Shielded vs unshielded ethernet cable for Lumin

J

jadedavid

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I have seen where it is recommended to use Cat5e or Cat6 unshielded cable for a Lumin per Wklie.
What is the reasoning behind this?
Can shielded cable be used? What about the Cat7 or Cat8 cables?
My Lumin is the only thing hard wired to my combo Xfinity router/switch so wouldn't think ground loops would be a problem.
This may have been covered before. If so please direct me.
 
The recommendation of unshielded CAT-6 is due to:

- Shielded network cable caused network instability problems in a few cases (some of them are using other network streamers not Lumin). Some EtherREGEN users also found unshielded cable to be more stable.

- Galvanic isolation, see HQPlayer author post:
Dealing with EMI/RFI on home network (streamer on wired LAN) - Networking, Networked Audio, and Streaming - Audiophile Style

- Noise, see dCS post:
Shielded vs. unshielded Ethernet and Grounding - Networking, Networked Audio, and Streaming - Audiophile Style

That being said, there are also many users who prefer shielded network cable based on the SQ they got in their setup. If it works for you, then you may continue to use it. If you a experience strange network issue, then one of the things that can be tried would be using an unshielded network cable instead.
 
Get a quality (computer, not audiophile) Cat7 or Cat8 cable and try. If it works - just keep it.
 
Stay away from all shielded Ethernet cables. Depending on how the cable is fabricated they can induce ground currents from your upstream components into streamers and DACs. Shielded Ethernet cables were developed to solve a problem you just don’t have in a residential installation. If you are hearing a difference between a shielded and unshielded Ethernet cable it is most likely occurring in your auditory cortex.
 
Supra Cat 8 is pretty good, the best of the "generic" Ethernet cables I've tried. Certainly better than Belden Cat 6a (gack!).

If you have the budget, though, Shunyata Venom Ethernet, at $380/1.5M, smokes virtually everything I tested it against, including AQ Cinnamon, AQ Vodka, Wireworld Starlight Cat 8, Supra Cat 8 and Belden Cat6a.

AQ Vodka came in second in my extensive testing, but at $600 for 1.5M, it's qute a bit more expensive than Venom, and sonically, it wasn't even close. While it's a nice-sounding cable, Venom smokes it.

Whatever you decide on, be sure to get a minimum length of 1.5M. Intra-cable reflections of the EM wave that propogates along the cable is highly-correlated to cable length, for Ethernet, 1.5M is the minimum acceptable length.
 
I'd love to see blindfolded AB tests for expensive and not so expensive Ethernet cables. I'd bet most would get it wrong 50% of the time.
 
Since last weekend we've got on tests shielded but grounded ... Synergistic Research Galileo SX Ethernet and with U1 Mini results are very interesting.
Galileo_SX_unbx-0016.jpg
 
After hearing that a shielded cable would not harm my system, I went ahead and tried a 10m Supra Cat 8 ethernet cable.
Very nice results. A much wider soundstage and more organic sound than my previous cable which was a generic 10m, flat, Cat 7 from ebay.
What surprised me is that the previous cable was shielded also. Who knew?
The audible results from the Supra are recognizable in repeated A-B & B-A changes.
 
jadedavid said:
After hearing that a shielded cable would not harm my system, I went ahead and tried a 10m Supra Cat 8 ethernet cable.
Very nice results. A much wider soundstage and more organic sound than my previous cable which was a generic 10m, flat, Cat 7 from ebay.
What surprised me is that the previous cable was shielded also. Who knew?
The audible results from the Supra are recognizable in repeated A-B & B-A changes.
Click to expand...

If using a shielded cable, the most important thing is that the shield is not connected at both ends. This is to keep high-source impedance leakage current from traveling down the shield and into the device's Ethernet receiver. This is what Peter was quite accurately referring to.

RDSChicago said:
I'd love to see blindfolded AB tests for expensive and not so expensive Ethernet cables. I'd bet most would get it wrong 50% of the time.
Click to expand...

No, they wouldn't, its really obvious.
 
jadedavid said:
After hearing that a shielded cable would not harm my system, I went ahead and tried a 10m Supra Cat 8 ethernet cable.
Very nice results. A much wider soundstage and more organic sound than my previous cable which was a generic 10m, flat, Cat 7 from ebay.
What surprised me is that the previous cable was shielded also. Who knew?
The audible results from the Supra are recognizable in repeated A-B & B-A changes.
Click to expand...

Very good news..!!! As I indicated in my post for my Supra Cat 8 is a really good ethernet shielded cable.
 
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