USB cable comparisons

[acg]

"I am currently looking for a USB cable that will fit my system, so I'm not looking for "THE BEST" cable, but the one that will work the best according to my ears."

 

Please, someone, tell the how a cable carrying ones and zeros can affect the sound. Do some cables introduce read errors that force the DAC into interpolation? I don't think so. They wouldn't be much good as conductors if they did that. So, tell me, what is the mechanism that could possibly make a difference to the sound coming out of a D/A Converter, if they are all bit-perfect (and they are)?

 

George, this is a pretty big topic you have touched on here so I will give you the short answer. Greater audio minds than mine seem to think that much of the audible difference between usb cables is actually in the shield and ground line i.e. noise from the computer and other places that rides atop the bits and influences the operation of the dac chip/s. My previous dac was greatly influenced by usb cables, my current dac barely at all, but the designer of my current dac has gone to great lengths to make the usb cable redundant and has succeeded. The USB calbe does not affect sound with this dac, but the computer still does.

 

For some light reading have a look at these articles by John Swenson.

 

Cheers,

 

Anthony

[gmgraves]

Thanks for the info. I will give the articles you refer to a read...

[reverendo]

+1

Hi Allan,

thanks for correcting my "initiate"... it's a pity that one can't edit the post after a while. now it's there and I can't fix it...

[Allan F]

Hi Allan,

thanks for correcting my "initiate"... it's a pity that one can't edit the post after a while. now it's there and I can't fix it...

 

reverendo:

 

You are most welcome. I have experienced the frustration of not noticing a typo I've made until it's too late to correct it more times than I'd care to remember. :-)

[Lappy27]

"I am currently looking for a USB cable that will fit my system, so I'm not looking for "THE BEST" cable, but the one that will work the best according to my ears."

 

Please, someone, tell the how a cable carrying ones and zeros can affect the sound. Do some cables introduce read errors that force the DAC into interpolation? I don't think so. They wouldn't be much good as conductors if they did that. So, tell me, what is the mechanism that could possibly make a difference to the sound coming out of a D/A Converter, if they are all bit-perfect (and they are)?

 

Everytime I surfed on the web looking for reviews or comments about USB cable and on different forums, there are always hardcore scientific sceptic with the prove it attitude to either contest audiophiles listening impressions or even worst, making fun of them, like they are retarded ados that they don't know what to do with their money.

 

I would risk myself in saying that 95% of this crowd never care to compared high quality USB to generic or even really good ones to other good ones. They simply say: How come 0 and 1 can sound different, it's theorically impossible, etc.

 

In theory maybe...but in practice, like it or not, there are significant to HUGE differences between different USB cables I tried in my system. Don't ask me how it's possible, I don't know but the differences are there without any shadow of a doubt. I am a 46 years old and I am in the audio hobby for about thirty years and I trust myself (and my brain) when I heard differences in performances among audio and video components AND cables.

 

Recently, I have decided to give attention to the power feeding my components starting from the replacement of the AC receptacle to a power regenerator to new powercords. Each steps changed the sound significantly for the better. For one, I was totally blown away by the difference my new Furutech Alpha 3 power cord made to the sound. For years, I was reading comments from other audiophile about significant improvments power cord can bring to a system but I wasn't prepared for this. So I'm definitly a cable do make a difference (including USB) believer. You have the right to disagree but you should have at least the honesty to try it for yourself in a good environment before making fun of us or being sarcastic. I am not specifically talking about George here as he was to my perception, only challenging our impressions and not making fun of them.

 

In the last four months or so, I experimented with five USB cables.

