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USB Cable Poll: Redux

What's your experience/opinion of USB cables for audio?

  • I auditioned multiple USB cables and found they differed

    Votes: 32 21.5%

  • I auditioned multiple USB cables and found them identical

    Votes: 34 22.8%

  • I haven't auditioned USB cables and believe they won't differ

    Votes: 63 42.3%

  • I haven't auditioned USB cables but suspect they will differ

    Votes: 20 13.4%
  • Total voters
    149
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One minute you're grumbling the thing is identical to a printer lead, a waste of money, audiophile nonsense, and all USB cables are the same . . . next:
“It works very well . . . will transform your system . . . proved invaluable”

Have you thought about becoming a dealer?
 
ItemAudio said:
'Pointy ears' is a good thing - cloth ears, bad. I said I've no idea what your hearing, or your system is like. If you've imputed an insult from that, it's all your own work: none was intended. None was stated.

If you track everything I've posted, you'll see the vast majority of it is the kind of generic, theoretical debate we're having now. Look at the Digital Source Poll thread. Quite a lot of it is fire-fighting the reputation arsonists, too.

Turntables, vintage hifi, stands - discussion of any of those would be 'advertising our business', too.

And if you come up with a fairer, more customer-centred way of allowing potential buyers to come to their own conclusions and never waste money on something that didn't concretely improve their system - one that 100% immunises against buyer remorse - let me know.

Case in point: you got suckered into buying a pointless 'audiophile' USB cable you now wish you've never bought and just want someone to take away. If you'd dropped this freaky flame war persona and simply called me, I'd have put two or three in the post without billing you for them, enabled you to make a proper judgment on more than a single cable and - if at the end of it you'd learned nothing more useful than that in your system USB cables aren't worth a damn, you wouldn't be out of pocket. And you wouldn't now have that white elephant on your hands, would you?

You've perfectly illustrated why we offer that service. Despite being completely aware of it - despite being so quick to call it a 'scam' - you deliberately chose to waste your time and money buying an overpriced cable from a non-specialist that won't now let you return it. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face . . .
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ItemAudio said:
One minute you're grumbling the thing is identical to a printer lead, a waste of money, audiophile nonsense, and all USB cables are the same . . . next:
“It works very well . . . will transform your system . . . proved invaluable”

Have you thought about becoming a dealer?
Click to expand...

ItemAudio said:
a) I'm conscientious about not distorting other's posts or quoting out of context - show or go home.
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Develop an improved memory or slow down
 
whatsnext,

I think it's time to develop a more rewarding hobby than e-stalking. It's grown tiresome, but if you continue I'm willing to give you a no-expenses-paid vacation for a week or two if it'll help you gain some perspective.

Joe / moderating
 
Joe P said:
whatsnext,

I think it's time to develop a more rewarding hobby than e-stalking. It's grown tiresome, but if you continue I'm willing to give you a no-expenses-paid vacation for a week or two if it'll help you gain some perspective.

Joe / moderating
Click to expand...

You have PM
 
whatsnext,

Read a few of your recent posts to see if you're adding anything to the discussion other than following around a few posters and scolding them -- e.g., in one item thread you announce you're going to resurrect another item thread.

whatsnext said:
a) keep your eyes open for a thread that had gone quiet Saint Mark, strangely another poll thread
Click to expand...

It doesn't add anything to the discussion but makes the forum a less pleasant place to be.

I really don't have time to discuss this further. I have work to do and have spent as much time as I wish to on this.

Joe
 
It is interesting to see what even a forum poll brings out.

In 45 people who actually tested USB cables, 51% believe they were able to find diferences, and another 49% believe they weren't.

Of course, for many here it just means that one on each two audiophiles does not have what it takes.
;)
For others, 50% usually means the natural result of ...pure chance.

Michael
 
Mikas said:
It is interesting to see what even a forum poll brings out.

In 45 people who actually tested USB cables, 51% believe they were able to find diferences, and another 49% believe they weren't.

Of course, for many here it just means that one on each two audiophiles does not have what it takes.
;)
For others, 50% usually means the natural result of ...pure chance.

Michael
Click to expand...

Please see post 87 in response to this point, which initially does seem valid . . .
 
Nothing initial about it. If any difference did exist and it was in any way audible then results would heavily bias towards people hearing a difference. That the split is 50/50 highlights that in the absence of true difference people choose at random according to their genetic risk programming.
 
It's not a cable poll: it's a listener poll. So, no: it doesn't comment at all on differences between cables: only what people have experienced.

You're making a prejudgment re: audibility, and therefore inferring that half the respondents are delusional. Another person making a contrary pre-judgment would infer that half the respondents had poor acuity or unrevealing speakers.

Another strong interpretation is that the audibility of USB cables varies with transports and DACs - along with listener acuity and system transparency.

Which illustrates post 87: the 'metapoll' being split 50/50 only means we can't tell whether we can tell cables make a difference.

Experience leads half of people in either the right or wrong direction.
 
It tells us that 40% of a tiny sample know enough about the digital domain not to waste their money, and another 23% bothered to test their knowledge out.

It doesn't show the 99% of audio enthusiasts who simply use the cables they have at hand, because the truth is most have collected USB cables over the years, so if one doesn't work because puppy chewed it there's always plenty of spares.
 
It's like asking how many people believe the earth is square. It doesn't matter if 99% say they think it is, it'll still be round just as USB cables still won't be able to affect sound quality.
 
It's always the same protagonist, Max, have you noticed? Must be an ego thing.
 
Dowser said:
Well, thank the lord that the foo police are alive, outspoken and well to protect all those innocent wallets...
Click to expand...

I have no idea what motivates Max, but some of us long for the times when hifi was actually rooted in proper science and engineering, top designers were publishing their ideas in magazines such as Wireless World, and a lot of readers actually understood what they were writing.

I guess technology has gotten so complex these days that people without technical knowledge just give up and go the "oooh, it must be magic" route... :(
 
No the developments are just hidden or obfuscated: an example reading the application notes of any modern DAC reveals some amazing developments that directly impact sound quality! simplified signal chains because the pre and post processing is done in silicone where the environment is strictly controlled, strictly quantifiable and strictly un-fūckuppable by meddling know-it-alls with daft notions borne from half understood theory.

Personally I use i2s, avoids all this USB discussion leaving me time to post ponies
 
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