Sablon Ethernet cables

corrected /10

I admit to an exaggeration here due to a lunch time drink or two. Post edited.

Un-edit it. You were correct first time round. Blue Jeans tested a load of cables and posted their results here.
https://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/is-your-cat6-a-dog.htm
2 passed, 2 marginally passed and 16 failed.

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I’ve bought cables of all sorts (speaker, subwoofer RCA, XLR, Ethernet…) from Blue Jeans for 10 years. I am US based. Their quality and service are first class. They even steered me towards their less expensive XLR because after I described my setup, they told me I didn’t need the high noise suppression of their Canare star quad. I’ve always trusted their advice and have been completely satisfied.

I used to try various brands in the past, but none were better to my ears than BJC. They’re simply my default now.

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The only purpose of an Ethernet cable is to transmit digital data. It CANNOT alter the “quality” of the data. This doesn’t even makes sense when talking about digital data: digital data is always 100% good when transmitted, or it is NOT transmitted.
Instead of spending your money money in charlatan’s cables, buy a physics book.

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It’s not about the data not being 100% integral/coherent.
It’s about the noise being carried-over/picked-up by Ethernet cables that is more relevant here. This may be an issue, hence advocates of fibre networks.

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I use ethernet from the router to my solid state drive MacBook Pro. And USB from the MBP to the dCS DAC. I recently replaced the Wireworld Platinum USB with a Shunyata Delta. A remarkable upgrade. I put in Nordost’s best Ethernet cable down to the router from the MBP, replacing an AudioQuest Cinnamon. Could hear no difference. The Cinnamon now runs from the router to the wall, an improvement on the cable company’s made up off the roll junk. Shunyata has just introduced some new ethernet cables. Based on the good experience with the USB, I’ll give one a try for sure. As for those who ask… My Money, My Ears. Enjoy the music.

In my experience, the ethernet cable from switch to endpoint is the one that makes the biggest difference. Many of the budget ones are simply not compliant and you can hear this. That said, I have yet to try a high-end Ethernet cable that doesn’t have unacceptable trade-offs in terms of the tone and texture in particular of classical instruments and voice. Soundstage and layering improve (often artificially) and the noise floor falls, but this is often at the expense fo bass extension and texture. I’m currently trying the Sablons, which are promising but taking quite a while to burn in. The AudioQuest Vodkas were disappointing, and ditto the WireWorlds, though the latter may benefit from more burn in. I’ll be returning to them. The Metz latches on them are awful, though.

I’d be interested to hear how you are getting on with them. The best all-round performance I have got so far is with Belden CatSnake Cat5e cable from Designacable in the UK. This Belden 1395A cable has a heavy sheath but uses 24AWG wire like the BJC Cat6, only in this case the wires are stranded rather than solid (on the BJC) and obviously the Cat5e pairs have slightly fewer twists than the Cat6.

I will probably give the BJC offering a whirl and maybe the Supra Cat8, by which time I will probably have bored myself to death…

They seem just fine.

I just ordered another cable as am doing a 25m run from my modem to my AV unit, mainly to distribute TV around the house. Had a chat with the tech guy at Futureshop, a big cable business in the UK (commercial and audio/AV) and I went for the AudioQuest Pearl CAT6. Apparently it’s shielded like a CAT6A and AudioQuest supply good quality connectors, much better than a lot of other brands.

I will be running a fibre optic cable at the same time, so for audio I will have 1m of BJC CAT6 from modern to sending media converter, 25m of fibre optic, 1m of BJC CAT6 from receiving media converter to Innuos server and another 1m of BJC CAT6 from server to Devialet player. So a total of £160 for all cabling, parallel 25m fibre-optic and ethernet runs connecting everything, £50 for two media converters and £250 for iFi and SOTM 9v power supplies. Think £ = $. A sensible amount of money for an effective solution. Only the SOTM 9v supply is expensive, I could have used two iFi units, they are a lot cheaper.

FutureShop offer a very good 60-day satisfaction guarantee on cables and very helpful support.

I’m not convinced about the benefits of Ethernet shielding for audio in a domestic environment. All the shielded cables I have tried so far have had problems. It may be more important to let stuff stray out from the twisted pairs rather than stop stuff getting in…

I phoned them this morning and they’re couriering it over tomorrow as the cable is being put under floorboards on Wednesday morning. Gives me an evening to check it works OK. That’s good service.

Twisted pairs on Cat6 eliminate most of the RFI/EMI interference.
That’s the ‘irony’ of these so-called ‘audiophile’ Ethernet cables. You may as well move to fibre instead.

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I’m relatively cable agnostic, hardly use any anyway, but did a demo of Shunyata Delta power and was very impressed, soon had three and a Venom UK6 distributor. Shunyata are on to something. I have no idea what, as the cable was recommended to me by my dealer, who lent me one. I’d never heard of Shunyata before and was surprised to hear it was coming from USA as the name sounded Japanese. Not yet looked at their website. So spent a small fortune on Shunyata and $50 on three BJC ethernet cables.

Ethernet protocol requires refetching data if errors are indicated (checksums). So, in general, the protocol is error-proof but can introduce delay.

Whether a given cable is likely to produce more errors, and whether increased delay affects the music, I have no idea.

Strictly speaking, the Ethernet protocol itself supports error detection (via a frame check sequence) but does not require errored packets to be re-sent. That is added, if needed, by higher protocol layers such as TCP.

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There are some AQ Vodka enthusiasts among ND555 owners on the Naim forum. They are sufficiently impressed that I may take the plunge.
Perhaps the favourable results may have something to do with the direct connection between Melco storage and ND555?

I use a direct connection from an Innuos Zen Mk3 server to Expert Pro. I am perfectly happy connecting them with a £10 BJC Ethernet cable. The Melco and Naim are at similar price points, why people feel the need to use a £250 Ethernet cable is up to them. I have nothing against AudioQuest, I installed a 25m AQ cable today for WiFi and AV.

I was very disappointed with the Vodka. It has poor bass extension and articulacy and cannot render the tone and texture of classical instruments faithfully.

Here’s a conundrum! Some of those on the Naim Forum particularly liked the the tight bass extension and natural rendition of the sound of instruments which they got from the Vodka.
There was an opinion that they take some time to ‘settle’, and also that the indicated ‘directionality’ was not correct.
Head banging stuff!