PowerLink RJ45, Supra Cat8 Cable

Hi all and Happy new year!

I’ve bought my first high end BO speakers this Christmas, a pair of BL18’s and a BS Core.

I was in 50% for the looks and 50% sound. They do both very well, especially looks, although I’m thinking of adding BL19 already. They need some help for the low ends.

The dealer doesn’t carry BO PowerLink cables, other stores were close, thus I’m running them on a cheap 2€ cable found at my local home improvement store. They work, but there’s some barley audible buzz noise after 24h. If I reboot the Core the buzz goes away.

I’ve finally got a pair of Supra Cat 8 RJ45 cables, made in Sweden but patched locally by the dealer.

http://www.jenving.com/products/view/cat-8-stp-patch-1001908589

When connected, there’s buzz everywhere from the speakers. I suspect the shielding was not connected properly. Or the 40Gbps cable is too much?

I’ve checked the patching and it’s according to the T568B standard.

Does the shield wire needs to be connected on both ends of the cable (under the gold plated plugs) ?

Or only connected to one end and loose on the other ?

Thank you in advance and looking forward for an answer.

Happy new year,

he is the man who knows

https://soundsheavenly.com/

CU

Ingo

 

Agreed. Steve can help.

One other idea, though. I also had some electrostatic feedback or buzzing from my Core and BL18 setup. And I was using double shielded Cat7. The easiest way to get rid of it is just to use Toslink cables. So that’s what I did. No difference in sound to me and because they’re fiber optic cables, there is no possible electric interference.

PS

As an experiment, I also bought a $100 Audioquest “audiophile” Cat7 cable and the buzzing was so much worse than my much much cheaper generic Cat7 that they were not usable. I returned them immediately. So rather than play this cables game, I just went to Toslink. Works perfectly.

That’s exactly what I’ve experienced with Supra Cat8 cables. Buzzing sound, like static noise.

I suspect the shield wire needs to be loose at one end.

I guess the Audioquest cable has the same construction. These “audiophile” cables are mainly used for connecting a NAS to the router.

BTW, what cable did you used for the optical connection?

Audioquest ones go pretty steep. :)

 

I used a basic Toslink cable from Monoprice.com.

At first I was embarrassed by the idea of using such an inexpensive cable in my expensive B&O setup but then convinced myself that spending more money on cables, especially optical Toslink, wouldn’t generate any difference in sound that I would be able to hear. Frankly, I think this is one of the benefits of B&O, much like not needing to worry about pairing amps with speakers and worrying about power conditioners, etc., we don’t need to spend big money on interconnects or mains power cables. For us, these things are simpler. And then I told myself not to be a snob. :)

It’s a small but enthusiastic and helpful community. Welcome!

Alright then. So no fancy cables.

One thing I know about optical cables is that they all sound the same except the ones that use quartz fiber, ridiculously expensive. (500$/meter for Audioquest Diamond)

I need to run these cables underneath the skirting and there’s a corner at some point. So I think the optical solution will not fit for me because of the 90 degrees bending.

SoundsHeavenly was closed for Holidays until today. I needed some sort of cables during this time :).

I am using Cat 7 SF/FTP cables which is soft and easily bendable. They sound good with my beolab 50 and is very inexpensive without ground noise issues. I would recommend buying that.

Cat 6/7/8 is far from all the specs needed as there is many kinds of cables that can be cat 6/7/8, shielded or unshielded in many different ways. It’s a jungle. Most regular cables are unshielded because most devices isn’t grounded. So to not introduce dangerous feedback, unshielded cables are most common.

Confusing sadly but at least expensive cables isn’t the best always, rather the cables that are made in big numbers are probably better as they are made automaticallly by machines and the more expensive audiophile cables might be handmade with bigger risks for failure on the cables.

So I removed caps from one of the cables and indeed the shield is not connected to the caps.

It’s loose on both sides (attached photo).

The question is, should I tell the dealer to connect both ends or just one end?

