ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Hi,
just bought a new house, two floors approx 200 m2. In my apartment today, I have master link installed, question is if it is worth installing this in the new house.
I am considering using Cat6 or Cat7 cables and not Masterlink. What's your opinion - is wired cables out of date?
BR
Riven
My B&O products: Beosound 9000, Beosound 2300, Beosound Century, Beolab 8000, Beolab 6000, Beolab 4000 x2, Beolab 3500, Beolab 2000, Beolab 10, Beolink Active x2, Beotime, Beo5 x2, Beo4, A9 keyring x2, LC2 dimmer x6 and growing....
MasterLink is definitely dated.
B&O is forwarding network compatibility, you can see that with all new systems they bring on the market now. But choosing a correct system depends on what audio systems you have in possession. I have a mix of both systems, so I have MasterLink & NetworkLink in home. My old BL2000 is the mean reason why MasterLink is still in house, can't throw it away it's such a fine sounding speaker.
"Believe nothing you read and only half of what you see, let your ears tell you the truth."
Chris is right, consider your product mix and act accordingly. Installing masterlink may be cost prohibitive in the long run when running CAT6/7 cable can do a helluva lot more to add value to your house in addition to allowing NL connectivity for your current and new B&O purchases.
You can likely look at an ML/NL converter purchase (or two), as an investment for the house in the long run, and when you decide to maybe get rid of your ML products, sweeten the pot with the converters when / if you sell.
You could run Cat and terminate it with ML plugs/sockets.
valve1: You could run Cat and terminate it with ML plugs/sockets.
Yep, this was my intention in that case. To have RJ45 sockets in the wall and then have special Masterlink cables with RJ45 in one end and Masterlink in the other.
Congratulations on the new house. I would not consider wired cabled out of date. But I would consider masterlink out of date, and I would never install dedicated masterlink cabling in a new house. When installing network cabling, remember that the routing is different from masterlink cabling. It is not just another plug, network cabling is run in a star topology and not from device to device.
BeoVision 11-55, BeoLab 8000, BeoRemote One BT, AppleTV 4, 2x BeoPlay A2, BeoPlay A1
If I were building a new home, I would run BOTH MasterLink and Cat6/7 with tidy sockets in each room. While B&O is moving away from ML, there are still many ML products on the secondhand market at great values. The newer B&O NL products on the secondhand market are quite rare. To me, it would be worth having that option of ML. Also, I love the idea of having nice ML sockets in the wall. You might also consider running powerlink cables in the walls to terminate at sockets in logical speaker locations.
Living Room: Beosystem 4, Beolab 7-2 (Center), Beolab 9 (Fronts), Beolab 8000 (Rears), no Subwoofer. Screen: Sony KD-85XH9096Dining Room: Beosound Essence MK II with Beolab 4000 on stands, fed by Amazon Echo Show 8Home Cinema: Beosystem 4, Beolab 7-4 (Center), Beolab 1 (Fronts), Beolab 4000 (Rears). Projector: Sony VPL-HW55Home Office: Beosystem 3, Beolab 7-4, Beolab 5000, Screen: Sony KD-55XH9005 on Beovision 7-40 stand, ML to Beosound 9000 MK3 and Beosound 5/Beomaster 5 (1 TB SSD version)Bedroom: Sony KD-65XH9077, Beosound Essence MK II with Beolab 6002 and Beolab 11 (all white, wall-mounted)
In storage: Beolab 5000/Beomaster 5000 (1960s).
In reply to my earlier answer, I have historical also ML cable in the house, but thats because once its sits in the wall its not removable anymore.
If I would move to a new nest, I would prepare the home completely with double Cat7 shielded ethernet cable and bring all cables together at one place, a server room.
Why a double cable? I found out that if I want to place a settopbox or additional computer in the room its handy to have a extra necessary RJ45 connection for it. Wireless connections can be obstructed and when it comes to networking, there's no substitute for a wire, when a wire's available.
You can install in every room where you want your audio equipment 2 X RJ45 sockets in the wall, to connect both old or new equipment to it. Another challenge will be correctly placing the necessary power sockets and PL cables where you want the speakers.
Reserve a place in the server room for the necessary NL/ML converter to integrate the newer toys to the old ML. A very good and detailed guide how to construct a B&O dedicated network you find here: network_link_infrastructure
B&O has a cable to connect ML equipment with Cat7: