USB audio cracked... finally!

[austinpop]

So - 7 pages of discussion of why this or that can or should sound better. 

 

But in terms of listening impressions and comparisons with USPCB and other cables?

 

Other than the OP, I've seen exactly one actual review. Very helpful, thanks @hols. 

 

Anyone else? 

[austinpop]

Got it - be patient!

 

I have to be honest - I was unaware of the Phasure, um, universe, until @hols mentioned the Lush cable on another thread.

 

Would I be laughed off the thread if I asked if anyone could compare it to the Curious 0.2m link?

[austinpop]

48 minutes ago, PeterSt said:

If someone else is not faster :In a later post Anthony was even more explicit about this.  So, planned ...Not sure this is the best idea though (for that person).

 

Thank you, Peter.

 

On 7/14/2017 at 11:19 PM, acg said:

The Lush is around 200 euro depending on length.  At this stage I am unaware of anyone out of the Phasure group that has one but I intend to take mine down to the Gold Coast next time and have a play with it in a couple of excellent but completely different systems to mine.  One of them is the guy that makes the Curious Cables (he has a fantastic system) so it will be very interesting to hear The Lush in that system against that cable.

 

Awesome, I look forward to this comparison.

 

I need yet another USB cable about as much as a hole in my head! But - I am always interested, and keep an open mind.

 

In general, I do find I can hear cable differences, but they tend to - for me - be subtle, not transformative.

[austinpop]

39 minutes ago, PeterSt said:

Anthony should really ask the Curious guy how he actually comes to decisions about making a USB cable. I know mine and mine really use "properties" so to speak. But others ? ... what I learned is that it is so difficult to get what you what you want (by components) that possibly people travel the easiest path with a nice sleeve.

But of course I can't really know.

 

Well - to the extent that neither of you have really revealed how you make your cable, here is the Curious guy's "story:" http://www.curiouscables.com/our-story.html

 

Frankly, I could care less about the prose.

 

@acg - once you actually compare how they sound - which should be fun! - please report back.

[austinpop]

4 minutes ago, BigAlMc said:

 

Hi Rajiv, 

 

Not exactly what you were asking for but I currently have a 1m Curious cable and this thread has prompted me to take the plunge and order 70cm Lush cable. 

 

So not the 20cm comparison you asked about and only my enthusiastic but perhaps unrefined ears. But Ill defo be comparing the Lush to the Curious. 

 

I'm also intrigued about the Lush / ISO Regen combo which I'll be trying out. 

 

Cheers, 

Alan 

 

Perfect! Look forward to it.

[austinpop]

4 hours ago, BigAlMc said:

 

@austinpop - I'm going to let it burn in a bit before doing any serious listening or A-B-ing with the Curious cable.

 

Initial impressions. It's spongy!! 

 

Spongy? I thought it was cracked... finally!

 

[austinpop]

I know nothing of the Phasure universe. Until last week, when people started talking about the Lush cable, I'd never even heard of the thing. So please be kind at my question. 

 

IOW - please set your Phasure's on "stun." 

 

Is the Phasure DAC a standalone device that can be driven by a Roon endpoint like the sMS-200 or UltraRendu via USB? Or, of course, through a DDC via I2S/AES/SPDIF/etc?

 

Or is it tied to a direct attach ecosystem, where it is necessary to use the XXHighEnd distro of Windows?

 

Sorry for these basic questions, but when I go to the website for info, it takes me to a forum. 

[austinpop]

@manisandher, @acg,

 

Thanks for your cogent explanations. It helps me understand the NOS approach.

[austinpop]

1 hour ago, Jud said:

 

I love a good pun in the morning.

 

I can't help myself sometimes. My kids say I need help. 

[austinpop]

4 hours ago, manisandher said:

 

Another listening impression of the Lush on the Phasure forum from a non-Phasure DAC user:

 

• "Only 30 hours of burn in with the Lush before some critical listening yesterday evening. The sound with Lush USB in my non-Phasure system is truly staggering. Not only has the SQ increased in the normal “better cable” manner, the whole presentation is actually quite fundamental different, more naturally and true (sorry, but no other way of describe it). The micro details, transparency, dynamic, bass punch etc, etc is first class as well and is much superior to my JCAT USB.   
  
