Decent usb cable.
- Thread starter cooky1257
- Start date
Funk
pfm Member
Agreed. Do not waste your money by spending £hundreds+, it's a complete con.Any decent printer type cable, you might have one already. There is a certification process, a lot of audiophile cables wouldn’t pass, sometimes that’s a choice by the manufacturer.
Cables and Connectors | USB-IF
www.usb.org
Off Amazon - Belkin or their own Basics
HiFi brand - QED do a twenty odd quid one
To anyone disagreeing - take a look at the typical cabling used to actually record what you're listening to - and if you're streaming it, the means by which that audio arrived into your home. Sticking a £500 or £1000 USB cable in there will make zero difference to the sound.
And if, for some reason, it makes a measurable difference somehow then it isn't the cable, it's that your gear is fundamentally broken.
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Communicatively, different sound quality.
I'm not sure if my Chord QBD76 has galvanic isolation but I've noticed a difference in sound quality with the USB cables.
Mike Hanson
Trying to understand...
Then you've achieved your goal.
Funk
pfm Member
It's amazing how pretty much every (excessively expensive) digital cable improves the already-previously-improved sound. Between £1k+ USB cables, ethernet cables, 'regen devices' and whatnot that each of these systems still has room to become more 'expressive'/'communicative' or how a noise floor continues to drop (despite already being below the threshold of human hearing) with the next multi-£xxx widget... Remarkable!Then you've achieved your goal.
Good analogues of hi-fi system elsewhere are swiss watch and f1 cars. Therefore, to say something like a cable can not make a difference is the same as telling the watch engineer that the mass of that small part is not essential or f1 engineer that those small carbon fiber things have no impact at all))
Funk
pfm Member
I disagree, it's a terrible comparison.
Let's take watches - what you're saying is that a £100k watch will be better-made and of higher quality than a £50 watch....and you're right. But the position that a £1k USB cable produces a better sound than a £10 cable is akin to saying that you can tell the difference between the time told by a £100k watch and a £50 watch with your eyes.
And in fact in the watch world, ironically the opposite is true - the £50 quartz watch will actually keep better time than the £100k mechanical watch. If a USB cable is working as it should then the digital data arriving from source to DAC will be identical, whichever cable is used.
Mike Hanson
Trying to understand...
The issue is whether there is room for improvement.
By it's very nature, the USB protocol ensures perfect data transmission, providing the cable isn't physically defective (in which case you'll probably get nothing). It's buffered up on the receiving DAC, and used as necessary. Using a better cable will not improve the DAC's use of that data.
The only downside of USB is the potentially noisy power wires. If the DAC doesn't use some type of isolation strategy, there's a chance that this noise could impact the DAC's performance.
As I mentioned earlier, I like to get a slightly better USB cable (versus the dollar store variety), because I like it to be a bit sturdier. I've had cheap USB cables fail, so I would like to avoid that. I've also had cheap USB cables never fail, so this is just insurance. And of course there's a chance that a more expensive cable could fail, but with better jacket, etc., I'm expecting it to be more dependable.
By it's very nature, the USB protocol ensures perfect data transmission, providing the cable isn't physically defective (in which case you'll probably get nothing). It's buffered up on the receiving DAC, and used as necessary. Using a better cable will not improve the DAC's use of that data.
The only downside of USB is the potentially noisy power wires. If the DAC doesn't use some type of isolation strategy, there's a chance that this noise could impact the DAC's performance.
As I mentioned earlier, I like to get a slightly better USB cable (versus the dollar store variety), because I like it to be a bit sturdier. I've had cheap USB cables fail, so I would like to avoid that. I've also had cheap USB cables never fail, so this is just insurance. And of course there's a chance that a more expensive cable could fail, but with better jacket, etc., I'm expecting it to be more dependable.
Fourlegs
Trade: WAVE High Fidelity digital cables
I don’t think you will find anyone wishing to dispute that claim. In fact it is a fact.
The same is also true for ethernet cables and other digital cables such as BNC.
And yet, it is not the whole story and ignores other factors which influence sound quality, sometimes quite profounly.
Equally, the original poster asked for suggestions for moderately priced USB cables and did not seek to start a cables war!
tuga
Legal Alien
I see what you mean, that we understand as much about hi-fi design as we do about swiss watches or F1 cars; nothing.
kernow
pfm Member
lol
Funk
pfm Member
At least the text below your avatar shows you have a vested interest when it comes to expensive digital cables.
Riddle me this - if it was recorded through a cheap USB cable in the studio, why does a £1k USB cable matter once the music's in your house?
And yes, the OP is clearly sensible (and has, imo, received good advice from several of those replying).
Fourlegs
Trade: WAVE High Fidelity digital cables
It’s fairly simple to answer. The recording process is only concerned about faithful transfer of the digital signal. The time when sound quality can deteriorate is when the digital signal is in the dac in our own music systems where noise overlaid on the digital signal in the analogue stages of the dac can cause IMD affecting the music heard by the listener.
It’s not a riddle.
You just have to try.. I’ve been running usb-interface for several years from mac/ios source and it’s not so easy to get real results in terms of sq in that case. First and foremost thing is a decent usb-converter (Berkeley Alpha etc.) cause re-clocking is critically needed in that case and for sure usb-cable is one of the most clearly audible things.
I’ve been running usb-interface for several years from mac/ios source and it’s not so easy to get real results in terms of sq in that case. First and foremost thing is a decent usb-converter (Berkeley Alpha etc.) cause re-clocking is critically needed in that case and for sure usb-cable is one of the most clearly audible things.
Fourlegs
Trade: WAVE High Fidelity digital cables
Result!! Thanks for reporting back. I’ve always found the Supra to be a good, no nonsense cable.