USB DAC Cable

[glancaster]

I think most sensible people are on board with the data bring identical. It's secondary effects from noise and gnd issues that make the audible difference.

And these effects, if they exist, are pretty subtle. If the cable works at all, it probably works OK. It's hard to know really.

I recommend buy one of these and stop worrying about it:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00FEFGPYG/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

It's not ridiculously expensive (by audiophile standards anyway), quite short (to avoid picking up interference), seems well made and it's well known that yellow cables sound better [1].

I link my Squeezebox Touch to my DDDAC with it and it certainly sounds very good.

Kind regards

- Garry

[1] That last bit not strictly true.

 

[Lee T]

And these effects, if they exist, are pretty subtle. If the cable works at all, it probably works OK. It's hard to know really.

I recommend buy one of these and stop worrying about it:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00FEFGPYG/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

It's not ridiculously expensive (by audiophile standards anyway), quite short (to avoid picking up interference), seems well made and it's well known that yellow cables sound better [1].

I link my Squeezebox Touch to my DDDAC with it and it certainly sounds very good.

Kind regards

- Garry

[1] That last bit not strictly true.

I think your post does sum up why some buy such a cable, it is usuallly to do with, having spent this amount on the equipment i may as well spend this amount transferring the data, in the end it's probably more to do with piece of mind & will sit there for as long as you use it, nothing to do with believing in fairy dust aftermarket cabling as some suggest, just a sensible aproach to wanting, at the very least, the best you can afford & are happy with.

 

[shrink]

Did you read the posts above, it explains things clearly i feel. In a perfect environment a cable is as you say will add or take away nothing but i imagine there are very few have their equipment in such a perfect environment & not forgetting any peice of equipment reacts to cables differently, ask anyone who owns a Rega Brio-r amp & any Naim owners, it's down to design, some probably are agnostic to input but some are not. All of this explains i feel why some hear improvements & some don't.

Environment doesn't matter. If that was the case cat5 cables in noisy lift shafts or run alongside power and air conditioning systems would result in data centres across the world losing data every day!

Even the cheapest bog standard cable that comes with a new printer or scanner has to adhere to Usb specifications or it's not fit for purpose.

Any working USB cable will produce the same results as any other. Any other viewpoint is at odds with reality

 

[Purité Audio]

I think your post does sum up why some buy such a cable, it is usuallly to do with, having spent this amount on the equipment i may as well spend this amount transferring the data, in the end it's probably more to do with piece of mind & will sit there for as long as you use it, nothing to do with believing in fairy dust aftermarket cabling as some suggest, just a sensible aproach to wanting, at the very least, the best you can afford & are happy with.

Placebo.
Keith

 

[venton]

The sticking point here is conversion of digital to analogue, which is the music we ultimately hear. For banks and pc programs, data is data. Same with music files, just data moving about.
But at that point of converting to audio, there is at least a possibility of interference messing with the process. And a crap cable might create this. This never happens with your bank statement, it stays digital all the way.

 

[LarsS]

At least what matters are the adherence to USB standards. Very few adhere to them. Check out if you can get these figures from USB cable manufacturers (bet you can't).

Electrical performance:
Resistance: (Ohm/km)
C: (pF/m)
Imp. Z: Ohm
Velo. Factor c

Note that USB standard states that cable impedance = 90 Ohm. Most USB cables do not live up to this. One of the Uptone Audio Regens devices fix is to adjust the impedance to 90 Ohm. Go figure which USB cable to get ...

 

[glancaster]

At least what matters are the adherence to USB standards. Very few adhere to them. Check out if you can get these figures from USB cable manufacturers (bet you can't).

Electrical performance:
Resistance: (Ohm/km)
C: (pF/m)
Imp. Z: Ohm
Velo. Factor c

Note that USB standard states that cable impedance = 90 Ohm. Most USB cables do not live up to this. One of the Uptone Audio Regens devices fix is to adjust the impedance to 90 Ohm. Go figure which USB cable to get ...

Probably true that a lot of so-called 'USB' cables don't actually meet the standards. A lot are so cheap (and some expensive ones might fail because they do something weird).

However, in terms of digital transmission of zeros and ones, certainly since USB 2.0, the spec is so far in advance of what is required for even 24/192 stereo music transmission, that it would have to be a huge deviation from the spec to affect the digital 0s and 1s coming through correctly. And that would be very audible.

So, I tend to agree with sq225917, venton and others that, *if there is a difference*, it will usually be to do with analogue interference effects.

Kind regards

- Garry

 

[Gilbers]

It seems to me that anyone convinced that a USB cable can make an audible difference should be able to identify which cable is being used in a blind test. To my knowledge nobody has ever been able to do that, which puts the whole concept in the same league as mind-reading and telekinesis as far as I'm concerned...

 

[venton]

I knew you were going to say that.

 

[Gilbers]

I knew you were going to say that.

Lol

 

[glancaster]

It seems to me that anyone convinced that a USB cable can make an audible difference should be able to identify which cable is being used in a blind test. To my knowledge nobody has ever been able to do that, which puts the whole concept in the same league as mind-reading and telekinesis as far as I'm concerned...

It's easy to demonstrate clearly audible USB cable differences. All you need are two USB cables and some wire cutters

If it were ever demonstrated when one of the cables was not obviously damaged, if you don't want to believe in USB cable differences you could then say that worse-performing cable was not adequate in some way.

So, we end up with the situation where we say adequate USB cables are OK, but inadequate ones are not. So, then the question becomes what is adequate and what is not?

I'm not sure the discussion is moved any further on by these kind of mental gymnastics.

Kind regards

- Garry

 

[Gilbers]

It's easy to demonstrate clearly audible USB cable differences. All you need are two USB cables and some wire cutters

If it were ever demonstrated when one of the cables was not obviously damaged, if you don't want to believe in USB cable differences you could then say that worse-performing cable was not adequate in some way.

So, we end up with the situation where we say adequate USB cables are OK, but inadequate ones are not. So, then the question becomes what is adequate and what is not?

I'm not sure the discussion is moved any further on by these kind of mental gymnastics.

Kind regards

- Garry

No mental gymnastics required.

I would define an 'adequate' USB cable as one that can transfer digital data without any errors. That's very easy to test, and even the cheapest cable will do it, providing it's manufactured to spec.

Beyond that, anybody who claims they can detect an audible difference between two cables should be able to demonstrate that claim in a blind test.

I'm not sure why people are resistant to using the well stablished 'scientific method' to investigate these claims? If it didn't work we wouldn't have any of the technology on which digital music reproduction is based.

 

[glancaster]

No mental gymnastics required.

I would define an 'adequate' USB cable as one that can transfer digital data without any errors. That's very easy to test, and even the cheapest cable will do it, providing it's manufactured to spec.

Beyond that, anybody who claims they can detect an audible difference between two cables should be able to demonstrate that claim in a blind test.

I'm not sure why people are resistant to using the well stablished 'scientific method' to investigate these claims? If it didn't work we wouldn't have any of the technology on which digital music reproduction is based.

Put like that, testing sounds so simple, so why don't we have test results proving a difference between two 'adequate' USB cables?

Take your pick of:

(a) There is no effect, OR

(b) Doing USB cable testing and double-blind testing to a standard to convince the most sceptical is actually a lot harder than that, OR

(c) Both of the above.

Kind regards

- Garry