Best USB cable to use between computer and dac?

[sq225917]

I'd be with the school of thought that says a good dac should be impervious to noise on the input within certain limits of confirmation.

 

My Young didn't care what USb cable it was connected with, an Rdac I had on loan was incredibly sensitive to usb cable (so much so I'd consider the design of the dac way below acceptable limits). Similarly my Firewire equipped Weiss 202 cares not what cable it is connected with. I would consider that a well built dac.

 

Any good dac should be relatively able to reject signal noise, RF, etc coming into it via the signal input cables. they were after all designed and checked by being used in a real test environment weren't they? ;-)

 

[pilgrum]

i read this list a while ago its a good one. In my experiences demoing gear it is always good to test with something your are extremely familiar with also. Ever run any D2D albums? I am yet to afford one.

 

[Talk2Me]

"I'd be with the school of thought that says a good dac should be impervious to noise on the input within certain limits of confirmation."

 

Really, you think so? Not to be confrontational, but what you are is:

 

1) I can't hear a difference, so you should not also.

2) You are all lying.

 

 

 

[whatever]

I'm not against saying using better quality (high purity silver and solid conductor) USB cable has impact on sound quality but I think it kind of waste to spend several hundred dollars to a thousand+ on an external DAC. You should just get a good working condition laptop with descent built-in audio chip + ultra high-end 3.5mm analog cable to high-end speakers. You will not waste as much money and can have ultimate sound. I'm more against the DAC.... not the cable. The more electronics you connect to the source (the computer, Macbook in this case) the more the sound can be hurt. Going through more conversions isn't going to help either.

 

 

 

[pilgrum]

Its not going through more devices its going through the same amount just instead of using the on board audio processors you are bypassing the internal converters and rerouting the data to an external device that is more equipped to process, convert, and amplify it. An ultra high end 3.5mm to RCA costs about $3000.00+ more than what we are talking about. If you plug that ultra high end analog cable into high end speakers you will get no sound, it needs to go to at the least some kind of amp first.

 

[Julf]

"It is important to keep the USB cable as short as possible due to the nature of how it transfers electricity the longer it is the slower it is."

 

But why does the speed matter?

 

[Mark Powell]

I want the music to start NOW, not in a few microsconds time.

 

[Julf]

"I want the music to start NOW, not in a few microsconds time."

 

Well, even a microsecond or two of delay would require a cable that is at least a hundred meters long... I know some of my cables are long, but...

 

[pilgrum]

At 100 meters long it won't even work. USB/Cat5/FOC all have length limits and guess what USB has the least at between 3-5 meters so what i am saying is don"t make a custom 6 meter USB cable and expect to get power over it. Has nothing to do with delay it has to do with industry standards. I have seen using a 12-15 foot cable have mixed results with power and reliability. One of the reasons they don't run the USB standard for communication cabling is because it sucks compared to coax or SM/MM Fiber. It is a short run cable technology thats what i am saying. Just like cat5 but 95x worse. Try and run firewire or thunderbolt 8 meters and see what you get.

 

[whatever]

pilgrum, thanks for the insight. That was very helpful.

 

So I see that it's not going through unnecessary electronic devices to produce music. That's good 2 hear.

 

When I said ultra high-end I didn't mean cables that cost $3 grand... something in the range of 150~ 600 USD. I can't afford a $3 grand cable.... The the speakers I was talking about was self-powered, or so called "active speakers". Someone in the forum taught me that. Good stuff.

 

thanks

 

[4est]

I have a 10 meter Unibrain Firewire cable that works just fine. I'm using it for my storage drive and have never had an issue with it.

 

[pilgrum]

opps i guess i effed up on this one ;p I would have to say something likes unibrain's 10m product was specifically designed to exceed the standard and when selecting your cable if it exceeds the standard's length look for something like 4est's solution. But generally unless its stated and guaranteed i would avoid pushing your luck. Nice speakers btw 4est!

 

[pilgrum]

150-600 that is the price of a decent DAC and 150 dollar component interlinks are considered entry level purchases in the world of hifi. Self powered speakers have an amp that is what your plugging into. 600 dollar cables out of a headphone jack are not going to compete anywhere near where a 250 dollar DAC will take you sound wise using 20 dollar RCA cables. The difference between a $30 cd player and a $1000 one is its guts. If you got bad guts your gunna get bad sound. DAC is the way to go try it out some time but i doubt it's going to make much of a difference on a mini home theater in a box system though.

