Sunday, February 11, 2018

DIY XLR ethernet cable audio snake on standard (unshielded) Cat5 Cat5e Cat6 cable

Commonly advertised products and solutions of this type demonstrate 4 channels of XLR audio on single Ethernet wire, but require shielded Ethernet to properly work (specifically maintaining proper grounding), which is specialized and not always readily on hand.  

The trick used to maximize the number of audio channels on an Ethernet cable is through the sharing of the ground connection for each of the individual channels.  If you use regular Cat5/6 UTP (unshielded twisted pair) cable, you won't have a proper ground connection to each device and can cause a signal quality issues.

This article will focus on using un-shielded Ethernet cable to get THREE (3) analog audio channels, and maintain a common ground to all connections.  This wire type is the most common type of Ethernet cable used basically everywhere.
  • Get 3 balanced analog audio channels on Cat5/6 Un-shielded Ethernet wire
  • Works with phantom power
  • Works with ClearCom
  • Audio is clean, no buzzes, no hums, no distortion, no latency  
  • Solid or stranded core (stranded less prone to breaking if coiled often)
  • 1000+ foot distance is possible.
The main differences between UN-SHIELDED and SHIELDED Ethernet cable: 
  1. Three channels vs Four.
    UN-Shielded Ethernet lacks an additional wire allowing for a 4th channel.

  2. COST
    UN-shielded Ethernet is inexpensive and found everywhere 
But we need the shield for audio quality right?

No. Balanced audio interference rejection result from the positive (in-phase) and negative (out-of-phase) relationship of the analog signal as it travels together over a cable pair.  The shield (usually metal foil) found in some balanced mic cable provide rejection enhancement for certain situations.  


Solution A - TWO (2) channels using unshielded ethernet cable.

We can easily just connect an XLR pins on either end of the Ethernet wire and get 2 channels of audio.  XLR uses 3 wires for channel, and Ethernet has 8 wires, so that will easily get us 2 channels as shown in this diagram.


XLR over Cat5 using standard wiring methodology (2 unused wires)




Solution B - THREE (3) channels using unshielded ethernet cable.

In this example each positive and negative wire is connected to orange, green or blue.  But now the ground wires are all going to the same brown wire on either side of the Ethernet cable.  This is how you get 3 channels of audio when you only have 8 wires, when you normally would need 9.


Wiring Diagram

In this diagram, the brown/white stripe wire is being used for common ground for all the mics. 

In this example, the extra brown wire can bei either be ignored or attached together with the the brown/white wire to double it up.

Channel 1 blue pair 
Channel 2 Orange Pair 
Channel 3 Green Pair 
Ground Brown pair 
SHARED GROUND FOR ALL 3 CHANNELS


A variation is assigning one channel its own dedicated ground wire as you have two to use.

 SHARED GROUND FOR 2 CHANNELS and 1 CHANNEL DEDICATED

Useful if channels are going to a different location or you hare having a ground hum being introduce by a connected device.  You can have 1 channel isolated from the other two.


Implementation methods

Here are a few termination examples that could be used, but with an understanding of the wiring diagram, there are many possibilities that could be explored.

An efficient no soldering way to build pigtails using an RJ45 breakout box connected to the XLR connectors.  The one shown is a "female" adapter.
Use standard Ethernet cable with RJ45 ends to link each end of the snake.

In the wiring diagram below note that considerations for the "split pair" wiring that a properly built RJ45 Ethernet cable needs to follow.  Connect the Positive, Negative and Ground wires from each XLR connector to the terminal adapter according to the diagram shown.


IMPORTANT!!! "Hey, why is channel 2 wires not seem to be in order in this picture?"

There is an important wiring methodology that needs to be considered when using Cat5 cabling.  A properly built RJ45 Ethernet cable uses pin groups of  

ORANGE PINS: 1 & 2
GREEN PINS: 3 & 6
BLUE PINS: 4 & 5
BROWN: PINS 7 & 8

Here's a closeup


In this example, the RED XLR cable, made up of a red, white and ground wire, are going into pins 1&2 in the adapter
The ground wire (black shrink wrap) is going into pin #7.


Possible Applications
Send audio through preexisting Ethernet infrastructure allowing connections between locations allowing analog signals via the in house wires.  
Must NOT pass through any electronic equipment, direct patching between patch bay ports is ok.

In a situation that use this method all the Ethernet jacks were patched directly by IT staff.  Essentially a super long Ethernet wire cable, but not limited by the Ethernet length of 300 foot normal limitation.  A 1000' or more long connection in many cases is achievable.

25 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. It should. I've made them from Cat3, they were only 150' long, but i dont think there would be much difference.