  (Btw, the sound after only 6 hour was a bit over sharped and lean, so some burn in is needed IME)"

Mani.

 

Keep 'em coming!

[austinpop]

2 hours ago, BigAlMc said:

Likewise it occurred to me that I should really have compared the Uptone USPCB to the Lush and the Curious. That might be a bit trickier though as I'd need to get my Microrendu pretty close to the DAC to pull off the USPCB connection. Not sure I can make that combo work too easily.

 

Hi Alan,

 

This is also what occurred to me as I read your great report. Another thing I would suggest trying that might be perhaps easier, is to place the "cable under test" closest to the DAC. So try these experiments:

1. mR > USPCB > ISO-R > USB cable under test > SU-1 > DAC
2. mR > USPCB > ISO-R > USB cable under test > DAC

Regardless, great work!

[austinpop]

@manisandher

 

One more listening impressions data point. 

 

After 70 hours of burn-in, definite improvement using Lush 0.7m over previous Curious 0.2m. Full chain:

• sMS-200ultra (modded) > Curious 0.2m > ISO-Regen > USPCB > tX-USBultra > Lush 0.7m > Ayre Codex DAC.

Rajiv

[austinpop]

4 minutes ago, barrows said:

OK guys, I am unsubscribing.  I see nothing of substance here about the LUSH cable anymore, just the usual bickering.  When I get a LUSH cable here I may choose to re-engage here with some listening impressions.

I accept already that different USB cables give rise to different sonics, although in my current system the implementation of the USB transmitter and receiver sections (and isolation of USB on the DAC side) is good enough to reduce those difference to very small levels.  I am looking forward to trying the LUSH and seeing what it brings, I am also interested in hearing of others' listening experiences, vs. other USB cables...

 

Don't blame you! I myself am hanging in there via liberal use of the "Ignore User" feature. The difficult ones to ignore are those who usually have sensible and useful things to say, but then get caught up in the noise. Ah well, nothing's perfect.

 

The listening impressions do trickle in - I posted mine a few days ago. And Mani does an excellent service by posting a summary every few days.

[austinpop]

What just happened?

[austinpop]

2 minutes ago, Jud said:

 

At least in this thread, please not.

 

Yes, enough fire and fury for one day!

[austinpop]

2 hours ago, Barry in Calgary said:

My advice would be to use the Lush before any regenerators/isolators.  In my case it wasn't just a matter of choosing the best of two good alternatives, but the difference between a large degradation and a large improvement in sound quality.

 

Hi Barry,

 

Coincidentally I just did some listening impressions tonight to compare the best position of the Lush in my USB chain. My finding was the opposite of yours - in all cases, the SQ was best when the Lush was the last in the chain, feeding into the DAC.

 

I posted details in another thread.

 

I don't dispute what you're hearing, but I would modify your advice above to: try the Lush cable throughout your chain and

1. determine if it improves SQ, and
2. go with whatever sequence sounds best.

Clearly there is no "one size fits all."

[austinpop]

4 minutes ago, Barry in Calgary said:

Hi All

 

I've been playing music thru the Lush for about 35 hrs now and moved it back to the position just in front of the DAC.

 

I had a short listening session about an hour ago and I have to correct my earlier comments.  The Lush now doesn't appear to be 2 dimensional and sounds extremely good. Good enough to potentially replace the Curious as the final cable in my chain. I can only attribute this to (a) break-in or (b) my desire to fit in. 

 

I've got some folks coming over for independent checks later this week.  But we won't be testing the Lush just upstream of my Intona, we will be comparing the Lush and the Curious just before the DAC.

 

Hope the improvement continues

 

Regards

Barry

 

Great to hear, Barry!

 

Of course, the deniers on this thread will just nod their heads sagely and say - it just took him longer for the fairy-dust/kool-aid/mass-delusion/mass-hypnosis to kick in. 

[austinpop]

1 hour ago, Speed Racer said:

 

I don't buy into the expensive cable crap. And, by the way, there is no science to controvert that!

 

Didn't you say this 58 pages ago? Duly noted. 

