House internet Wiring

Thieliste

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2014
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Hi guys,

I'm going to do a big house renovation in sep or oct and since i'm redoing the electricity i will also include internet network wiring.
I was thinking of using CAT 6 wiring for most of the house and CAT 7 for my dedicated listening room.
My digital will be mostly local NAS streaming and Qobuz streaming.
Let me know what you guys think about ethernet cables for house renovation.
Cheers
 

Bodhi

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2014
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When I build my next house, I plan on running ethernet wire from my office where my laptop/NAS will be to my listening room, lounge/dining & main BR as I want to be able to stream files off my NAS, but also download firmware updates & stream Internet radio. There is a thread somewhere on this forum about ethernet cables. From my research there, I'd personally go with Sablon Audio Panatela LAN/Ethernet cable which is supposed to be well made, quiet, resolving, on the musical side & good value in high end terms.
 

Bodhi

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2014
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You should also consider running fiber optic runs in addition to or even instead of wire.
Curious to ask, what would optical fiber be useful for? In Australia, some areas have 'fiber to the home' from the NBN. From there, you would normally run ethernet cable to your Wifi modem/LAN. Cheers.
 

Number9

Active Member
Oct 15, 2018
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Hi Bodhi, Whether you have 'fiber to the home' or not you can convert the Ethernet connection where your service comes into your home back to fiber optic. You will need to convert the optic cable back to copper at your router. The cost of the fiber optic cable is far less than any CAT cable and it will also isolate any noise generated up to your router. The transmission loss is way lower than copper and you won't have to worry about lagging behind when the next generation of CAT cable comes out. If it is not feasible for you to run the optic cable TO your router, I would still suggest that you run optic FROM your router to your stereo for the same reasons as mentioned. There is a lot of info on WBF and many other forums but I would be glad to provide links if you want to pursue this further. The cost of the optic cable is so little that I would run a line regardless just in case you decide to do this in the future.
 
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Number9

Active Member
Oct 15, 2018
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One more thing...Our whole concept and understanding of all this stuff can/will change tomorrow! and may have already.
 

Bodhi

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2014
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@Number9 Thanks for your comments on Fiber Optic cable. So if I understand you correctly, your advice would be to run a scheme as follows...

- Fiber optic cable from the copper or fiber-to-home broadband connection > Office ethernet connection > short Fiber optic (or) LAN/Ethernet cable with RJ45 connectors > modem/router
-LAN connected to NAS again via a short LAN/Ethernet cable > Fiber optic cable > rooms where I want to access music files > Fiber optic or LAN/Ethernet cable to connected device(s)
- Office > Fiber optic cable routed from the Wifi modem/router > various rooms for general internet access > fiber optic or short LAN/Ethernet cables to connected device(s)

One question though, can music files and broadband internet travel via the same Optic cable (with or without a copper LAN cable from the Ethernet port) to let's say a streamer in your audio room? Or would you need to run two seperate runs of Optic cable?

If you could link into any thread(s) which rate good Optic fiber cables & general advice on the above, that would be helpful. Cheers!
 
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Number9

Active Member
Oct 15, 2018
131
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If the distance from where your service comes into the house to your router is less than a couple meters then I would just use copper (nothing too elaborate) to the router and convert to optic after the router to the stereo. Regarding overall sound quality and minimizing noise, my experience is the power source for the converters will be the determining factor and not so much the (optic) cable. I am not certain what you guys can get Down Under but this is what I have.....
https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Ethe...r+to+ethernet&qid=1559259381&s=gateway&sr=8-4

https://www.amazon.com/Meter-Multim...thernet+cable&qid=1559259483&s=gateway&sr=8-6.


If you get a decent psu for the convrter you’ll be good to go. You can use standard wall wart at base but I would use upgraded psu at your front end audio component. Let us know if you need clarificaion.
 
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Gemini

Well-Known Member
Oct 14, 2015
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I would be interested to hear if anyone has compared a dedicated LAN/Ethernet wire connection from router to the server to using a Internet over powerline solution (savin the cost and effort of running a long Ethernet cable), and what the results were. At least on paper, if I understand the figures correctly, there should not be much difference.
 

Bodhi

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2014
1,051
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Thanks Number9, and my apology for the late reply to your above posts. Tbh, I got distracted with other threads and overlooked this one.

In my state, the Govt have adopted so called 'smart meters' which emit harmful levels of radation, so when I build a home in future the meter box will be located more than 2 mtrs from my office & enclosed in a custom-made faraday cage/shielded enclosure. Hence I would probably opt for gigabit fiber from the service box to my router.

Apropos the above, i'd probably use a fast wifi modem/router like this for streaming, with one of these Inline filters. Given that router has gigabit ethernet ports, would you still require the two Gigabit converters you linked into for a home network running to my audio, lounge & main BR? And if so, why would you need two converters?

In terms of my network - I would run gigabit fiber to the ethernet ports, then some decent ethernet cable to my dac/streamer. Whilst in the main BR i'd have a Tivoli radio & access the LAN to run internet radio & stream music. Cheers.
 
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asiufy

Industry Expert/VIP Donor
Jul 8, 2011
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Do not use Ethernet over power lines. It’ll mess up your sound, as it injects very HF noise into the mains.
If you don’t want to run cable (or cannot), use Wi-fi extenders.
 

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