CAT5 vs CAT6 cables

[dymondaudioParticipant]

Hi, I’m being told by a representative from Audio Technica that CAT6 cannot guarantee consistent results over CAT5.

Verbatim: “if you are using a cable not approved by A&H to be used with their products, one cannot guarantee consistent results as the cable has not been put to test by A&H, Especially with CAT6”

Anyone care to comment as to the reliability/performance of shielded CAT6 over shielded CAT5 for an ACE connection.

[nissseParticipant]

I think their statement is a bit strange.
If you look at the CAT6 standard, it states that it must be backward compatible with CAT5e.
The CAT6 standard is better for crosstalk and better transmission performance. If you look inside the CAT6 cable, the pairs are separated with a plastic X, which makes it thicker.
All and all, I don’t think you will notice any difference.
I’ve run on all strange sorts of cables including a cheap 25m unshielded CAT5e that I’ve got with my broadband.

Just my 5cent
/Christian

[GilParticipant]

Every manufacturer and sometimes reseller will make statements like that to cover any potential issues with thevuse of the product. That way if someone uses the wrong cables or cables that have not been tested, they can claim the product used wasnt approved my the manufacturer. In theory, if a product is spec’ed to use Cat5e or Cat6, it should work with any cable out in the market as long as it follows the Cat standards.
I have iLive systems installed with Home Depot cat5e and working just fine. However that was not by choice. I always go for quality wire from a reputable manufacturer and always recommend the same to others.

[MitchellParticipant]

iLive uses 1000 Mbit/s Ethernet only for Dante audio, all other connections (Surface, MixRack, xDR …) are only 100 Mbit/s, so any Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6, and Cat6A cables will work:
– Regardless of whether they are shielded or not.
– So long as each cable run is not longer than 100 metres, and the cables have not been damaged by being bent too sharply.

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