USB cable comparisons

[barrows]

2 hours ago, Blake said:

 

And yet, if you scan through this thread over the years, it seems that the majority of the sonically favored usb cable are from the hand-made camp (Light Harmonic, Lush, Curious, TotalDac, etc.).   I have owned quite a few Nordost cables over the years and liked them.  However, the one Nordost usb cable I owned (Blue Heaven), was nice but I actually found the Mapleshade usb cable to offer more clarity and detail.

Light Harmonic is machine made to very high precision, they specifically state that their goal is high bandwidth and very tight impedance control, this is only possible with machine made cables.  Other high precision, audiophile, machine made cables:

 

Nordost, Inakustik, Cardas, Sonore, Wireworld, Audioquest, and many more.  TotalDAC uses what looks like a standard machine made cable stock (not high end) with their filter module added on.  Yes, there are a handful of "hand made" cables, like LUSH, these are the ones I am skeptical of.

[Blake]

Looks like I misinterpreted your "hand made" comment.  I was not looking at it from the machine vs. handmade cable.  How are you making your determination which ones are machine made?  What is posted on their website or from looking a pics?

 

[barrows]

15 minutes ago, Sal1950 said:

Links and evidence please. And you know the standards for a proper DBT listening test, matched levels, etc, etc.

No where on the net has supportable evidence ever been presented

Actually, no one here has any responsibility to prove to you that there are indeed substantial differences between USB cables, despite your insistence that such is so.

The sonic differences between some USB cables is so obvious that it is very well accepted among any group who have bothered to listen.

If you are not interested in better sound quality from your own system, that is fine, but please stop pretending to "know more" than people who have already done the work, which you have not.

 

Even in this thread objective evidence has been referenced (HiFi News' tests which include eye pattern testing).  But of course you cannot be bothered to take a look, instead demand that people who have the experience, and have done the work themselves prove it to you, sorry, that is not the responsibility of folks who are just sharing their experiences: why bother to insult us with your lack of any relevant experience?

[The Computer Audiophile]

23 minutes ago, Sal1950 said:

Links and evidence please. And you know the standards for a proper DBT listening test, matched levels, etc, etc.

No where on the net has supportable evidence ever been presented. A relatively easy task to accomplish which the subjective community avoids like the Black Plague.  Daily tons of subjective audio reports are posted on the web with basically zero evidence and no one willing to perform public over-sighted tests So far the most famous DBT are a few that have been done at audioshows and in youtube videos that have been shown to be falsified.

Is That All You Got?

 

 

Sal you are encouraged to post in many other threads. The company in this thread prefers you seek those out and stop posting in this one. 

[barrows]

16 minutes ago, Blake said:

Looks like I misinterpreted your "hand made" comment.  I was not looking at it from the machine vs. handmade cable.  How are you making your determination which ones are machine made?  What is posted on their website or from looking a pics?

 

It is pretty easy to tell, are you suggesting you cannot tell?  You cannot inject a foamed PE dielectric by hand, for example, neither can you implement Nordost's micro monofilament construction, neither can you extrude any dielectric over a conductor by hand.  Take a look at the diagram of the layers of dielectric and the geometry of a light harmonic USB cables, and that is all contained inside a molded jacket, one cannot make that cable by hand.

 

[look&listen]

43 minutes ago, Blake said:

Looks like I misinterpreted your "hand made" comment.

I assume "hand made" mean hand terminated connectors on machine made cable & maybe some extras, but hybrid construction.

But Mapleshade & Lush seem very well liked, even if very hand made 

[Blake]

1 hour ago, barrows said:

It is pretty easy to tell, are you suggesting you cannot tell?  You cannot inject a foamed PE dielectric by hand, for example, neither can you implement Nordost's micro monofilament construction, neither can you extrude any dielectric over a conductor by hand.  Take a look at the diagram of the layers of dielectric and the geometry of a light harmonic USB cables, and that is all contained inside a molded jacket, one cannot make that cable by hand.

 

 

No, I was not suggesting that at all.  It was a sincere question. I have never seen a usb cable being made so I was curious.

[Blake]

1 hour ago, barrows said:

 TotalDAC uses what looks like a standard machine made cable stock (not high end) with their filter module added on.  

 

Yes, that is correct.  It is just a generic cable.  Vincent and I discussed a project where I was going to send him my Lightspeed cable and my TotalDAC cable, and have him attach the filter from my TotalDac to my Lightspeed 10G as an experiment, but we never followed through.  

