At least one poster with an XTE-2005 got the engineer to leave it in place. All any filter does is block everything except phone frequencies getting to or from the phone side.(Though the XTE-2005 does incorporate a ring wire filter as well). The broadband side is straight through. If you have nothing on the landline except broadband a filter is unnecessary.

The XTE-2005 works fine with VDSL2. The primary function of a DSL filter is to block the unwanted high frequencies, preventing them from reaching your telephone equipment where the signal would get interfered with.

The primary reason for poor performance from cheap filters is that some of the DSL signal gets through, either because the crossover point is not accurate some some of the DSL signal that is close to the voice range gets through or that the attenuation (blocking) of the DSL signal is inadequate so the complete DSL signal passes all be it at a reduced strength. The poorest filters consist of a poor quality single stage LC filter that suffers from both of these problems. Some of the early ADSL filters experienced problems with ADSL2+ due to the wider range of frequencies in use.

All filters used for ADSL 2+ should work fine with VDSL2 as they should adequately filter out the full frequency range used. The X series filters and other decent quality filters use a multi stage filter that effectively removes all frequencies outside those used for voice and CallerID so will continue to be effective with all versions of DSL where the lowest frequency used continues to be the same or higher than the current frequencies.

In reply to a post by Going_Digital:

The X series filters and other decent quality filters use a multi stage filter that effectively removes all frequencies outside those used for voice and CallerID so will continue to be effective with all versions of DSL where the lowest frequency used continues to be the same or higher than the current frequencies.

I'm guessing you're either the designer or supplier of the XTE-2005, so I wonder if you could confirm RobertoS point that the XTE-2005 faceplate filter, and/or the line version, contains a ring wire filter. Not sure this would be necessary if one was fitted to one of the OR logoed NTE5s since these are also supposed to contain the i-Plate circuitry to filter the bell-wire.

Thefilter is in the OR-logo'ed faceplate not the rear assembly, so replacing it with the XTE-2005 removes/replaces that filter.

I believe the dangly does not, but it wouldn't matter, as long as the OR one filters the ring wire from its main socket as well as wired extensions. (To cater for phone extension cables in through the dangly on the master, which I think the XTE-2005 does).

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 21-Dec-11 11:31:15)

Thanks to Going_Digital, RobertoS and others for the confirmations.

I am keen to retain my existing arrangement - XTE2005 faceplate at the (front door) master socket with an unfiltered pass-through feeding an XTF85 at the router location in the spare room (router & wired phone placed here).

I feel that the XTE2005 (with it's sloping top) is a much more attractive socket to have in view compared to photos of the new OR faceplate that I have seen, especially those with the i-plate sandwiched in the middle.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

The filter is in the OR-logo'ed faceplate not the rear assembly, so replacing it with the XTE-2005 removes/replaces that filter.

I have a faceplate filter on my NTE5 - the OR logo is on the rear assembly, can't remember whether there was one on the removable lower part I've tended to avoid the XTE-2005 faceplate since I had one fail, confirming my feeling they are more inclined to fail being an an active rather than passive filter. I have no doubt though about the component quality - I think the Austin Taylor ones are similar - and it was replaced promptly and without question, but simplicity beats complexity any day.

My faceplate filter is the one sold by Clarity which I think is the same as the 'official' one supplied by BT and manufactured by Pressac. Any idea whether these contain a bell wire filter?

Simplest is to detach the ring wire from the main faceplate, although when I tried it the phones refused to ring.....

In reply to a post by Tacitus:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

The filter is in the OR-logo'ed faceplate not the rear assembly, so replacing it with the XTE-2005 removes/replaces that filter.

I have a faceplate filter on my NTE5 - the OR logo is on the rear assembly, can't remember whether there was one on the removable lower part I've tended to avoid the XTE-2005 faceplate since I had one fail, confirming my feeling they are more inclined to fail being an an active rather than passive filter. I have no doubt though about the component quality - I think the Austin Taylor ones are similar - and it was replaced promptly and without question, but simplicity beats complexity any day.

My faceplate filter is the one sold by Clarity which I think is the same as the 'official' one supplied by BT and manufactured by Pressac. Any idea whether these contain a bell wire filter?

Simplest is to detach the ring wire from the main faceplate, although when I tried it the phones refused to ring.....

I only know about the XTE-2005 sorry, from previous posts by Going_Digital.

Re the phones not working when you detach the ring wire, that is extremely unusual these days. Most phones don't need it, usually only very low spec cheapos or genuine period pieces. Of course, with a standard (non-ADSL faceplate), all phones should be through filters anyway, and those supply the ring facility.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Re the phones not working when you detach the ring wire, that is extremely unusual these days. Most phones don't need it, usually only very low spec cheapos or genuine period pieces.

Both phones are BT badged which may say something about the quality I suppose I could always fit a couple of the dangly filters to supply power, but having got a faceplate filter it rather defeats the object...

I was recently talking with a friend in the US about DSL services and he has access to some appropriate test equipment and did some quick measurements one evening. I asked him to look specifically at the impedance plots.

All the filters do the filtering appropriately - and kept DSL noise out of the audio band.

When looking at impedance, some filters tended to be very variable at the higher frequencies - up in the VDSL region, and the complex impedances measured could have an adverse effect on the higher ranges of VDSL signal, by having a relatively low impedance in parallel with the termination load which would then effectively give several additional dB of attenuation.

It would be interesting to look at the SNR and attenuation figures for each tone in a VDSL signal and do that for several different filter types.