Yes. The router and switch are assumed to have the ethernet ports appropriately grounded. BTW both types of cable will work in the sense of resulting in a music signal. However the length from switch to dCS risks adding noise if shielded cable is used.
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Ethernet cables with a floating screen work fine too.
A completely floating screen (decoupled at both ends) can’t drain any noise to ground but is capacitively coupled to the signal pairs. So how does it work?
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Screen connected to one side of the cable.
Many times discussion about the last (connected to dCS streamer) ethernet cable on this forum, the option without screen keeps being pushed and that’s fine but is not the only option.
I have tried a few different cables in my setup (certified ethernet cables without screen included) and I always come back to my 1 meter Sablon ethernet cable for the best result. (in my system)
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Any suggestions for unshielded cables?
I will DM you.
Please let me know when you get this.
If you have not received my DM by now let me know as there may be an issue with the forum’s software as no record of it is appearing in my “activities” log.
I just listen and use the one l like best this just happens to be a Shunyata Research Omega.
Yes it’s shielded, yes it has filters, and yes it sounds astonishing.
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The latter.
^This.
Shield grounded to one metal plug; ideally the upstream one not the downstream (server/streamer/upsampler) one so any radiated noise pisked up by the shield drains to the switch in the above example and not to the streamer. But this grounding directionality is less important than ensuring we don’t use a cable which has the shield grounded to both plugs and therefore capable of acting as a noise conductor; a totally unshielded cable usually sounds better on this last leg than a Cat 8 (or Cat 8 based, which most “audiophile” network cables are) which must have the shield grounded to both plugs as part of the spec.
Not discounting what you might have experienced personally, but this is a bad idea because the entire Ethernet cable then behaves as a antenna from induced EMI/RFI;
As discussed extensively in the linked thread;
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I’m so glad we got this thread going again!
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/10char
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Yes playing FM BBC radio through my ethernet cable antenna
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Dual purpose cable.
Radio 4 down the antenna/shield
…and Radio 4 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_4_(band)) down the middle!
Luxury.
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Are you recounting your own personal experiences here? Have you heard this supposed “antenna” effect? We’re trying to stop EMI/RFI reaching the analog(ue) side of the DAC here. The idea that a shield grounded only to a plug upstream of the server/streamer somehow increases the amount of EMI/RFI reaching the DAC needs challenging in theory and testing in practice.
The only alternatives are (1) a completely unshielded cable and (2) a Cat-compliant shielded cable which must have the shield grounded to both plugs by definition. Neither perform as well sonically as the cable geometry you dismiss. This isn’t about personal preference, it’s about technical performance.
People can argue the technical theories the way they what, i have a wireworld basic (yellow) from the wall to the routter (mesh) and a nordost heimdall2 from the routter to the switch Nordost and the synergetic research SRX (this is grounded) from the switch to the dac and i felt an improvement in sound in every step i did. The Ethernet was the cables i felt lower difference being the ones that have more impact the speakers and power. Other way I would not spend all that money in those cables.
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I already explained the science behind why extensively. I suggest you go back and re-re-read the thread. Here, let me help;
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You’re as entitled to express your opinion as I am, naturally, but you have not explained the science and neither have you answered my question about whether you have heard such a cable and its (apparently negative) impact on sound quality.
We both know that the reason dCS recommend unshielded cables is because the shield (in Cat 8 and Cat 8-based cables) can act as a conductor of noise from one RJ45 plug to another and therefore from one device to another, a principle with which I wholeheartedly concur based on both the theory and my practical experience = listening.
We both know that the analog(ue) side of the DAC is the first place in a networked playback chain where RFI might impact sound quality.
Science: let’s fix a variable. Let’s say we have a hifi system in a room with a certain amount of radiated RFI floating around in it. Between a network switch installed just before the streamer (or streamer/DAC), we then install in turn:
(1) a 1m unshielded cable eg Cat 6,
(2) a 1m shielded cable with the shield grounded at both plugs eg Cat 8, and finally
(3) a 1m cable with the shield grounded only at the upstream=switch end.
Each cable is obviously exposed to the same amount of radiated RFI. Please compare and contrast what you think happens to this radiated RFI - the path it follows - in each scenario, including the path to the analog(ue) side of the DAC.
I never said you were not entitled you express your opinion. Why is that being brought up??? The science has been very clearly explained in the previous thread. Do you need me to point it to you again???