Useful info on electrical phase
Three phase is good and for most homes 63a is plenty
But remember to get a good earth
Mr Soh can help with that
In my opinion, Cat8 is way overkill for AV. Of course there is no harm installing it.
I cringe when I read about diff Cat8 cables sounding different. Gives me the perception the DAC is very poor at isolating the network from it’s internal DA operation.
I’m trying to understand here where ethernet cables are being used in the audio chain? Streaming from NAS/Tidal to player? I’m using a Bluesound Node and streaming music (24/96 FLAC) over ethernet (cat 6) from my NAS is far far worse than from USB. Within USB, a USB Stick or USB SSD sounds slightly better than a HDD. Surprisingly, Tidal on the Bluesound, which is coming from thousands of miles away sounds perfect and better than streaming the exact same song from a NAS. Although it is inconvenient, I avoid playing music from the NAS and have USB sticks all over the house.
As for cat 6, I run a 10GbE network from my QNAP NAS with a 10GbE card to my Mac with a Sonnet 10GbE Thunderbolt 3 adapter. Works extremely well and feels like an attached HDD even though the NAS is several rooms away. I’ve tested it and data flows fine on cat 6 at 10Gbps without issue, so its a mystery to me why music sounds bad over the same cable.
Pete, have you ever explored using a Sine Wave UPS to power the entire audio system?
I have a headphone system that is completely powered by battery (Laptop running Audirvana to USB DAC powered by power bank) except for the headphone amp, which has a linear power supply. I sounds much worse if the source or DAC is not battery powered, if for example the laptop is plugged in.
Very interesting bro, perhaps for a cans based system 
Might be harder for my main system…
We did a bit of visiting today to one bro’s home which is under construction. Lovely spot.
The HT room poses some challenges which I hope he will post pics for sharing.
But the idea of creating a baffle came up… with speakers within that baffle and even the subs and that baffle forming a frame for his fixed screen.
Not overkill at all considering the benefits you reap with a 1m cat8 cable for audio. About $55/m shipped to door step, the supra CAT8 does a fantastic job.
Are we able to discern the difference?
It’s a resounding yes from all 4 participants who did the blind test. Of course if one is not able to discern the difference, then you can safe $$ there. Go with the cheapest cat 6 or cat5e would suffice
In the blind test I conducted, we only changed the cable from the modem to the router. That alone was enough to tell.
There are also other cheaper alternatives CAT7, and CAT6 like the one below that sounds fantastic for less
Unless you AB them in a blind test, you will not know. I personally didn’t believe it will make a difference until I tried it myself …
Yeap, A-B the Cat8. If it makes a difference, by all means go ahead and install/use. To each his own.
Personally, my views are that a good DAC would have isolated the network, buffered the asynchronous data packets, and then pumped the audio data stream to the D/A engine with it’s internally generated high-quality low-jitter audio clock. NET or USB interfaces are asynchronous, and does not have embedded audio clock, so long as transfer is consistently error free, jitter & noise on the cable matters less since it isn’t impacting the data transfer. Only SPDIF/AES has embedded audio clock that needs to be recovered by the receiver, therefore quality of the cable/fiber does play a part in reducing environmental noise/disturbances.
As long as the Cat 5e/6/7/8 cable, switches, data source can ensure error free data transmission to the DAC, the DAC properly isolates the network interface from it’s internal D/A engine, the audio performance is fully dependent on the DAC itself, not the LAN cable.
The really good DACs would galvanically isolate every input, and may even buffer/re-clock every input (NET, USB, SPDIF, AES). With such a good quality DAC, any cable allowing error free data transmission will do.
May I know why just outside is good? even if the screen is AT?
Welcome to AVD
You can consider AT screens, but do try them out first bro… see if it fits your needs and you like the sound…
Your AVR may have a dialogue uplift capability too.
This may be down to personal preferences. For me, mains double as stereo so I prefer a wider placement 60deg at least, or even wider.
That is beyond the screen angle, which is maxed at 50 or extreme at 55deg.
There is also consideration of the screen image vs sound coherence. I have seen many cases where the screen image correlates better to mains placed outside of screen. For example a person walks off one side of the screen and then opens /closes a door to leave the room. The action is beyond the edge of the screen, and the sound is likely hard panned to the L or R speaker. If speakers are behind screen, then the sound will appear to come from the screen, even through the action has left the screen. I have noticed many situations like this and thought the off screen placement worked well.
It may also be 100% confirmation bias, and there are likely just as many cases where behind screen placement works, and outside screen placement doesn’t.
Last consideration is the mastering studio - was the studio setup with LR behind screen, or flanking the screen. I suspect majority are with speakers flanking non - AT screen.
End of the day, these are considerations that are for those OCD agonising the last % of details. Don’t worry too much, either setup will be more than satisfactory.