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  2. I got here much interesting stuff. The post is great! Thanks for sharing it! Cat 6 Cable

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  3. I would think that there is almost no capacitance in this scheme, and therefore no high-frequency attenuation. Best to use stranded CAT5e cable meant to use in making patch cords. Comes in 1000' rolls.

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    1. Good call, the stranded cable is less prone to failure due to a cable break, especially if you coil the cable up alot.

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  4. What about phantom power ??????

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    1. Yes, works with Phantom power. Have had no personal issues with it.

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  5. Hi men greetings from.colombia;can i use utp cat 5e?

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  6. Hi! Thanks for this nice explanation! I see there are some examples of boxes that are able to connect 4 XLR (or DMX) channels to a Cat6 cable. In my understanding, they then use all the cable pairs for XLR channels, but what are they doing with ground?

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    1. This article discusses this. Shielded cable = 4 connections, regular cable = 3 connections.

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  7. If i use 200m cat 6 unshielded cable as my xlr cable will there be a delay in sound??

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    1. No delays. I've gone just shy of 1000' (box of cat5e cable) and it was fine, so 700' (200m) should work.
      You can test easily if you have a box of Ethernet. Just open the box up, carefully find the end without tangling the rest of the spool and put some ends on it to try.

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  8. Hi there
    Awesome page! I’ve been surprised to find so few places on the web dealing with the general issue of "audio over Cat4/5/6… (or RJ45 or 8P8C lines), that are available everywhere, including either symmetric (balanced) asymmetric (unbalanced) signal, either mono or stereo… (as well as, why not, S/PDIF digital audio) (but excluding other close applications like DMX)".
    Naturally symmetric/balanced audio signal (or let’s say XLR) is, by construction, the one that fits the best on a simple twisted pair of copper wires, even if shielding/grounding/earthing issue shouldn’t be underestimated (as always, in the audio field).
    A few thoughts that may help anyway:
    - For those who prefer out-of-the-shelf products, converting box or patch cables for stereo (or rather 2 channels) are available in some shops : www.aliexpress.com/item/32963971686.html (but much too expensive), https://support.telosalliance.com/article/jzxtqwt74b-rj-45-to-balanced-or-unbalanced-audio-cable-wiring
    - That would be great if somebody designed and sold an "out-of-the-shelf" product to convey an unbalanced stereo signal over Cat4/5/6/… cabling without distortion (typical ends: the TRS3.5 jack from any smartphone or laptop…) including at both sides active DI -boxes to balance/unbalance the signal… The only products I found are a simple wire-to-wire adapters (like this one https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32811449726.html), that do not prevent the unbalanced signal to be distorted…

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  9. Very informative article...thanks so much. Someone else asked about the commercially available breakout boxes that run four BALANCED XLR feeds over RJ45. Ads don't say shielded or even CAT6. You referred back to your article, saying that shielded cable was required for four balanced feeds. Hmmm...I understand the need for a ground, but I don't understand how the shield and/or the drain wire can serve as a (common) ground. How is it terminated to an actual ground? I mean, how does the rj45 jack carry the ground????

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    1. Hopefully the article offers some insight!

      As to your question, you would use a shielded RJ45 jack, which is made of metal (or mostly metal). This serves as a way that ground from this shield wire is made to the other connections that might need to be made to it.

      When you make an Rj45, the process is the same, however there is an extra wire that you make sure touches the inside of the jack when you crimp the wires.

      These 4 channel XLR adapters, they make sure the ground for all 4 xlr jacks are touching this connection on the case to get it. The ground is passed between the mics and the mixer.

      here's a good video on making an RJ45 shielded cable.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82gclyop_0U

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  10. How about unbalanced connections? Can you connect the cold together for the same effect?

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    1. Unbalanced connections over long distances introduce noise and interference into the audio signal. That is the purpose of balanced audio. This is why you put unbalanced connections into a DI box, it will transform the unbalanced to a balanced connection type for longer distance transmission.

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  11. What about impedance considerations? The Cat5 and later specifies 100 ohms. But XLR cables have much lower impedance. Clearly if there is a problem to be considered, it is likely minor because it appears to not have tripped you up. But I am trying to get the best signal possible for recording purposes. I want to run line level and microphone signals - am I correct in assuming I can use twisted pair so long as the source impedance is not less than 100 ohms? Thanks.

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    1. I've not encountered an issue with balanced signals over hundreds of feet Ca5 cable. I just bought another box of Cat6. I'll put a scope on it and test the signal and post.

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  12. Hello, would like to know if anyone used ftp as a cable. 4 channel common ground on the foil of ftp. Thanks

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