So I removed caps from one of the cables and indeed the shield is not connected to the caps.

It’s loose on both sides (attached photo).

The question is, should I tell the dealer to connect both ends or just one end?

Went to the dealer today and he re-patched the cables. This time he also connected the shield to the metal caps on both ends. 

I'll leave the final details for patching the cable, maybe it helps someone else:

- Supra Cables CAT8 S/STP Patch Cable

- Supra Cables RJ45 Male Plugs

- T-568B Wiring

- Ground wire connected on both ends (under the gold plated plugs)

 

Found an official video on how to do it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLNFDKn46jA

In the end it probably costs as much as an original BO cable. My BO dealer didn't have them in stock so I don't know, but the Supra one is around 40€/meter.

Using it as daisy chain between BeoSound Core and a pair of BeoLab 18.

Cheers!

I have a audioquest Vodka ‘audiophile‘ cables with Telegarner terminations and have no buzz whatsoever ever. The cable is not grounded and the sound is great. I use my 50s to connect to cd, steaming and turntables for music and for tv watching using another audioquest cable. I was advised to check if the cable is grounded by using a multi metre. 

The Supra 8 is rated highly on audiophile forums due to the quality of the Cable for steaming music/ computer based music. I also used cheap Ethernet cables which hit and miss `for my 18s as some cables have off a buzz. 

I have a audioquest Vodka ‘audiophile‘ cables with Telegarner terminations and have no buzz whatsoever ever. The cable is not grounded and the sound is great. I use my 50s to connect to cd, steaming and turntables for music and for tv watching using another audioquest cable. I was advised to check if the cable is grounded by using a multi metre. 

The Supra 8 is rated highly on audiophile forums due to the quality of the Cable for steaming music/ computer based music. I also used cheap Ethernet cables which hit and miss `for my 18s as some cables have off a buzz. 

pig30n:

Went to the dealer today and he re-patched the cables. This time he also connected the shield to the metal caps on both ends. 

I'll leave the final details for patching the cable, maybe it helps someone else:

- Supra Cables CAT8 S/STP Patch Cable

- Supra Cables RJ45 Male Plugs

- T-568B Wiring

- Ground wire connected on both ends (under the gold plated plugs)

 

Found an official video on how to do it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLNFDKn46jA

In the end it probably costs as much as an original BO cable. My BO dealer didn't have them in stock so I don't know, but the Supra one is around 40€/meter.

Using it as daisy chain between BeoSound Core and a pair of BeoLab 18.

Cheers!

So how do these work for you?

Hi there,

Sorry for late reply. The cables are dead silent. Finally!

Indeed, I've got the Supra CAT8 because of the respectable manufacture in the audiophile comunity. Myself being a head-fier for 15years that never jumped into buying loudspeakers because I know it can get expensive very quickly. Already ordered BL19, so yeah :).

A few words about the cable, although it's not fair to compare it to the generic CAT6 cable I was using before.

- Stereo and instrument separation has greatly improved. I think the Cat6 cable a bad channel crosstalk.

- The treble response is now flat. With the Cat6, I felt the speakers were slightly bright that I ended up shedding a few treble lines in BSCore EQ. Now I run the EQ flat.

- Overall the cable feels that it doesn't add a sound signature

- I like the Ice Blue color of the cable. It looks like a lighter tiffany blue :)

Again this is a comparison between Supra Cat8 vs. a Generic Cat6 cable (20 times cheaper). I doubt there's much difference against the official BO cable. Let alone against any Audioquest.

BTW, is there a "right way" to connect the cables into the 2 PowerLink ports on each BL18?

I mean, does it matter where you connect the Core and the cable to the other speaker ?

Cheers.

Hi

I use Supra Cat 8 from my Eclipse to beolab 50 (as powerlink cable). It works and sounds very good. No static noise at all.

/Martin

I just googled and for those in the US, these are available on eBay from a seller in Seattle. FYI.