1. CAT 7 cables have the shield terminated to the connectors at both ends, so they defeat the isolation usually inherent in Ethernet connections. At least every one I have ever measured is terminated this way.
2. CAT 6A cables use a fully floating shield. Floating shields do provide shielding, without being grounded, but only at very high frequencies. Grounded shields are better for lower frequencies. But the concept of a grounded shield drawing away noise to (somewhere) is a little bit of a myth: yes this happens at some frequencies, but it is limited.
Anyway, unless you are going to terminate your own Ethernet cables in a custom way, you are not going to get Ethernet cables with a shield terminated at only one end. Has anyone tested, say Audioquest cables for this?
3. Additionally: given that Ethernet is fully differential signaling, a shield will not offer any real advantages to the signal anyway.
4. Again, Sonore's best recommendation is the high quality (Belden bonded pair) Blue Jeans Cables, CAT 6A. Belden bonded pair guarantees very accurate impedance and exactly matched conductor length amongst the pairs. The fact that these cables are individually tested also gives peace of mind.
Of course, feel free to experiment with audiophile Ethernet cables if you want, but I would highly recommend you do comparisons to the BJC CAT 6A and not to some generic Ethernet cables bought from eBay or Amazon, as these are likely to be of Chinese origin and highly suspect in terms of performance. Additionally, one of the main advantages of Ethernet distributed audio is that it allows one to move all the commercial grade computer equipment (NAS, computer server, router, etc) physically and electrically well away from the audio system; hopefully in another room of the home, and powered from the opposite phase of the home AC supply. So a longer run of Ethernet cable is going to be needed (in my set up I run 30' of CAT 6A from where my computer gear is located in an upstairs work room, to my downstairs living room where the audio system is); a long run of (insert your favorite audiophile Ethernet cable here) is going to be a considerable expense.
I personally have not tested any "audiophile" Ethernet cables. As far as directionality goes, hmm. the only factor which could make an Ethernet cable directional would be related to shield connections/grounding: perhaps the marked cables actually have shield connected at one end only, has anyone tested this? As Ethernet signaling goes both directions, the signal part of the cable design cannot be directional at all.
If any Audiophile Ethernet cable makers would like Sonore to test their cables, I am open minded to the possibility and willing to do so if the appropriate cables are loaned to us for such testing. If we find in testing that the cables indeed do make a significant audible difference, we would then be happy to recommend them to our customers.
Again, anyone in the process of evaluating audiophile Ethernet cables needs to make sure they test against a known quality cable and not versus generic cables from eBay and Amazon (or Staples, etc), as those are suspect. Make the test against Blue Jeans Cable CAT 6A, which are individually tested to meet their performance specifications.