[Ralf11]

also interested in the ID of that 'cheap cable' above

 

another question is how one decides which USB cable to buy (or which smaller group to buy for a listening test) - the Lightspeed is north of $1k so you have to wonder if $5k could not be better deployed...

[Blake]

8 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

also interested in the ID of that 'cheap cable' above

 

 

Hi Ralph, what cable are you asking about?

[reverendo]

17 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

also interested in the ID of that 'cheap cable' above

 

another question is how one decides which USB cable to buy (or which smaller group to buy for a listening test) - the Lightspeed is north of $1k so you have to wonder if $5k could not be better deployed...

www.thecableco.com was a good source to test some cables. I also bought others with the option of a trial period. I took the time to burn them in so that that it was a fair comparison. this helped quite a lot in doing real comparisons.

[Ralf11]

20 hours ago, HumanMedia said:

...

And looking at those HiFi News cable eye patterns, the cables I have empirically bought or trialled, and didn’t like have bad eye patterns, the ‘cheap’ cable I keep coming back to despite its flaws actually performs quite well. I now don’t think this is a coincidence - for my personal tastes anyway. 

 

 

 

this is the cheap one I asked about

 

Thx - knew cableco.com did speaker cables; did not know they 'rented' USB cables

[reverendo]

2 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

 

this is the cheap one I asked about

 

Thx - knew cableco.com did speaker cables; did not know they 'rented' USB cables

they'll "rent" out any cable in their library

[elcorso]

6 hours ago, barrows said:

Actually, no one here has any responsibility to prove to you that there are indeed substantial differences between USB cables, despite your insistence that such is so.

The sonic differences between some USB cables is so obvious that it is very well accepted among any group who have bothered to listen.

If you are not interested in better sound quality from your own system, that is fine, but please stop pretending to "know more" than people who have already done the work, which you have not.

 

Even in this thread objective evidence has been referenced (HiFi News' tests which include eye pattern testing).  But of course you cannot be bothered to take a look, instead demand that people who have the experience, and have done the work themselves prove it to you, sorry, that is not the responsibility of folks who are just sharing their experiences: why bother to insult us with your lack of any relevant experience?

 

Do not talk to the deaf ...

Do not show the landscape to the blind ...

You can make them very sad!

------------------------------------------

Paella made by machine ...? I guarantee you a synthetic taste ...!

 

Roch

[Allan F]

On 8/3/2018 at 10:51 AM, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

Sal you are encouraged to post in many other threads. The company in this thread prefers you seek those out and stop posting in this one. 

 

Thank you, Chris, although I am not sure that I would use the word "encourage". And thank you for the Ignore List, a more permanent way to avoid trolls who won't take the hint.

[HumanMedia]

On 8/4/2018 at 6:11 AM, Ralf11 said:

 

this is the cheap one I asked about

 

Thx - knew cableco.com did speaker cables; did not know they 'rented' USB cables

 

The ‘cheap’ cable I keep coming back to?

Cheap as in its not printer cable cheap, but cheap compared to many of these cables. And it’s not without its flaws, needs a little more refinement in the top end, but does more things right than it does wrong for me is the 75cm Chord USB SilverPlus.

 

And the UpTone USBPCB is also incredibly sweet and refined in the mids and top end but a bit lacking in Bass is what I have been using more recently but with a change of equipment I have to go back to cable, so hence my re evaluation of where we are with USB cables right now.

 

Plus both of these cables need burn in to sound their best. Particularly the USBPCB, but even the Chord when 6 months out of the system.

[chrisc]

Can't find where anyone has mentioned it, but I use wi-fi and/or a LAN cable to transfer music from a Mac to a Devialet.  The wi-fi is much better than the USB.  There is no noise whatever

 

Its difficult where I live (Cape Town, South Africa) to get much better USB cables than Audioquest, so tried the wi-fi route

[reverendo]

30 minutes ago, chrisc said:

Can't find where anyone has mentioned it, but I use wi-fi and/or a LAN cable to transfer music from a Mac to a Devialet.  The wi-fi is much better than the USB.  There is no noise whatever

 

Its difficult where I live (Cape Town, South Africa) to get much better USB cables than Audioquest, so tried the wi-fi route

My brother has a Devialet. I would recommend getting a Regen. I only went back to USB from digital coax after using it and that was with a LH 10G. 

