet cables

Some responses may be of intrest.

Best Regards, Per Nilsson

I used Cat6 for LAN and SpeakerLink rather than Cat5e throughout my house in a recent renovation so I am happy to keep with the illusion too

I haven done any SQ comparisons however, I thought that when I used Cat6 (rather than Cat5e) patch cable for the LAN connection to my MC600 that ripping transfers were quicker. This may also be illusion or it may be that it makes use of the Gigabit network although never had a definitive answer regarding whether Sooloos was Gigabit or not. (the rest of my network is).

I thought Sooloos was deliberately not Gigabit as it produces much more RFI/EMI than Megabit (yellow vs green flashing light).

Jools, if changing cable from 5 to 6 affects ripping speed, surely that could only mean that one cable is faulty?

Tintin, I think that's only an HH theory, I don't recall M confirming, although it seems likely to be true bearing in mind their recent concentration on ferrite in cables and on ID41 to further reduce noise problems.

At least one person thought it was just cost-cutting, although personally I don't think that makes sense as surely all modern ports will do Giga if configured?

Audio endpoints seem to be 10/100 but devices with core/store seem to be Gigabit.

Iirc that MC600 has two network ports. I would assume that one is Gigabit, but not sure about the 'clock' port. If that is designed to connect to audio endpoints, that may well be limited to 10/100.

The original Gigabit standard required the use of CAT 6 cable to achieve Gigabit speed over 2 wires. However, some bright spark decided that you could use 4 wires over CAT 5e to achieve Gigabit. I don't know if the Gigabit spec has officially been extended to cover 4 wires, but it certainly has become a defacto standard used in the majority of Gigabit network devices that you would find in domestic situations. I don't know about corporate kit just incase someone is using corporate grade switches.

It is important not to confuse network category with shielding, With CAT5 and CAT6 cabling, shielding (of individual twisted pairs) and screening (of the whole cable) has always been optional.

As for CAT5 UTP vs CAT 6 F/UTP, obviously the difference is in the shielding rather than the CAT standard. This could affect the network quality in noisy environments, such as being in very close (typically parallel) proximity to electrical cables, or in how external interference is handled. To be honest, I would be surprised if the shielding made a difference to network data as UTP TP is still pretty robust unless it has not been laid properly (i.e. running parallel within 50mm of mains cable). That said, I have noticed that many consumer network cables are supplied shielded without any mention of the shielding on the packaging and the reality that the difference in cost between shielded and unshielded cables is a few penny's. When I buy a patch cable now, especially longer lengths, I go for the shielded version as invariably there is a birds nest of cables behind the equipment, but the reality is that even in this environment, I have never witnessed any network errors on either type of cable - sadly I have spend much time examining my home network at low level including inducing network errors on purpose.

To add to the debate, just discovered Meridian SpeakerLink Cat7 Ethernet cable on the Russ Andrews site.

Can't see anything on Meridian's site, but it looks legitimate.

Richard