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Shunyata Venom USB should not be making this difference

Markustubesnow said:
4. A comment about a perceived difference - it seems to me that when the Shunyata is in the system that either A) the noise floor is lower (this doesn't make sense), or B) the system sounds louder (this doesn't make sense either). But when I substituted the MHDT cable back in and increased the volume slightly the differences between the cables went away. This doesn't make sense, but I share this information here in case someone else who is technically savvy can explain whether it's (technically) possible.
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It's technically possible, but it would entail embedding a microcontroller in the cable, programmed to detect and alter audio data.
 
Markustubesnow said:
3. So far I can't say whether I *really* hear a difference between the Shunyata Venom and the MHDT stock red cable. At first I was pretty confident I did. Now, I'm not so sure. HOWEVER, this whole exercise has had me researching Venom reviews wherever I could find them. ISTR that in one of those reviews there was a brief explanation of the difference in the design of the Venom to a standard USB cable. It had to do with a "better" separation of the types of conductors, better shielding or some such.
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In other words, instead of testing whether you *really* can hear a difference, you try to convince yourself by reading more audiophile purple prose reviews. It is hard to believe you *really* want to know.
 
Octavian said:
In other words, instead of testing whether you *really* can hear a difference, you try to convince yourself by reading more audiophile purple prose reviews. It is hard to believe you *really* want to know.
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Nah. I stopped reading several days ago. Now I'm just listening.
 
This is a complicated issue.
Some people – like myself – will refuse any possible improvements because of their electrical background and others will hear things that simply aren’t there, because of careful and cunning marketing pre-biasing.
This will never end.
 
DimitryZ said:
Your computer isn't "charging" the DAC, it's only powering the USB receiver (and not always), so the actual current exchanged is between very small and zero.

The data is miniscule current.

Physically it's a very simple system. 4 wires, shield and two connectors.
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You’ve missed that the exchange in question was specifically about measuring the charging of a phone using USB.
 
chartz said:
This is a complicated issue.
Some people – like myself – will refuse any possible improvements because of their electrical background and others will hear things that simply aren’t there, because of careful and cunning marketing pre-biasing.
This will never end.
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Are all phono cables the same?
 
No most of them measure differently in bulk LCR. But not enough to make a load invariant amp measure differently. Cartridge to phono amp is a different fish though, with MC signals being 1500x more susceptible to noise etc.
 
chartz said:
This is a complicated issue.
because of careful and cunning marketing pre-biasing.
This will never end.
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Bit like Olive Oil right? how much do you pay for a bottle again? You know its all the same right? Amazon's finest will be equally as good. It all tastes the same. Does the same thing.

Wow, thats snake oil right there, 17euros! Outrageous! We should stop all these marketeers!. Lets get @Octavian on it!

 
flutteringwow said:
Bit like Olive Oil right? how much do you pay for a bottle again? You know its all the same right? Amazon's finest will be equally as good. It all tastes the same. Does the same thing.

Wow, thats snake oil right there, 17euros! Outrageous! We should stop all these marketeers!. Lets get @Octavian on it!

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Er… what? Oh never mind. :)
 
flutteringwow said:
I picked up mine on US Audio Mart and US eBay. I paid £80 for the ethernet and about the same for the USB. It's sadly rare to find Shunyata stuff in the UK for sale, unless its older designs or more expensive ones. I think I've seen one Venom cable and it was overpriced.

Audiobarn do stock Venoms, but at UK retail pricing which is £300 a cable, so an expensive way to do it. *edit, wowsers, its gone up even more, £450 now

https://www.theaudiobarn.co.uk/product/shunyata-venom-ethernet/

The cables will utterly destroy a Chord Clearway! I had a Clearway at the same time I got the Venom....it didn't take long to hear the better cable...however clear price differences.
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Thanks; will keep an eye out as I haven’t seen it for less than £400 here either. I also paid a fair bit more than you for the USB cable, so well done there! Ah well, was still cheaper than an AQ cable.
 
DimitryZ said:
Then it doesn't have anything to do with the topic of this thread - which was what my message said.
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Your message was a reply to mine, and was suggesting that the values are small. That specific exchange wasn’t about low value voltages though, and mansr still hasn’t been back to give his view on my query. Whether on topic or off is irrelevant, you mistook it and I was simply pointing it out.
 
Marcustubesnow, re signal level in usb cables. The loudness of the signal in encoded in the data, resistance in the cables doesn't affect the loudness of the encoded music, just the level of the voltage used to signal a switch between 0 and 1. There's is no possible way one usb cable can make the music louder than the other it would haven't decode, edit and then remove the bits, perfectly. That would require a dac and a A to D device to be microscopically embedded in the cables.

Now, knowing what you think you hear is impossible, really impossible, do you think it's still real or just a bias effect?
 
I'm leaning towards the microscopically embedded DAC. That helps explain why they had to discontinue the Venom. ;^)

Seriously though, I plan to keep listening for a few more days. Kinda leaning towards "it's all in my head". But I'll try to keep an open mind.

Here's a question, since some of you guys seem pretty tech-savvy. Given everything you've explained, what effect do those ferrite rings have on the performance of the cable? What do they do?
 
Markustubesnow said:
Here's a question, since some of you guys seem pretty tech-savvy. Given everything you've explained, what effect do those ferrite rings have on the performance of the cable? What do they do?
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Ferrite chokes block high-frequency common-mode noise. Their purpose is more to prevent noise getting out (and being radiated) than in. There is no effect on the signal or power transported by the cable.
 
sq225917 said:
There's is no possible way one usb cable can make the music louder than the other it would haven't decode, edit and then remove the bits, perfectly. That would require a dac and a A to D device to be microscopically embedded in the cables.
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It could be done entirely digitally, and it would be a fun prank. I still don't think that's what they're doing, though.

Now I can think of one other way the volume could be affected by a USB cable. If the DAC is bus powered, and it's internal regulators are running with too little headroom, a high-resistance cable could conceivably result in a voltage drop sufficient for the reference to sag a little, especially if the computer Vbus is lower than the nominal 5 V (some variation is allowed). This is admittedly a contrived scenario that I find unlikely to occur in practice.
 
flutteringwow said:
Bit like Olive Oil right? how much do you pay for a bottle again? You know its all the same right? Amazon's finest will be equally as good. It all tastes the same. Does the same thing.

Wow, thats snake oil right there, 17euros! Outrageous! We should stop all these marketeers!. Lets get @Octavian on it!

Click to expand...
In other words: because there are differences between olive oils there must be differences between usb audio cables.
 
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