 

Generic from W4S, Wireworld Starlight 7, Transparent Performance, Silnote Audio Silver Statement Reference and Oyaide Continental 5S. I still have the Silnote and Oyaide. All these cables have different to very different sound signatures in comparaison to each other. The two cables I kept are obviously head and shoulders over the others in terms of performance. They are obviously way more expensive too. Coincidence? I will have the chance to try an Audioquest Diamond in the upcoming weeks too. And I have a project with a cable maker to built a custom cable with only 7N 22AWG solid silver conductors without any power conductor in the cable as I run my USB cable in the Audiophilleo with PurePower. I think this will work, have to confirm with Audiophilleo.

[sandyk]

Lappy27

You will most likely need a shielded 0 volts wire as well.(black wire in normal USB cable)

This could be in a separate cable, but connected to both USB plugs.

For best results, you may need to ensure that the screen of the cable is not connected to the

Audiophilleo though, in order to remove an earth loop.

 

Regards

Alex

[tne]

In theory maybe...but in practice, like it or not, there are significant to HUGE differences between different USB cables I tried in my system.

 

"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice there is."

- Yogi Berra, Preeminent 20th Century American philosopher

[pompon]

you need power even with purepower because the purepower only power the clock. The usb still be powered with the usb bus.

 

Cable between purepower and audiophilleo (usb) is very important too. I have WW Platinum in front of purepower and WW Ultraviolet between both audiophilleo module.

[alfau7]

I recently bougth a 70 usd pangea usb cable from amazon, honesstly i didnt noticd ANY diference with an ordinary usb cable, actually i felt very disapointed. I tried them with a sound blaster sound card, maybe it was because of that, maybe not, y recently bougth a schiit modi DAC, i will try with it but im not making any ilusions. By the way i have a paradigm studio 20 v5 for your consideration.

[reverendo]

Almost finished burning-in the Purist Ultimate USB. Will compare to the AQ Diamond and maybe to the Light Harmonic Lightspeed USB cable.

[Blake]

Almost finished burning-in the Purist Ultimate USB. Will compare to the AQ Diamond and maybe to the Light Harmonic Lightspeed USB cable.

 

 

I look forward to your comments. Another usb cable that seems interesting is the TotalDac usb cable/filter at 330 euros (outside eu). Michael Lavorgna compared it directly to the Light Harmonic Lightspeed and he preferred the TotalDac:

 

Totaldac D1-Dual DAC | AudioStream

 

totaldac USB cable

 

and finally hifi pig's comments (which appear later in the review):

 

http://hifipig.com/totaldac-d1-tubedac/

[reverendo]

I look forward to your comments. Another usb cable that seems interesting is the TotalDac usb cable/filter at 330 euros (outside eu). Michael Lavorgna compared it directly to the Light Harmonic Lightspeed and he preferred the TotalDac:

 

Totaldac D1-Dual DAC | AudioStream

 

totaldac USB cable

 

and finally hifi pig's comments (which appear later in the review):

 

Totaldac D1-tubedac | Hifi Pig

Blake,

It seems to be promising, especially for that price, but I don't believe they have a way to lend it just for testing. I really don't feel like going through the whole burn-in process anytime soon.

I'll post my findings as soon as possible.

Best regards

[Blake]

Blake,

It seems to be promising, especially for that price, but I don't believe they have a way to lend it just for testing. I really don't feel like going through the whole burn-in process anytime soon.

I'll post my findings as soon as possible.

Best regards

 

They do have a 10-day trial period with money back guaranty, but yeah, I hear you. The burn-in process stinks. Actually, I find A/B comparison testing to be rather tiresome after a while. You get to a point where you want to stop analyzing and just enjoy the music.

[reverendo]

They do have a 10-day trial period with money back guaranty, but yeah, I hear you. The burn-in process stinks. Actually, I find A/B comparison testing to be rather tiresome after a while. You get to a point where you want to stop analyzing and just enjoy the music.

