Who has tried out different USB Cables?

[Blackmorec]

59 minutes ago, marce said:

Did you read my post...

Conducted immunity... a good place to start.

Yes I did. Would that test cables? Or DACs? 

[Blackmorec]

16 hours ago, gmgraves said:

WRT to audio, one would have to really try to make a cable that didn't "meet spec". A lot of audiophiles are hung-up on the notion that there is something "special" about an audio signal. There is not. It is a low-frequency AC signal that puts no particular demands on any conductor. USB cables, while carrying higher frequencies than an audio cable are still relatively low frequency conductors. The problems with USB, as I see it, lie in the way the data is arranged on both ends of the cable. While it is certainly possible that different USB cables mess with the timing of the packets somehow (I, personally, don't see how, though), the best that I have heard* still sound mediocre when compared to even Toslink SPDIF. 

* And, the best that I have heard is an AudioQuest Diamond cable (with the "bias" battery) and two Jitterbugs in tandem. Still nowhere near as good sounding as a simple Toslink cable plugged into the combo headphone jack on my MacBook Pro. 

Hi GM,  seems you have a lot of variables there. There’s Toslink vs USB cable, the MacBook Pro’s clocks, interfaces and power supplies and the receiving end’s clocks, interfaces and power supplies, all of which have the possibility of influencing the signal. As far as I can see, the only conclusion you could reliably reach from your example would be in relatIon to your exact implementation of USB and Toslink...which is why people are advised to try stuff in their system.  As far as I can see, you are just as likely to see the opposite result in terms of SQ in a system where USB has been optimised throughout.   I am 100% certain that USB cables affect the sound although I don’t know why. I do accept that the USB cables are unlikely to modify the bitstream per-se but I do think that clocks, PSs and interfaces on either side of the cable could have a major influence as can EMI picked up by a cable

[Blackmorec]

44 minutes ago, Speedskater said:

Maybe.

So they have anything to do with USB cables?  Of course NOT.

Well normal physics is having little success so far in explaining a phenomena that shouldn’t happen but that an awful lot of people can clearly hear and easily reproduce.  Some may claim its confirmation bias, but that would always result in positive outcomes, which is quite often not the case. 

Your first answer was spot on the money. Regarding your question, how would we know?

[Blackmorec]

10 minutes ago, daverich4 said:

 

d. Buy the cable and feel ripped off because I trust my ears and don't hear any difference.

Well with respect, that would be slightly stupid, wouldn’t it? Why would you buy a cable that makes no difference? If that was the case and you hear no difference, stick to your freebie USB or whatever. The only reason to spend money is if you hear improvements...if you don’t, what’s the point?  If I install a cable in my system and I hear a difference, that in no way means that the same cable will make any difference in your system, for a variety of reasons

* Maybe you don’t have the problem in your system that the cable solved in mine?

* Perhaps you have other problems that are far greater and overwhelm the small improvements the new cable brings?

* Or maybe the differences are simply not resolved in your system ?

For example, I may be using extremely low noise linear power supplies throughout my network, while someone else is still using the cheap Chinese power bricks typically supplied with consumer network products. Reducing the EMI absorbed in the small part of their system represented by a USB cable is going to deliver very little if the rest of your system is still swamped in noise. 

Alternatively I may be using W-fi to deliver my data stream while someone else uses an optical connection.  If the new USB cable is effectively screening EMI from wi-fi, I’ll get a far greater effect from the same cable than the optically based system would provide. 

What I’ve found in hi-fi is that almost everything matters and when you pay attention the results you can get from even remotely streamed redbook format files will knock even relatively high-end analog into a cocked hat.