$300 Dante / RedNet Ethernet cables don't matter.

Photo by 2H Media

I want to put this debate to bed. Forever. Can high-end $300 Ethernet (CAT-5e, CAT-6, CAT-7, CAT- 8) cables make a difference in the "sound" of your audio when connecting multiple RedNet or Dante devices together?

Let's start with a few claims:

1. A high-end "switch" device sonically improves audio quality.

2. Shielded Ethernet cables are superior.

3. Jitter and noise can ruin your sonic experience.

While these claims aren't verbatim, you can visualize the pitch. The reality is, it depends.

I'm a mastering engineer, but I've also had a great career as a Network engineer. Anything with the Cisco Systems logo stamped on it was in my wheelhouse. Data connectivity as well. I cut my teeth in the field from Adtran in the 1990's to the .com boom of 1999 and years beyond. Back then, if you could log into a Cisco router, run a few "show" commands, and contact Cisco TAC support, you could make decent money. I still work in this field as well, although I rarely ever have to call support. I also work a lot with Amazon AWS technologies.

As an audiophile, I've also witnessed the scams of the extreme esoteric cable-makers who claim a $75,000 speaker cable is going to make a HUGE difference, but "not until you've spent millions of your playback system already". If your system is "budget", a big-boy cable isn't going to make much of a difference, but you're welcome to buy it anyway. Some dude building them in his garage won't turn away a living fooling people into his deceptive claims. Sadly, there's real a market for it. Anyone with deep pockets burning through will grab some gold-plated cables that resemble a large python, whether they can hear a difference or not.

But what about digital Ethernet cables? You know, the one that connects from your Mac Studio to your Linksys router, or, in a real studio the connectivity to a switch, and then to other enabled devices that support AVB, RedNet, or Dante. Heard of these terms? Waves Soundgrid come to mind at all? What about network-based file servers your engineers work from inside a studio? The cabling from the computer to the wall jack is probably a basic Ethernet cable. Often cheap CAT-5e or CAT-6 cables are in use. They work.

Have you read online that you should be buying $300 Ethernet cables to improve the sonic quality of your music? They use terms like "jitter", or distortion to suggest that these can make or break your audio, by smearing transient material and clarity. I mean, if a $10,000 Ethernet cable exists, how can you call yourself a professional without it, right?

Complete B.S. (well, mostly.)

The truth is, and I should attend more audiophile conventions to teach this, Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) is a standardized technology that's been in use for decades. It's come a long way to be quite speedy, but the mechanisms behind how it works have not.

Imagine gearing up for a live game on TV. Order pizza from Little Ceaar's for pickup. The online order application provides you with the number 136 as your validation/retrieval code. You write the number 136 on a piece of paper and hand it to your friend to run pick up the pizza. 136 is the code the friend needs to enter at Little Ceasar's pizza to retrieve a placed order for pickup. The code doesn't work. He calls you on the phone and asks for the number again. This time, it works. Apparently, the piece of paper ripped on the way to pick up the pizza, and he only had "13", having lost the number 6. At the end of this, the pizza is retrieved, and enjoyed. What's the difference between that experience and if he had the right code the first time? Did the pizza taste any different?

Many audiophiles, especially cable builders, will argue to the end of time that due to the brief delay in re-requesting the code, the pizza cooled by .003° and now it tastes awful. Just dreadful! If this was really the case, why did the audiophile send his partner to retrieve the pizza? Should the friend have used am armored van vs. an economy car?

What many audiophiles or audio engineers may not realize is:

1. Ethernet technologies (what Dante, RedNet, and AVB all rely on) all use Error-correction, which is insanely fast compared to even 192kHz.

2. This technology, much like USB and thunderbolt all use FIFO (First-In, First-Out) buffering, which means, every digital "bit" or signal is saved in a short-term storage IC chip and then served up to the next device as requested.

If audio itself was played back like that, it would sound like garbage noise. I mean, you couldn't even recognize music in that signal. Ethernet uses error-correction and CRC checksums. If these are failing to correct bad signal through the cable, then this isn't because it's a budget-quality cable. It's because something is broken.

Case-in-point. Do you listen to online streaming platforms, such as Qobuz? Does it not download the audio much faster than your player streams the music? Yes, it does. Where is that audio stored? Your harddrive as cached data. the player then grabs the audio from the cached data as it needs to. And it does so in bursts!!

Every major connection across Internet backbones uses digital cabling, and I assure you it's high quality, and often uses Ethernet these days, if not another really fine OSI Layer 2/3 technology. But the cabling isn't produced by an audiophile cable manufacturer!

Let's expand this. In major studios with Dante, for example. What sort of network switched do they use to connect multiple Dante devices? Often, you'll see brands like Cisco, Meraki, NetGear, Foundry, Dell, HP, etc. These are off-the-shelf pieces of equipment designed without ANY thought to audio quality aside from one aspect: QoS (Quality of Service), which can prioritize voice and video over data. But they work fast and reliable enough that you probably don't need much of that anymore.

So, if I see a Audiophile reviewer go to an audio convention and suggest they can tell a stark difference between a $50 NetGear switch and some esoteric $9,000 switch....where is that middle-finger emoji?

As a mastering engineer, I strive to get great quality cabling. But as a Network engineer? I know better than to waste money on a $300 Ethernet cable. Even a $175,000 Cisco Nexus switch isn't raising the bar much on audiophiles, even if it's great for reliability and longevity. Because, it doesn't NEED to! Audio data doesn't stream across an Ethernet network like S/PDIF or AES. It's bursty in nature. it moves in frames, and these frames work like a dotted line. They move more like emails to your inbox. As long as they get there intact, you're good. If not, they'll fix it faster than you can blink. Your Qobuz playlist is downloaded as fast as it can be and stored, ready for playback. Your cabling isn't going to improve the data beyond that.

You do need reliability and to be free from a broken, faulty, or noisy connection from point-to-point. But infinite quality in digital communications is a waste. I mean, it's a WASTE of money. If budget cables work, it's fine. If you compare data between a $10 cable and a $300 cable, unless one is plain bad or poorly manufactured, you won't tell a difference—certainly not in audio quality. If you do, it isn't due to transients or high-frequency smearing. It's likely to manifest itself as drop-outs, clicks, or other garbage. Noise can cause problems. However, even a $10 cable is fine for avoiding most noise, if it's not placed next to really noisy gear or interference. But noise isn't changing the data being transmitted across digital cables without causing very noticeable issues. It isn't going to "smear" your audio. That's just something certain audiophiles want you to believe, largely, because they never fully studied the technology behind it. Yes, it's an analog "signal" moving across the cable, but it isn't analog data. My advice: Buy a good quality 24 AWG or 23 AWG CAT-6 cable. If you must, try an Audioquest Pearl cable. It's super great-looking, and is probably the best you'll ever need. If you can, stick to a 3-foot, 1-metre cable. CAT-6 Ethernet cables are plenty good up to 100 metres (320-ft) with no issues. Then, avoid noisy things with the cable. If it's kept at least 10cm (2-3") away from other noisy equipment or cables, you're set! Happy 2026!