USB cable comparisons

[mourip]

Thanks for cleaning up the thread Chris.

 

+1

[mourip]

On 3/9/2019 at 8:33 AM, jp11801 said:

just ordered the Ghent audio cable and will compare it to the carbon that I currently own and if I can dig it out the Wireworld silver cable I have. Not sure how long it will take from China to get to Florida but for $35 it seemed a worthy risk.

 

I received my Ghent JSSG360 USB cable a little over a week ago. It replaced a Supra that I had been using since moving from a Dante AOIP setup to using Audiolinux via USB. It took a week for the Ghent to settle down but once it did the improvement was not subtle. This is the best that my system has ever sounded.

 

I liked the Supra. It has a warm, Technicolor sound with a satisfying, slight;y forward, mid-range that makes it engaging. The Ghent is remarkably transparent with more realistic detail. It has remarkable soundstage presentation and localization. It is more neutral and convincing, with better dynamics to the point of giving my Alnico single driver speakers real slam.

 

I would have never thought that a USB cable could make such a difference since we all know that "bits are bits". Right?

 

I suspect that it is the well thought out build quality, careful construction, and the JSSG360 shielding scheme that filters out most everything but those music laden bits. "Bits are still bits" but you now weed out unwanted "not-music"...

[mourip]

On 3/21/2019 at 9:28 PM, hytechrednek said:

I also have the Ghent USB and it easily outperforms the Supra or the Curious USB cable in my system.  Unfortunately no experience with their Ethernet cable.

 

11 hours ago, jon2020 said:

 

The listening experience of forumers in this thread who have actually compared their own cables with the Curious merit consideration. 

 

I am probably missing something but he did compare those USB cables ...which is the topic here. He simply mentioned that he had not tried their ethernet cables which is not the topic here.

 

Perhaps someone will want to start an ethernet cable comparison thread?

[mourip]

31 minutes ago, FelipeRolim said:

 

Your Curious certainly isn't the same Curious I have. Not with that description.

 

Perhaps he might have liked the Curious in your system. Hard to say...

 

I think that we often forget that some of our systems, and tastes, are vastly different from one another.

 

Issues of budget, electronics understanding, hearing acuity, room acoustics etc. make subjective comparisons nearly impossible. This is why it is always best to buy equipment with a liberal return policy. Only you can decide what sounds best in your system.

 

Glad that it works for you with your equipment...

[mourip]

Having been very happy with the new Ghent USB(JSSG360) cable that went into my main system so I decided to get another one for my headphone rig which has about 6 feet between the PC and DAC. I purchased a 3 meter cable and it arrived this past week.

 

It replaced a long Wire World cable that had worked well and sounded fine, just not at the level of the Ghent in my main system. When I put the new Ghent into my headphone system and played music I had a ton of pops and clicks along with audible distortion. Putting the WW cable back in restored things to normal. This simple system consists of a regular desktop PC with USB out to a Schiit Yggdrasil DAC. I tried both USB2 and USB3 ports but that did not help. Thinking that the cable was defective I tried plugging it into another system which was a desktop PC with USB out to a Schiit Audio Jotunheim DAC/HP-Amp. It works fine in that position and sounds great.

 

Not sure what is going on here unless it has something to do with the grounding scheme of my HP rig and that of the Ghent cable.

[mourip]

Ghent replaced the cable which was evidently defective. The new one works great just as my first shorter cable did.

 

Great vendor and great cable value.

[mourip]

12 hours ago, fas42 said:

 

There's no "lie" involved ... while the engineering of audio gear makes systems susceptible to factors which shouldn't be relevant, there will continue to be a market for variations of things like cables - the market will always reward those who come with 'solutions', even though the concept offends you.

 

Agreed. To this I would like to add:

 

High performing audio is a bit like marriage. You can put two perfectly great people together and have a miserable experience. It is often about synergy and compatibility.

 

Also just because one cannot hear differences between different cables that does not mean that others cannot.

 

And finally if making a cable was as simple as following "currently understood and accepted" theory then there would probably be only one cable manufacturer and we would all own that same cable.