BTW, still using the "normal" Regen, but it gut much, much better using an alternative lpsu, in my case the HDplex. My Welborne is better, but also more expensive and not as versatile. 

[chrisc]

Well, it is cheap enough, I must say.  But are there any other reviews or opinions about it I could read?

[look&listen]

27 minutes ago, chrisc said:

But are there any other reviews or opinions about it I could read?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[KnockKnock]

2 hours ago, chrisc said:

Can't find where anyone has mentioned it, but I use wi-fi and/or a LAN cable to transfer music from a Mac to a Devialet.  The wi-fi is much better than the USB.  There is no noise whatever

 

Its difficult where I live (Cape Town, South Africa) to get much better USB cables than Audioquest, so tried the wi-fi route

 

You can easily order the fab CuriousCable or the MadScientistAudio BlackMagic cable and have it sent to South Afrika. Don`t like it you just get your money back, no questions asked (and it beats the AQ by some miles)

[look&listen]

1 hour ago, chrisc said:

any other reviews or opinions about it I could read?

Forgot this one;

 

8000 posts should be enough?

[highstream]

On 8/3/2018 at 9:34 AM, Blake said:

 

And yet, if you scan through this thread over the years, it seems that the majority of the sonically favored usb cable are from the hand-made camp (Light Harmonic, Lush, Curious, TotalDac, etc.).   I have owned quite a few Nordost cables over the years and liked them.  However, the one Nordost usb cable I owned (Blue Heaven), was nice but I actually found the Mapleshade usb cable to offer more clarity and detail.

 

Clarity and detail are hallmarks of Mapleshade. What I also found at the time, several years ago, was edginess, something I seem to recall Pierre effectively admits (or admitted) in his design intention. And that was with Quad 12L speakers (desktop/near field) that are on the warm side. What I didn't hear was any warmth of the kind that real (acoustic) instruments have. I also found the initial Lightspeed of the same tonal quality, which is what led me to choose the TotalDac cable/filter. I haven't tested anything else since getting it four years ago, in large part due to focusing on my living room system. People here have been touting the Sablon. I haven't heard the USB Panatela version, but the Panatela power cords were to me also characterized by excellent clarity, detail and speed, but again cool (but not cold) for my tastes. After not long, I didn't like listening with them plugged in. I ended up with a set of PS Audio AC-12's. PS Audio doesn't make a USB cable, but they did make the LanRover, a two piece unit that worked something like the Regen, and that I preferred over the initial Regen, although a few hundred $$ more.  What I've found over the years is that listeners fall into two broad categories, those that prioritize "sound effects" and those that start with tonal/timbral accuracy. I fall in the latter category. But to each their own.

[Jud]

34 minutes ago, highstream said:

What I've found over the years is that listeners fall into two broad categories, those that prioritize "sound effects" and those that start with tonal/timbral accuracy. I fall in the latter category.

 

I love to hear what I feel is timbral accuracy, which is why I liked the Mapleshade.    It made other cables sound more hi-fi and less real on the top end.  And I hate a "zippy," artificially detailed top end sound.

 

I imagine this is very likely down to varying systems and tastes. 

[barrows]

If we have a USB cable which is truly accurate, it will not make a neutral system edgy at all, at the same time the cable will not ADD any warmth either.  The idea that an accurate cable may be edgy, or tipped up in tonality is just plain wrong.

If a system exhibits an edgy sound with an accurate cable, the cable is not to blame, it is just revealing the nature of the system it is placed in.  Looking for "warmth" from a USB cable is a fools errand in my consideration, if you need additional warmth in a  system, even when playing a recording that is known to be neutrally balanced, then each component in the system needs to be carefully evaluated to determine where that edgy sound is actually being created.

 

For example, noise form a computer directly connected to a DAC may result in edgy sound vs. a higher quality USB source.  It is not the job of the USB cable to remove noise coming from the computer, that noise is the problem of the computer, and should be addressed there.  A USB cable is required to have fast rise times/wide bandwidth, it would be counter productive to expect a USB cable to also be a noise filter (a filter would be in opposition to the desire for wide bandwidth-speed).

 

We have to be very careful about using cables as a fix for problems originating elsewhere, it is much better to fix the actual source of the problem than to cover it up with a lower resolution cable.