Sometimes it happens, Erno. And when it does…well…there should be much partying. There aren’t many things we do in this hobby that work as well (or better) and cost LESS.
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Before I started I did not have any confidence, but a € 10 investment is always worth trying.
Belden is hard to get here in Europe, I thought, until I found out their cables are sold here everywhere under their brand name Hirschmann. Fully copper, fully certified, premium professional grade UTP cable, 5m for € 10.
I would have liked to say that it DID sound MUCH better than the Vodka… But that is asking for trouble 
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We’re parallel-tracking another thread with similar content. I applaud Erno’s experiment and his sharing of the outcome. There is no real reason that either the Belden or AQ should sound better than the other, except–as Erno notes—for the shielded/unshielded construction and standard-compliance of the cable. As Andrew put it above:
There is simply no good engineering reason for spending big bucks on Ethernet cables. Aesthetic reasons, maybe, but not engineering.
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These are the engineering reasons why it sounds better.
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What model did you buy and where?
5m ready cable of this one:
You can find it on-line easily, many offerings.
The same here.
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I should have said EU, not Europe. I could have ordered it in the UK or USA, but then the postage costs would be double the cost of the cable.
Still a cheap cable. 
Indeed, but still. I remember ordering my Geistnote Apogee Wyde Eye clock cables from the US. Apart from the Fedex charges, also Fedex presented me a import charge of another $ 36. Still cheap, indeed
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Hi Greg and others,
Which category of BJC ethernet cables did you choose? They have Cat 5e, 6 and 6a.
Thanks in advance.
Hey Andre. Cat 5e should be more than good enough, but all mine are Cat 6.
Most important is that you use UNSHIELDED cables; cat 6 is fine (and these days there is hardly any price difference.)
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Excellent, thanks Greg and Paul!
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Bought five Belden CAT6+ bonded pair patch cables from Digikey, free delivery to Sweden, took four days with UPS from USA to Sweden. Paid the tax in advance when UPS sent a SMS this morning that they had a delivery for me.
https://www.digikey.se/product-detail/en/belden-inc/C601106004/BEL1446-4-ND/7009172?cur=SEK&lang=en
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Another happy CAT6 Blue Jeans user 
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I was using some cheap Amazon cat 6 unshielded cables…who knows if they are in spec or not.
Ordered the Cat6 BJCs and…I couldn’t hear a difference. But my system is certainly not as resolving as most of your systems. At least I know that this aspect of my setup is squared away. On to other upgrades…incoming this month hopefully are Abyss 1266 Phi TC headphones and a rack (Symposium Osiris). Next order will be the clock.
I’m actually relieved that the ethernet cables didn’t make a meaningful SQ improvement in my system.
If they did, I would be tempted to try much more expensive cables.
This is the reality. They don’t.
And that’s one of the big reasons why I moved to DCS. So much simpler than dealing with a USB connection and a streaming device.
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