RJ45 for Axe FXIII Audio

R

RPK

Member
I have my Axe FX-III in my small office hooked up to my Studio Monitors.

I was thinking of buying a FM9 Turbo for my very large living room (also with monitors) however both rooms have Ethernet connections.

Is there a way to use another output from my Axe FX in my office to my RJ45 plate to route the audio (and poss Fastlink / TRS) to save purchasing another Fractal.
 
You could get Dante converters to route your audio output over your network from room to room. Dante is a protocol for multichannel audio over Ethernet. A couple Audiante AVIO 2-channel units will run you about $400 total. (They have an AES one that avoids any extra D/A conversion from the AxeFx.)

That gets your audio from one room to the other, but that won't work for FASLink. There's also the issue of the input signal from your guitar, which you could potentially solve with a wireless unit. For a foot controller you're looking at either running a long XLR cable from room to room or setting up some other MIDI foot controller and using that instead. (You still have the problem of connecting that, but there are options for wireless MIDI and MIDI over Ethernet out there.)

If you play out at all, it may be worth it to just get the FM9 instead. It's a great unit for gigging.
 
Thanks for the info!!

Input is no problem as I have wireless etc.

Looks like Faslink is the stumbling block to control my presets. I thought might have been a audio / TRS combo RJ45 solution but I guess maybe not
 
You can actually pass 4 analog stereo channels through CAT6/CAT8, not sure what the effective length is. There are RJ45 to XLR snakes/breakouts you can buy.

Amazon product ASIN B07VFK3GBH
In theory you could use one of the XLR connections for faslink but I'd probably go with an external power supply.

Also remember that the FM units can't act as foot controllers for other units.
 
Thanks for that!

My plan would be to use my FC12 for both rooms (simply unplug it and move into living room) but I guess its the TRS over RJ45 that may be the problem for control of the FC-12. Seems audio no problem
 
Electrical is just electrical. There's no technical reason the FasLink protocol can't work over CAT6 cable, since its just a XLR cable usually. Conductivity is conductivity.

The only worry I'd have is powering the unit over cat6, as I don't know what kinda voltage/current the FC12 draws over XLR, and network cable is usually rated for lower power scenarios (which is why I suggested the external psu).
 
Purchased a female and male set of these so will see what happens when I get back from holiday

https://www.thomann.de/gb/the_sssnake_cat_snake_3fb.htm

I note in one of the reviews somebody said they got phantom power out of them so maybe it will work with the FC controllers but we will see!!

I was about to splash out on a FM9 Turbo so maybe this has saved me some cash since im not a gigger
 
This ↑. You'll want to use shielded cat 5 or 6 cables anyway if they are carrying analog audio signals. If the LAN cables in your walls are not shielded as well it could easily be very noisy.

You definitely don't want to run it into your Ethernet network switch or router. The network drops of both rooms would need to be manually connected together at the patch panel in the house.

You might also run into voltage drop issues at current draw of the FC units. Input spec is 9 to 12 VDC at 1000 mA. At that current over a Cat 6 cable's twisted 23 gauge wire pair, you get about 0.04 volts of drop per foot of cable. Depending on the wiring of your rooms and how far apart they are, there might be a pretty long run if it all goes to a central patch panel somewhere else in the house and back. If that run is 100 feet total or more, you're looking at 4 volts total voltage drop at least. That would take a 12 V input down to 8 V and not be enough to power the FC unit. I'd recommend using an external power supply for the FC in the other room just to be safe.
 
Resi AV/network designer here: most homes are CAT-wired by pulling all cables from each room location to a common point (AV closet, equipment credenza, etc.) so that they can be terminated into either an Ethernet router/switch or specific gear (AV extenders, etc.)

Unless your CAT wire is a “direct run” between your two desired rooms (which would be great, but unusual) you have two choices for either analog or digital audio connection:

A) Danté.

B) Specific AV extenders (Gefen, MonoPrice come to mind)

Re: FC12 remote ability — I’ll be super-surprised if someone at Fractal will chime in with a “sure, CAT cable will properly support the FC connection”.
 
Thanks for the reply guys.

I wired my rooms about 12 years ago when the house was built so have a bad feeling I just used cheap CAT 5 at the time so prob not shielded cable.

It is a direct straight run from my office RJ45 wall panel (4 connections) where the Axe III is to the living room x 2 and 2 bedrooms for streaming movies etc. therefore the Axe would have a direct connection to the spare living room panel without requiring to touch the router. Guess using power adapter a small price to pay if that is required!
 
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