Does the notion of quality make any sense with FireWire Cables ?

[PierreDLC]

Hello,

 

I own the Weiss Minerva DAC to interconnect MPB and Amplifier. As you may know, Weiss Minerva can connect to MPB via FireWire cable, which is supposed to enhance the sound experience. I was wondering how I can get the most out of these equipements. In other words, whether anyone has ever experienced the impact of different quality / price of FireWire Cable.

 

Besides those cheap FireWire cables that one's can buy, QED, AUDIOQUEST and SILTECH propose expensive range of FW cables (up to 1500 USD from SILTECH !).

 

Since Speaker, Power and Interconnect Cables can change dramatically a sound experience, can anyone testimony the impact of High End FW cables ?

 

Best Regards,

 

Pierre

 

[barrows]

I do not know if it it makes any sense, as with many things in audio, but I am confident that you will find differences in sound from different Firewire cables. Why a Firewire cable would make a difference I could only wildly speculate about! It does appear that there are many things that do make a difference in computer audio performance that are not currently understood.

I have used the Revelation Audio Labs silver Firewire cable to good effect in my system; as you have a very nice setup I would be interested to hear of your experiences trying different Firewire cables, although I have to wonder how far to go in terms of Firewire cables. I am not sure that I could justify the purchase of Firewire cables like the Siltech that you mention.

 

[cfmsp]

My belief is that yet another reason to purchase devices that transmit our musical data 'asynchronously' is that it lessens (or even eliminates??) the likelihood of cables making much of a difference. IOW, Firewire, Async USB and Ethernet seem more oblivious to the need for 'audiophile' cables than Adaptive USB, S/PDIF, AES/EBU, etc.

 

(I find it a relative joke that some will buy an relatively inexpensive adaptive USB DAC, and then declare how much of an improvement the very expensive Ridge St Audio Designs cables make).

 

To me, that's a big hint - if expensive cables make a huge difference, maybe, just maybe, there's something WRONG with the DAC, or the interface itself?!?!

 

Back to your question:

I've not tried 'expensive' audiophile Firewire cables, but if you're looking for a good basic cable to compare against them, you can't beat the GoldX shielded Firewire cable. It's the most oft recommended here. You can buy it for $15 from Verge labs - aka Firewire direct.

 

http://www.firewiredirect.com/product/86/

 

There is a tweak for Firewire cables, if you're interested - running the cable without transmitting 'power'. You can either surgically disconnect the power clips at the cable connection, OR, easier to implement, buy a 4pin to 6pin cable (only 6pin can carry power) such as the one pointed to in the link above, and then use a 4pin to 6pin adapter on the 4pin end so that you've got two 6pin ends but no means to carry power right alongside your data 'signal'.

 

Perhaps more expensive Firewire cables do something different to prevent power & data from 'collaborating'.

 

please let us know your results, but please use caution before declaring an improvement. AFAIK, the pros don't see the point in it.

 

 

 

thanks

clay