Actually this topic is quite nuanced. For Reference setup eg Rob Hahn, Event Horizon theatre etc. They all use Front Wide speakers. Believe both Atmos and DTS X support Wides as native channels. This mitigates most of the considerations in agonising between mains behind or flanking screen. Hahn has mains Behind, while Event Horizon is flanking.
https://www.avsforum.com/threads/rob-hahn-theater-build.2523385/
https://www.avsforum.com/threads/home-theater-of-the-month-the-event-horizon.2993724/
The final consideration is the speaker panning angles /gaps. For classic Dolby placement, say mains end up at 20deg, (behind screen) and LR surround at 110deg, that’s a large 90deg angle gap between the speakers for any sound that is panning from mains to surround.
A front Wide speaker will be placed in between this and nicely bridges the panning gap.
For my current setup, my mains are ~35Deg and my surround are forward of MLP at ~80 deg. ~ 45deg panning gap. Works really well imo.
Bro, not many people know about the setup you mentioned. Perhaps a link to the AVSForum featuring their setup tour/guide might help shed some lights.
Two sites on how much lumens are needed:
http://www.ledstuff.co.nz/data_calculators.php
Do aim for a variety of light sources:
- accent lighting
- task lighting
- mood lighting
Especially in the HT room, you may need ambient lighting for the mood, bias lighting for improving contrast on a TV and task lighting to see that remote control
I echo Gavin’s view, it also partly depends on the type of speakers u use. Since u r using the Monitor Audio GX300, the ribbon tweeters have a wider horizontal dispersion, narrow vertical dispersion
It will be ideal when placed “outside” the AT screen.
When you use the same GX100 or even another GX300 at surround locations 60degree apart, they will form the perfect “phantom image” at width location. This can be very immersive as it extends way far left and right without having to put a wide speaker at that location
The ideal placement for the GX300 LR, is not to be apart by more than 3m
Well said. The DAC is of course the most important factor. We all know that. The “push” for the CAT8 is coming from people who has already experienced the benefits of a good dac, and now into the tiny bits of 5-10% to squeeze every juice out of it. Most serious audiophiles are after this. A casual listener or non audiophile won’t even be bothered if it is cat 6 , 7 or CAT8.
But remember, once We have laid the cables, that’s gonna be very cumbersome to uninstall and install again down the road. Which is why I echo CASH’s sentiment, why are we going backwards with cat6 instead of CAT8?
You have made a valid point above, but note that not all cables are built the same. Some designs are prone to picking up stray signals, working as an antenna that can be detrimental to sound quality
Once the system have reached the stage where you have enough resolution, details and dynamic range, even a non audiophile will be able to discern easily the slightest of change in sound, even by swapping the Ethernet cables
So yes, I confirm again, CAT8 is the way to go… especially when building the room now and $ is not an issue
Optical cable is the best though, if that is available and $ is not an issue as well. They cost way more than Ethernet cables. We all know what we have gotten ourselves into with this hobby, it’s a very expensive hobby!
All of us have the same issues at home with electrical noise. The cables wired from power stations to our home, are just normal cables. When we switch our Power cords from the wall socket to the equipment, we hear a huge jump in benefits
Some will argue they hear no difference whatsoever and measurements cannot prove it etc etc… there are two camps… yet when we do a blind test, every single time the participants are able to tell.
Have you done any blind tests before ? Or participated in one?
I have done numerous with various group of people for power cord, Ethernet cables, interconnects… Except speaker cables. This I didn’t do. In all the test conducted, we are able to discern the differences easily
For a lot of battles between audiophiles and scientists, can go to the Audioscience Review. DACs that audiophiles like, scientists will say are just pleasant distortions. Scientists argue that blind tests are bad for evaluating audible differences, because the human brain is adaptive. Audiophiles believe in their perception almost like religion.
From many years of experience, the two sides will never agree so its no point trying to argue this out. If you add that $10,000 power cable and it sounds better, and you’re happy, its 100% worth every cent! Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you are not hearing anything.
The screen I intend to have is 4.6m x 2m for 2.35. So the GX300 will 0.8m instead the AT screen?
Is this 3m max because of the design of GX300?
The ideal position for the GX300 is between 1.8-3m apart and the distance from wall should be 90-100cm.
It’s the design of the speakers
They don’t work as well when you run full range down to 40hz, though they are capable down Low…
I seal the ports as well for superior timing
I measure with every single crossover possible from 40hz up all the way to 800hz… and I have the data to back that up, not hearsay or reading from the internet… lol
I’ve been using this pair for 13 years now this year and never find the need to upgrade . Award the speakers with a head start in headroom, they will perform for u
Anyway, that’s a discussion for another day in another thread…