We live in a large-ish Victorian flat, with very thick walls. A long time ago, we had the floorboards up and put down in each room Belden Cat7 cable, bought as off cuts from a company, so I am assuming that it is okay.
However, since getting Gigabit Internet, I discovered that it only seems to pass 100mb. Given the pace of change I don’t really want to rewire the whole flat, and wondered about running some cheapish Cat8 under the carpets.
I’ve tried optical, with Finisar SFP+'s, which sounded fine, but on recently swapping them for Cat8, copper was better.
So if anyone knows of something flat that would work in 10-15m distances, please share.
My home had been wired with Cat5e, which has had no problem passing gigabit without issue. To my shock, I have also been able to pass 10 GB over one span of it. I suspect that there might be some kind of kink in your span of Cat7 that’s limiting you to 100mbps.
I don’t. I just wanted to mention though that both Cat7 and Cat8 can have metal connectors with the shield terminated at both ends. It’s best for audio that the shield is only connected at one end.
FTP and STP are primarily about shielding, with the latter offering more shielding. Some suggest that for audio, you can start with a long run of UTP (unshielded) and use shielding only in the last meters, with your best cable connecting to the streamer. Whatever you choose, all cables should support gigabit speeds.
What isn’t clear to me is this: since you mentioned the Belden cables were installed a while ago, were they never used before? Did you just recently attach the shown connectors to both ends, resulting in 100 Mbps speeds?
If you’re DIY-ing Ethernet cables, the main issue is usually the connection. You just need to keep redoing it, using a freshly cut end, until it works.
Have you simply tried reterminating the Belden? Belden is about as good as it gets. Did you do the cabling yourself? I’ve often found DIY’ers can often get sub-par results.
Are you running a managed switch? Many (but not all) have built in copper cable diagnostics.
edit Just punched a keystone. Here are some pics of how I do it. BTW Network Engineer and now Architect so this stuff is in my wheelhouse. This is punched for the TIA 586B standard.
I used the tooth on the keystone to push the twisted pair apart. I don’t bother unwinding it. I then line them up and use the punch down with a quick wiggle to evenly seat the strand and then quick 2 punches with the tool against a hard surface and let the cutter do it’s thing. If the cutter edge is in good condition the cut end should come off pretty easily.
Note that I keep the jacket right up to the keystone edge and maintain twist to the keystone tooth.
I tried some very expensive 3 meter and I wired up 300ft of Berktek 5A and couldn’t discern an appreciable difference. I could unplug the cable and the current track would play without any interruption in it’s entirety.
You don’t need shielded CAT cabling in domestic environments. Even deprecated CAT5 (not 5e) UTP is noise immune to 30Mhz due to it’s CMNR. Texas Instruments has a good technical paper on 10/100 PHY and CAT5 with regards to heavy EMI/RFI testing.
Another good read is Siemons article labeled ‘The Antenna Myth’.
Correct, except for audio. Of course you only need shielding if the perceived audible difference is an improvement. In my case, it’s clearly audible with certain “last-meter” cables connected to the streamer. Ultimately, your room, your ears, and your gear will guide you.
Shielding for data cabling has specific uses however. If we need full 100M/328ft at 10Gbe we have to have shielding to deal with attenuation at those distances. It’s the actual intent. Also consider the reason there is no 28/56/100/200/400/800 gig copper Ethernet. It’s all fiber.
If you are going to use shielded cable just make sure it’s of the fully floated variety as drain tied Ethernet cabling defeats the Magnetics package on NIC’s and Switches and can inject 50/60Hz ground hum.
Video is a much more demanding application in the home and it does just fine over UTP cabling. If Ethernet cables that hit spec had differences (say BJC and Nordost) I think Colorimeter results would show the difference since the demands are magnitudes greater than audio applications.
Sorry, but it seems like we’re focusing on the impact of Ethernet cables on audio performance, particularly how they can affect sound quality. I’m not sure how details about video or very long cable lengths are relevant to this discussion. Could we keep it centered on the audio experience and how Ethernet cables influence that?
Video has to also go through a D to A process to become a light & color being transmitted from your screen.
To make a proposition that the cable carrying 4:2:0 video and 24/96 PCM audio will affect the audio portion but not the video portion really stretches the blind faith in such statements since the mechanisms that are claimed to be influenced by differing cables are used in both processes.
I’d put money that if we put together a well sorted out Head Phone rig (so we get rid of any room influence) that any ability to pick the cable, when the construction is the same, would go into coin flip territory when the sighted portion is removed from the equation.
Fun fact: we actually use our eyes to see and our ears to hear. I know, totally shocking that two completely different sensory organs with differing sensitivities are tasked with these duties. Our ears are incredibly sensitive in ways that our eyes are not. Just because our eyes can’t pick up on harm done doesn’t mean that our ears won’t be able to.
But having said that, some folks can spot differences in video quality that arise from improving their networks. I have not as I have never explored this. I am confident though that once I am able to move my EtherRegen down to my AV system that I will see improved video quality. I might even be able to see an improvement from using a better Ethernet cable.
With that mindset I’m confident you will too. I’m a network architect that worked in the nuts and bolts of the broadcast industry. So this isn’t outside of my experience.
I’ll stand pat putting $ on the table when the sighted bias goes away wrt to network cables we will enter coin flip territory.
Anyhow I think if the OP re-terminates their quality Belden (assuming the run is intact) it will perform.
If I could put a magical $700 network port into a mastering studio and get incredible result it would already be done the world over.
Now let me show you your stumbling block:
I’m perfectly willing put $ on it and bring the proverbial blindfold.
I’ll tone out what ever Ethernet cable you have in line and build one on the spot so it tones out the same. I’ll even make it a longer cable since I can reasonably presume esoteric Ethernet cables are your normal 1-3 meter. Like 4-5 times longer.
Could do this at an upcoming audio show (U.S./North America) and do it on a quality Headphone rig.
The only domain expertise that would matter is actually having achieved success at implementing solutions that improve the fidelity of high end audio systems - with the ears being the judge of that. The listening experience is what matters when it comes to the choice of digital cables for a high-end audio system.