... and I'm getting pretty near to that point. I'm only testing these options, since I had sold my AQ Diamond anticipating that the Cantata's UPnP would make we ditch the whole transport thing altogether. Unfortunately it's they haven't solved some bugs with track change yet, which is making me go back to USB cables. Since I had the chance to listen to the Ultimate before buying the Diamond again it took the chance. Will be borrowing the Diamond from thecableco. again and will see where that goes. In the mean time I've changed almost my other cables with absolutely startling results. Rather expensive, but still awe-inspiring.

Let's see what the comparisions will bring.

[Blake]

I just ordered the Totaldac usb cable today. I am very satisfied with my Mapleshade Clearlink Plus, and it beat 10 or so much more expensive usb cables in direct head-to-head shootouts in my system. However, I am really curious about the Totaldac, so I will give it a whirl.

[Allan F]

Actually, I find A/B comparison testing to be rather tiresome after a while. You get to a point where you want to stop analyzing and just enjoy the music.

 

+1

[Juan Paulino]

I'd like to compare that cable with my Syn Research Active USB cable.

[Jud]

I just ordered the Totaldac usb cable today. I am very satisfied with my Mapleshade Clearlink Plus, and it beat 10 or so much more expensive usb cables in direct head-to-head shootouts in my system. However, I am really curious about the Totaldac, so I will give it a whirl.

 

Agree with you about just wanting to enjoy the music after a while, so thanks for being the guinea pig on this one. I wonder if, when they say "The [Totaldac] filter/cable is made of more than 30 components," they're counting all 4 screws?

[Blake]

Agree with you about just wanting to enjoy the music after a while, so thanks for being the guinea pig on this one. I wonder if, when they say "The [Totaldac] filter/cable is made of more than 30 components," they're counting all 4 screws?

 

...and the top of filter case and bottom of filter case, that's two more counting toward the total

 

Frankly, I have no idea why I am trying this cable as I am probably the biggest Mapleshade Clearlink usb cable fan on the planet (thanks to Jud for introducing this cable to me). I even had a deal worked with Vincent of Totaldac to use my Mapleshade usb cable and have him attach his Totaldac usb filter to it.

 

However, I then recalled the mysterious "dirty vinyl sound" issues I had with the Clearlink/iFi iUSB combo. I worried these annoying clicks and pops could occur again with a Clearlink/Totaldac filter combo and I would have no money back guaranty, this being a custom, one-off job.

[reverendo]

I just ordered the Totaldac usb cable today. I am very satisfied with my Mapleshade Clearlink Plus, and it beat 10 or so much more expensive usb cables in direct head-to-head shootouts in my system. However, I am really curious about the Totaldac, so I will give it a whirl.

great. will also await your impressions. hope that I'll get to test the three next week.

Best regards

[AIB]

See you have changed your USB cable in your system presentation Blake:)

Is the TotalDac usb cable & filter better in your system than th Mapleshade?

[Blake]

See you have changed your USB cable in your system presentation Blake:)

Is the TotalDac usb cable & filter better in your system than th Mapleshade?

 

The TotalDac usb cable and filter arrived yesterday. I am going to burn in the cable for a few days before making any judgments just to be on the safe side.

 

I will post a review later. For the time being, the Mapleshade is still the best usb cable I have tried, regardless of cost, with KingRex uArt twin-head cable being a close second.

[freddie40]

Had a DAC & USB cable shootout today with 6 of my friends. Compared the Clearlink Plus (with the 5v leg cut) against the Audioquest Diamond and the Lightspeed USB cable. 5 out of 6 liked the Mapleshare the best.

 

Dave

[sandyk]

The problem with comparisons like this, is that many people often choose the file with the most Jitter as sounding better.

It tends to sound louder too.

Barrows did a good post about this some time back, and explained why.

 

Alex

[freddie40]

The problem with comparisons like this, is that many people often choose the file with the most Jitter as sounding better.

It tends to sound louder too.

Barrows did a good post about this some time back, and explained why.

 

Alex

 

 

If you are talking about my post. When comparing USB cables we used 1 DAC and compared the same track. Very fair comparison. 6 different people.