newbie question

[sputnik]

Hi, newbie from London here....

 

great site by the way!

 

may be a dumb question, but are there discernable differences in usb cable quality?

 

Reason I ask is that system is obviously only as good as the weakest link... otherwise I use:

 

iMac 24in to

PS Audio DLIII to

Naim Nait 5i amp to

Neat Momentum 3i speakers

Chord interconnects & speaker cable

 

Running just a regular usb cable bought for £2 at local electronics store.... is there any point in spending a bit more?

 

 

Thanks,

 

[markr]

First, let me say: "Hello!" and thank you for the visit, and nice comment about the site. I hope you come back, and not just because you seem to care about sound from just (my 8 minute-old research on) the list of hardware you supplied, but because reading that list and doing that research - short though it was -, I still have NO idea of what the equipment you are listening to sounds like; except to say that I am sure that I would like to hear it... Unfamiliar equipment to me always means, "new things to be learned!" Please also send us an idea of what sort of material you like to listen to on that equipment, will you?

 

Now, to answer your question:

In My Opinion - £2 -, even with the current conversion rate taken into consideration *grin*, is WAY too small an amount to pay for any cable when you have spent what you have on hardware! *Obviously you care about what you listen to* -- I am not one to be really picky about the price or even the composition of, cables, once they reach a certain length or price point (in this case, > 1 meter @ £2 ). But cables over on this side of the pond are more likely to have been constructed, and I am assuming there too, in a 'faraway place' the more inexpensive that their price tag gets, and therefore are born on the 'edge of reliability.' I'm not trying to be humorous or officious here. Just practical. If you are going to plug and unplug 'tha dang thing' more than 15 times in the next year., at least have a backup! Or spend £5 and make us all stop worrying about your "dropped and impeded" digital bits!

 

Now that you know that I am not a stickler about cable quality - within reason - , I am sure that someone else here will be along shortly to kick my opinion on this matter into the dust. And "welcome" to them too.

 

Please do come back and visit us with some of that: "I'm listening to" info, won't you?

 

markr

"There are only two kinds of people: Those who understand binary, and those who don't."

 

[sputnik]

Thanks for the quick reply, I guess Ill pop into town this afternoon and splash for a £4 upgrade

 

As for the equipment, sounds great.... at least in my subjective opinion of course. Not that I have that much to compare it to, besides what Ive personally owned before.

 

iMac.... using iTunes, with most of my CD collection ripped into apple lossless format.

 

ps audio DLIII.... never had a chance to compare side by side to the Benchmark DAC1 that is getting a lot of attention on these forums, but it does a great job with the material the Mac sends.

 

Naim Nait.... the "entry level" amp for Naim, love it because it is simple to the max, just a volume knob and input selectors, nothing else. Probably the candidate for the next upgrade, though not anytime soon as its perfectly satisfactory.

 

Neat Momentum 3i speakers... from one of those typical British manufacturers nobody outside England has heard of, spartan in terms of looks, but sounds great, especially at lower to mid volumes appropriate for smaller living spaces common on this side of the pond. Alternatives I considered were the Sonus Faber Concert floorstanders, but it they are too big for my listening area, and B&W 805s, which despite being highly lauded just didnt sound that great to me when I auditioned them.

 

As for the music itself, mainly jazz, classical, and downbeat electro type stuff for chilling out. Bossa Nova tunes from brazil are one of my favourites of all times. When nostalgia for youth strikes, then its the stuff that would have been popular in the late 80's (not proud of that).

 

Anyway, look forward to reading these pages in the future!!!

 

Cheers,

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Welcome to Computer Audiophile. Your question about USB cable is a good one. In my opinion everything matters. I'm not sure how much you want to spend, but Kimber Kable has a very nice USB cable. I took photos of it at CES, but they didn't turn out how I wanted them to so I didn't put them up on the site. Here is a link to an online reseller here n the U.S. (no affiliation with my site here) Kimber Kable USB.

 

Gordon Rankin of Wavelength Audio has suggested this USB cable has, "two well placed ferrites to reduce the noise from the computer to the Endpoint in this case the dac."

 

Also, I have heard great things about your current equipment. No need to upgrade if it sounds great to you. That's all that matters.

 

[sputnik]

thanks, Ill try that brand. Cant hurt and not so expensive.....

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Kimber is a great brand of cable. I use Kimber interconnects and am very happy with them.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

I just posted my review of the Kimber USB. Here it is http://www.computeraudiophile.com/node/207