 

[4est]

and thank you Pilgrum!

 

My (obtuse) point is that it really is in the implementation and this would apply to USB as well. If they can extend the usable length to 32', there is a possibility that it may sound better if used in a shorter lengths. I have yet to notice much difference in the sonics of Firewire cables back when I was running Firewire DACs, but did work however...

 

[pilgrum]

Sonics i am not sure either was more concerned it just might not work I have a scanner at my office that if you exceed 12 feet its non responsive so it may also depend on the Power over usb and stuff like that. which while i am writing this may be a pointless thing to point out since i am not even sure any dac's on the market are usb powered i have never used one just have experience with POF/Dcoax connections. But being a computer support specialist i figured my knowledge of cable standards may be helpful. Anyone excited about Thunderbolt? I just read that they are going to putting external pcie graphics card boxes into production this year great news for laptop users who have the gaming bug.

 

[whatever]

pilgrum, I have already tried a $180 external DAC and sounds like turd.... the sound right out of the Mac headphone jack sounds better.. better sonic signature I mean...

 

I am not sure if I wanna take a chance on a thousand dollar DAC just yet... But I would be glad to spend $150 on the RCA cable... If you believe a $20 cable will do equally as good as a $150 cable then your ghey.

 

 

I don't have good speaker system yet... Speakers alone will cost me about $4000 (cables excluded). I will slowly build one at a time...

 

[pilgrum]

Listen your all talk and no walk "whatever". Whatever is a perfect screen name for you whatever you post is just negative BS that has no legs. I will be the first to admit I am wrong but come on dude. I have 15 years experience in hifi sales, installation, and calibration. I am a fiber optic network specialist and computer installer. I make my own cables, I make my own amps, i make my own speakers, go to trade shows, and own a 2 channel stereo already and have for a long time. I have sold and installed $500,000 home theaters and 2 channels systems. Do yourself a favor stop writing BS about stuff you don't know about and start reading posts by accredited enthusiasts. I once didn't know what I was talking about either but was willing to listen and learn. The gay comment just points out that you are probably a high school student that hooks his mac laptop to his daddies POS Bose system. Where are you getting your info from bestbuy dot com? I have hung out at several cable manufacturer's tech departments, have tested $5-25,000 cables in house and discussed along side the engineers their products. So next time you see one of my posts read and don't comment your gay. I am not the "audiophile Guru of the world" but listen I know audio and video products so well I pay my mortgage talking about it.

 

[Julf]

I am so glad this is about facts and not about personal issues...

 

[whatever]

Thanks pilgrum about your biography. I apologize I underestimated you. Sounds like you make a lot of money from your profession.

 

But I'm old... not a teenager. I do dislike my BOSE system. But I can't just get rid of it coz I got it as a gift.. But I am looking to upgrade my speaker system.

 

 

 

[pilgrum]

Maybe I should have saved that for my shrink ;p name calling puts me in school-u mode sorry.

 

[pilgrum]

just figured you would want to know who you are insulting and calling derogatory names at. Ghey? come on dude at least grow a set and spell it right. But I understand your deal now and will be ignoring your BS. I am starting to think this site is overly filled with hifi internet fakes and OSX Hipsters based on most of the replies I received and posts I have read.

 

[Talk2Me]

Yikes, this thread turned quickly into the dumpster. CAn we please stay on topic. We do have pm if you want to get personal.

 

[Paul R]

You do see to have a lot of attitude for someone who has been here less than a week.

 

Why don't you do the polite thing, and go introduce yourself? There is a nice thread for doing that, and you can also read a bit about some of the people you are disrespecting.

 

Also let us do try to keep this thread on topic before the moderator has to step in.

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Whats-your-occupation#comment-134930

 

Paul

 

 

[Artmindes]

kaka, you've mentioned RWA stock USB cable. have you compared it to Wireworld/Audioquest USB cables?

 

[whatever]

Wait a min.... I thought I said I'm sorry to pilgrum for my ignorance. Why is this smackfest still going on?? I said I'm sorry. Do I need to pay a visit to your front door and get on my knees and ask for forgiveness? Man, you are asking too much.

 

And Paul.Raulerson, I have been here for more than 1 week. More like 3 weeks. And I used to lurk around this forum for quite a while before I signed up. Are you new?

 

 

thanks,