 

Now kindly leave us alone.

[austinpop]

Ask once - "Show me the data! Prove it!" - then you have a valid point of view. Ask it hundreds of times, over and over, then you are trolling, plain and simple. It's the repetition, the endless refrain, the attacks on unsuspecting end users, that makes you a troll.

 

We have an infestation of trolls on CA. I ask people of good will to exercise restraint, and stop feeding these trolls. Starve them, and they will go away.

 

One nice thing about this thread is that it has become a prime troll destination. That makes it easy to add them to your ignored user list with just a few mouse clicks. The "Ignore User" feature on CA is working great! Please use it liberally. Or conservatively! 

[austinpop]

1 hour ago, barrows said:

I will be testing at least a couple more USB cables before Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, as I am attempting to find a couple of really good options for Sonora's Demo system there, anyone attending, please remember to come by and say hello, and perhaps listen a bit.

 

Very nice review.

 

I'll be at RMAF, so will make sure to stop by for a listen, and to say hello.

[austinpop]

8 hours ago, tipunch said:

Have you try the Lush alone?

(Direct to DAC and without ISORegen and USPCB)

 

My chain has the Lush going from the ISO-Regen to the DAC. Removing the ISO-Regen definitely removes some SQ.

 

The Lush cable, good as it is, does not negate the benefit of the ISO-R.

[austinpop]

2 hours ago, rickca said:

How come every thread on CA eventually deteriorates into a discussion about double blind testing?  We may as well have just one thread where people can repeat 'you are delusional' endlessly.

 

2 hours ago, PeterSt said:

People don't need to misbehave in order to kill a thread.

I'm all for free speech, and (civil) debate. But repetitive debate (even if civil) is also toxic.

 

I'm not a fan of thread moderation. We've seen some spectacular failures of moderated threads in the past.

 

But this thread is in crisis. I think some light shepherding is in order. I do think the wishes of a thread's OP carry some weight. If the OP of this thread were to declare certain areas off-topic, I wonder - would @The Computer Audiophile help enforce that?

 

I, for one, want to read more Lush listening impressions. Right now, I suspect we have many folks who are apprehensive of posting their impressions because doing so is like walking past a gauntlet of audio science picketers.

 

I know many other CA'ers who are actually thinking of quitting CA entirely due to this. I'm not there yet, but find this all very depressing.

 

 

[austinpop]

21 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

It's clear people are enjoying life when using this cable. Why anyone else would care is beyond me. 

 

Exactly.

 

I do understand why people are skeptical of things like cables making a difference, along with hundreds of other things in audio. But I make a choice - I choose to engage with my music and my audio gear emotionally, and I pursue whatever gives me the greatest listening pleasure. That's what it's about for a lot of us, I'm sure. I don't need every incremental SQ gain proven to me before I can allow myself to enjoy it. Life would be really dull if I did!

 

We all have our foibles. I have a thing about little wooden blocks and cable risers. I just can't bring myself to try them or to even consider they could make an SQ difference. I admit it. I just can't get past it. Mea culpa.

 

But do I stalk threads that talk about myrtle blocks, and endlessly rail against them every time someone posts an impression? Do I demand proof, suggest expectation bias, suggest mass delusion, or demand blind, double-blind, testing? No.

 

Why? Because I have a life.

[austinpop]

39 minutes ago, manisandher said:

In the OP I mentioned:

 

On 7/14/2017 at 6:38 AM, manisandher said:

If you believe that there is no more issue using USB for audio than using it for a mouse, then simply move along to another thread that interests you. No need to waste your time posting here.

 

 

Clearly the "usual suspects" aren't moving along as you requested in your OP.

 

38 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Agreed Mani.

 

Others should feel free to Report Posts that don't meet the "requirements."

 

I encourage people to do that.

[austinpop]

47 minutes ago, m3lraaHnevetS said:

Maybe Chris could create a honeypot thread that attracts the usual suspects and keep'em busy there while the rest move on...Maybe we will have to take shifts in feeding the trolls to keep them happy. Like @Albrecht is doing...if we are lucky they might start fighting each other ?

 

 

That thread is also a good way to test your Ignored User coverage. Mine is good.