audio over cat 5

crowej

this is probably the wrong place but can anyone see any reason why i couldnt splice open a cat 5 lead, connect it into a point, send audio over the internal cabling in my house ? and break out at the patch panel once i was careful to use the same pins ?

matt-dublin

no issues here, possible sound degredation as the cable wouldn't be as heavy duty as a normal audio cable.

Also depending on how far the able goes etc etc but in essence you should be fine.

Kali

Should work grand, but don't expect great quality as your left & right signals could interfere with each other, I'd reccomend splicing 2 pairs together for each left/right signal if using a single cat5 cable. If possible use a seperate cable for each signal though.

Anti

Why not just use proper speaker cable?

matt-dublin

Anti wrote:

Why not just use proper speaker cable?

sounds like hes house is already prewired with cat 5...

just means you can put speakers in all the rooms very easily!

Anti

True, but the sound quality would be woefull.

Cantab.

crowej wrote:

this is probably the wrong place but can anyone see any reason why i couldnt splice open a cat 5 lead, connect it into a point, send audio over the internal cabling in my house ? and break out at the patch panel once i was careful to use the same pins ?

First off, there'll be impedence problems.

Also, at high volumes, a sizeable amount of current is required to drive large speakers - CAT5 is not designed for carring large currents. It is designed for carrying low amplitude standing waves over long distances at high speed.

mathias

Are you talkin about something like this by any chance ?

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=740215

This would work no problem , as a connection between an amp and speakers or as interconnects between say , CD and amp or whatever.

When running to a patch panel though ,say from an amp, on no account try to feed the same signal to multiple speaker sets at the same time. That is bad or even fatal for your equipment.

matt-dublin

i would have thought the braiding would cause interference due to magnetic field?

Anti

mathias wrote:

Are you talkin about something like this by any chance ?

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=740215

This would work no problem , as a connection between an amp and speakers or as interconnects between say , CD and amp or whatever.

When running to a patch panel though ,say from an amp, on no account try to feed the same signal to multiple speaker sets at the same time. That is bad or even fatal for your equipment.

Looks like a awfull lot of hard work. I'd personally rather go out and buy some speaker cable.

8T8

A lot easier if you don't mind spending the cash (does video too).

Anti

will you get stereo from that? as its going to be one signal comming in. and then splitting it.