I have a Naim NSC222 and Innuos Zenith Mk3. Currently they are connected with a standard quality network cable. Would I (really, not snake oil) benefit from using an ‘audiophile’ cable in its place? If the answer is yes, will it be sufficient to warant the cost?
A cat6 cable is well insulated against outside interference, and apart from ensuring the connections are clean at each end (this is where you use the snake oil !), I would keep the money in the wallet.
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All audiophile networking is snake oil. There are numerous posts on this subject.
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Agreed.
The last network cable that I bought was a 10m cat 6 flat cable used to establish a wired connection from the switch by my roon core to the Raspberry Pi that runs my headphone listening station. I bought this cable on amazon uk at £7.69 (or about 77pence a metre) - including delivery.
I went for a ‘flat’ cable only because I wanted to run it around the edges of the room tucked out of sight between the carpet edge and the skirting boards which would have been more difficult - but not impossible - with a standard round cable. I didn’t want to start lifting carpets.
I have tested the network link and I see no lost packets so I don’t see any reason to spend more. For Ethernet, I value the ‘cat 6’ verification much more than I value any ‘audio grade’ designation.
I would avoid cat 7 or cat 8 network cables for connecting endpoint devices They are unnecessary and more expensive.
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I would argue that the covering of the cat makes a lot of difference. Some cats have unusually sparse covering, and are therefore more susceptible to outside interference.
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Agreed and we don’t need another one so I’m closing this one.
@Tim_Green, please search the forum you will find 1000’s of polarised views on this topic.
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