USB Cable

[Astralark]

Thanks for your impression updates.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile

[17629v2]

If a system doesn't have good cables it isn't well designed in the first place.

 

If your system is well designed, the cables take care of themselves.

[amir57bs]

my setup is not good because i listen to my crappy Sennheiser HD800. i will report this comparison by a better system at near future.

 

first i should say my sound changed after turning off the itunes EQ and running CAD (computer audio design) mac osx optimization script. i guess before turning off the EQ the data was not bit perfect.

i do not judge the sound with quick A/B testing and just focusing on sound and i try to listen to a track from start to end and i just look at my musical satisfaction factor. if you look just to sound you should buy Acoustic Revive USB cable, it is very very transparent but it is not dynamic and emotional. i hate the artificial and hyper detailed sound. i like easy flow , natural and human like sound.

i just play 44.1khz/16-bit from my ripped CD by dbpoweramp. every cable need 1 hour warmup before critical listening. i do not start listening before warming up each cable. i test the system in a good time for better AC power.

i do not use iUSB 3.0 because it kill the sound.

after 175 hours break-in:

i guess Curious needs more time to be fully break-in.

 

Audio Quest Diamond USB Cable is not bad but it is not stellar. it is not sweet , it is not so transparent and no thing is special in it's sound. listener could not love it.

if the top score is 100 then Audio Quest score is 50.

Audioquest is an average hifi product.

 

Purist Audio 30 Anniversary USB Cable speaks you more on midrange and is a-little less transparent in extremes (low bass and high) in comparison by Acoustic Revive but Purist give a nice pleasure to listener and it's midrange is very human like and warm .

purist is not as open and dynamic as curious but the listener could be happy with Purist. purist do not make listener so happy but do not bother listener. it is above average. I love Purist analog cables but purist digital cables are not very dynamic. be careful purist needs more time to fully warm-up before critical listening. if you focus on the sound you believe purist is not pure and real and it fools you by it's presentation.

Purist score is 85.

 

Curious 1.5m USB Cable is more transparent , a-little more extended plus more intimacy in comparison by Purist but purist sounds fuller in midrange .

curious sounds more real with more depth and a-little brighter . Curious is a-little leaner in comparison by Purist.

Qurious is good with no edge in sound and breath very easy but purist fool the listener to enjoy the music.

sometimes i think curious could not keep high and mid fully connected. purist is like adding a good transformer to output stage. it make the sound fuller but go away from neutrality.

Curious Score is 75.

 

I like neutral sound more than warm sound because i prefer dynamic sound not warm sound . i think curious could make a better cable than purist but this version of Curious could not outperform Purist cable. curious need to be richer and coherent to reach 100 point and purist needs more real presentation to reach 100 point.

 

both cables are not perfect.

I will report curious/purist after 300 hours break-in in a better reference system in near future.

[chauphuong]

buy an intona industrial version and the hell of usb cable changing will be gone. why not buying one?

[amir57bs]

buy an intona industrial version and the hell of usb cable changing will be gone. why not buying one?

I do not believe galvanic isolation is the ultimate solution.

Berkeley is very good .

I just ordered an Uptone Regen USB , it will arrive next week.

Curious cable passed 350 hours and it is ready to test again with my purist.

I think good AC power Cable and Good AC power is important to digital products.

[Ralf11]

What can a different type or brand of USB cable change about the sound (other than galvanic isolation from noise)?

 

And what is the mechanism causing the change n sound

[mansr]

What can a different type or brand of USB cable change about the sound (other than galvanic isolation from noise)?

 

Nothing, assuming they all have acceptable bit error rates.

[sandyk]

Nothing, assuming they all have acceptable bit error rates.

 

They may APPEAR to change the sound, but in reality, the removal of RF/EMI and ground loops can result in existing low level detail being "unmasked", rather like having a veil removed. This will result in improved overall harmonic structure which can even make some female singers' voices sound a little bit more individual too.

You can get similar effects in analogue circuitry by improving the S/N ratio.

 

MANY 100s of posts in numerous USB threads in this forum, say that both of you are incorrect in assuming that only acceptable bit error rates matter.

[YashN]

What can a different type or brand of USB cable change about the sound (other than galvanic isolation from noise)?

And what is the mechanism causing the change n sound

The Vbus can also transmit a lot of noise, so any filtering or possibility of disconnecting this and injecting clean power into the DAC can help.

 

Length is a factor, impedance matching is another very important one, how much the cable can transmit by keeping the signal integrity as much as possible is a factor (nothing to do with bit-perfection as some are prone to misunderstand).

 

I have experimented mostly with GND disconnection and power lines filtering as well as changing the geometry of the power lines + separating and separately shielding the power pair and the signal pair, changing the cable length, shielding, unshielding, twisted, untwisted.

 

SI issues will make the USB receiver chip work more and hence cause additional noise within the DAC.

 

Power lines noise will cause issues within the DAC as well if it's not super-well isolated (i.e. most existing DACs).

 

These two descriptions of the mechanisms are very simplified - if you want to go deeper, read what John Swenson says about this by searching this forum.

 

Note again, that this has nothing to do at all with whether the exact bits transmitted have been received correctly near the DAC: you may still recover the exact same bits, but all the power plane noises and SI issues which in turn create more noise inside the DAC itself affect the DAC chip operation and hence SQ.

 

Shielding in a USB cable can also be a factor.

 

The very nature of analogue encoding in a normal USB cable is a factor: these are voltages with ramp up and ramp down times that are on the cable (unlike a Corning USB cable which works with pulses of light.

[YashN]

They may APPEAR to change the sound, but in reality, the removal of RF/EMI and ground loops can result in existing low level detail being "unmasked", rather like having a veil removed. This will result in improved overall harmonic structure which can even make some female singers' voices sound a little bit more individual too.

You can get similar effects in analogue circuitry by improving the S/N ratio.

MANY 100s of posts in numerous USB threads in this forum, say that both of you are incorrect in assuming that only acceptable bit error rates matter.

No need to use APPEAR here: the changes are quite obvious in my setup (now, this also means my DAC isn't for instance galvanically isolated).

 

I have described in another post how using GND disconnection removes glare/hash in my system. However, iFi recommends I use the iDefender 3 which will make that GND disconnection safer and also allow injection of clean power. This is a cool option for this type of DAC.

[sandyk]

No need to use APPEAR here: the changes are quite obvious in my setup (now, this also means my DAC isn't for instance galvanically isolated).

 

I have described in another post how using GND disconnection removes glare/hash in my system. However, iFi recommends I use the iDefender 3 which will make that GND disconnection safer and also allow injection of clean power. This is a cool option for this type of DAC.

 

YashN

I erred on the side of conservative, as many systems are simply not capable of revealing just how marked these differences can be be. That probably applies to the majority of the more vocal anti subjective members ?

 

Regards

Alex

[YashN]

YashN

I erred on the side of conservative, as many systems are simply not capable of revealing just how marked these differences can be be.

 

Indeed.

[Jud]

So far in this thread we've successfully avoided the old unhelpful arguments, and I'd just ask everyone on both "sides" to leave this thread to everyone who is curious to read others' subjective impressions. There's a big wide forum out there to have any sort of cable discussion anyone likes. Let's be courteous and allow this one thread to continue to serve its particular purpose.