By Luke Anderson
I spent several years working as a network admin, and can vouch for the fact that having a bad cable can significantly degrade your performance. Of course, since most ethernet cable is the same, it’s really hard to find a crappy cable, unless it has been severely abused. So what, you might wonder, is the point of dropping some extra cash on a premium cable which promises better performance?
The short answer is that there really is no good reason. The long answer is the same, only with more words. Denon is selling Ultra Premium Link Cables which are supposedly crafted from “high-purity” copper, which is supposed to increase performance. Honestly, when it comes to Cat5 (or Cat6) cable, copper is copper. You’re not going to get any better performance because they have “better copper”.
The only thing that I see here that might make this stuff worth more than it’s run-of-the-mill competition is the fact that it is insulated. There are certain factors that lead to interference if your cable isn’t insulated. Of course since most of those factors include draping your cable over an air conditioner, or other device which consumes a lot of power, it’s really a moot issue.
So just how much does this extra-special networking cable run? Just $500 for a 1.5 meter cable. Seems like a steal to me.
[ Denon ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]
