Cable Modems
- Thread starter Xymox
- Start date
Why stop there. Go to the cable drop outside your house. That box is also a good place to put an isolator. Isolators help reduce surges via the data utility powerline.
Yes, I’ve thought of that.
With the coax cable I’m using, it would get expensive.
What isolator have you tried?
Well thank you
Yes they are selling nicely and there are formal reviews in progress I am excited about.
The coax isolator I have always used now seems kinda hard to find. The TII 220. https://tiitech.com/product/220/ This is a cable company level product and should have little, if any, affect on your cable signal...
BUT....
Cable companies all over the US are doing serious changes to the RF spectrum they use. They are doing "Mid-Split" this lets them provide 2Gbps down and at least 100 Mbps up. The above coax isolator will work with this I believe BUT they have plans to go to 1.2-1.4 Ghz soon in RF spectrum which would mean this isolator would cause issues. I THINK All the isolators I have seen top out at 1Ghz. So this is a looming issue most likely 3 years off tho yet.
I will do a RF sweep of my isolator and see what its real bandwidth is.
A cable signal, as I have posted in this thread, is REALLY complex. At its basic its the same modulation idea as ethernet, oprical or USB,, there is just a VASTLY bigger constellation pattern and rate. Its maybe the most complex analog signal in the world that i know of. So its no surprize that using a better coax cable might improve things for this signal. BUT. As was pointed out. Its really important to look backwards all the way to your cable company pedestal in the yard. Way out there is coaxial hard line. Thats pretty serious stuff and you cant touch that anyway. The "drop" from the ped to your house is also not something you can touch, but, you could maybe convince a cable guy to change it out. A big tip helps.. But the best thing to do is ask the cable guy to get you a drop of RG11. This is much bigger and lower loss coax. They have that in the truck. AGain, a big tip can help.
So RG11 to your "DEMARC" point where it hits your house. This is where its grounded by law/code. It will have a ground wire to the service entry panel ( meter box / breaker panel ).. How I handle service entry is
RG11 from ped > TII surge supressor / ground block > isolator > 2 way high quality splitter > one leg goes to cable modem the other leg hooks to whatever splitter/MOCA stuff the cable co has.
I run a RG11 from the splitter diret to the modem. I also use a isolator on the modem to isolate from the house.
So I tap off the coax before anything else. I isolate the house from the outside world. I isolate the modem from the house.
I am extreme, I pull out my Agilant E4402B spectrum analyzer and carefully examin the RF signal at the modem with a splitter. I have also down sweeps of just the coax and house system without cable hooked up. I also look at noise on the system with everything hooked up, not the outside cable not hooked up.
You see... Any RF in the house gear will end up on the coax and will end up in your audio gear. So you gotta treat cable co coax as a serious threat.
Fiber does not have these issues. Its galvaniclly isolated.
So... A fancy coax might be fun to play with. BUT. If its not in-wall UL rated, you need to put it in conduit if its going in walls.
I always spec 2" conduit to all sorts of things in the house. If your gonna open a wall, or remodel, OR DO A NEW BUILD,, ALWAYS use CONDUIT to all network locations and, well, nearly anyplace you run a wire.
I am deploying networking gear now that does 100Gbps. 10Gbps is now required for nearly all things. The new audio formats coming require 10Gbps. AES67/Dante/Ravenna. Your going to need 10Gbps nearly right away. Xfinity / Cox and others are turning on 2Gbps service all over the place right now. Your cat 6 will work, but, if you have cat 5 in the walls, your in trouble.
Not sure why, but my Motorola MG8702 (for Xfinity) now sounds better with 5Ghz radio (versus 2.4Ghz).
But upgrading the cheap Xfinity coaxial cable from the wall outlet improved Qobuz sound quality by leaps and bounds.
Please bear with me as my technical knowledge is very limited compared to others on this forum.
I have two questions:
1. When referring to 5Ghz vs. 2.4GHz, is it correct to assume that you are using Wi Fi to stream to your "endpoint"? as opposed to a "hard" connection such as Ethernet or Fiber? In my system, I only need Wi Fi to access my renderer.
2. As far as improving Qobuz sound quality by replacing the coax cable -- I am guessing this may be a similar phenomenon to improving sound quality by upgrading power cables in that the "last meter" can help even though the power station is 100 miles away. What coax cable did you use?
Thanks
P.S. We have Xfinity as the only choice for a provider in my area and they are not great in terms of service quality
@Boulder Bob I'm not using WiFi to stream. My streamer is connected to the router via ethernet.
I only use WiFi to control streamer playback.
But even so, the WiFi radios impact streaming sound quality.
I only use WiFi to control streamer playback.
But even so, the WiFi radios impact streaming sound quality.
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