Why Your Cat6/5e Network Cable is Slowing You Down: Interview with Blue Jeans Cable

[Mister Wednesday]

Greetings all,

 

An article on the Audioholics website regarding the real world quality of Cat 5e, Cat 6 and Cat 6a cable:

 

Why Your Cat6/5e Network Cable is Slowing You Down: Interview with Blue Jeans Cable | Audioholics

 

I have no connection to or association with any of the persons, companies, products or views expressed in the article referenced above.

 

Regards,

 

Mister Wednesday

[wgscott]

I'm glad I spent a little more and bought their cable.

[Audio_ELF]

Without doubting what Blue Jeans are saying ... remember that generally 100Mbps is sufficient for network audio, most (all?) streamers are limited to 100Mbps and even Cat 5 cables are capable of 100Mbps. So weather having low quality Ethernet cables will cause any audio degradation is debatable!

 

Interestingly I've never read this opinion from networking professionals who are running 1Gbps or even 10Gbps over cables usually purchased in bulk at the lowest possible cost... Read into this what you will!

 

Just an alternative point of view from someone who isn't trying to flog you cables!

 

Eloise

[Julf]

Interestingly I've never read this opinion from networking professionals who are running 1Gbps or even 10Gbps over cables usually purchased in bulk at the lowest possible cost... Read into this what you will!

 

During the summer I helped with the arrangements for a huge outdoor networking event here in Holland (OHM2013). 3000 nerds camping in a muddy field, with more internet bandwidth than the whole continent of Africa. The standard way to connect to the net was runs of up to 100 m of Cat 5 cable, running across wet mud, to one of the many portacabins containing high-speed carrier-grade switches. Most people achieved 10G, some had to contend with 1G. I did hear of some people who had laptops with network interfaces that only did 100 M. Did anyone discuss brand of cable? No. Everybody was using whatever cable was the cheapest in 100m rolls.

[wgscott]

Blue Jeans uses Belden cable, which is quality but not "designer." Some of the stuff you can buy on a roll at Home Depot, for example, is so brittle the wires break if you bend it too sharply. On the other hand, I've used Belden cable to tie stuff to my car and then have used it for its intended application with no problems.

[Garf]

[sARCASM]

 

I bought their 6a cable, it didn't make any difference in my network. The cable sure looked nice, as it matched the blue of my Netgear 10BASE-T hub.

 

[/sARCASM]

[Julf]

[sARCASM]

 

You might enjoy the user comments and customer reviews on this item: Amazon.com: Denon AKDL1 Dedicated Link Cable.

[Garf]

That is great Julf! "Transmission of music data at rates faster than the speed of light seemed convenient, until I realized I was hearing the music before I actually wanted to play it".

 

Perhaps I should buy one new for only $9,999.

 

And a George Takei review to boot. He has some great reviews, that guy is rather prolific in social media.

[One and a half]

I really need one of these devices to snap back to reset ideologies (or bad marketing spin). Best $7.46 ever spent.

 

[AlainGr]

If you find one that can also work for regular life, please post

[Garf]

But as WG says, it is always a good idea to buy decent quality cables. The peace of mind of not having to rip it out is worth a few more dollars. I know they wired my place with CAT5E from Home Depot. Luckily, I have used just one of the runs for a blu-ray player connection, and my audio and computer network runs I did myself.

[Audio_ELF]

Blue Jeans uses Belden cable, which is quality but not "designer." Some of the stuff you can buy on a roll at Home Depot, for example, is so brittle the wires break if you bend it too sharply. On the other hand, I've used Belden cable to tie stuff to my car and then have used it for its intended application with no problems.

 

But as WG says, it is always a good idea to buy decent quality cables. The peace of mind of not having to rip it out is worth a few more dollars. I know they wired my place with CAT5E from Home Depot. Luckily, I have used just one of the runs for a blu-ray player connection, and my audio and computer network runs I did myself.

 

I don't know ... but it sounds like what WGScott is describing is solid core cabling which should be used for permanent installs but that a lot of people buy and use to make cheap patch cables. Having said that I agree with "garf" ... the cost in cable installations is generally in manpower so paying a little more for quality cable is worthwhile.

 

Eloise

[PewterTA]

If you buy decent... you get decent... I can easily push 120MB/s to and from my server(s) all with Cat6 Cable pushing the limits of a 1GB connection. Well to be truthful, I get 240MB/s across the line as I have 2 teamed 1GB nics per server (and another 2 for failover per server).

 

If one can push the limit of what 1GB can do... then you should feel safe that your connections are good. All of my in-wall CAT6 (6a and 7 were way out of the price range at the time) was hand done by me and even my electrician friend who is anal about neatness commented on how good of a job I did. I figure, if you do it right, you only have to do it once. Buy good quality (not most expensive) and do some research... it doesn't tend to lead one wrong.

[wgb113]

Blue Jeans uses Belden cable, which is quality but not "designer." Some of the stuff you can buy on a roll at Home Depot, for example, is so brittle the wires break if you bend it too sharply. On the other hand, I've used Belden cable to tie stuff to my car and then have used it for its intended application with no problems.

 

Belden's bonded-pair technology is the real deal - I've seen it trounce everything else out there in real world conditions. Best part is, their patch cords are cheap!

 

Bill