I agree that high end speaker cables can make a HUGE difference, but does a high end USB cable really affect sound quality? Isn't it all 0s and 1s anyway?
That's what I thought. I didn't hear any difference between lesser cables, but when I inserted the Light Harmonic, the quality changed. I didn't want it to.
How much time do you have on it? I read a review on it that said it sounds better with break in. Does it sound different in a good way or bad way?
I didn't hear it much during break-in. I just let it play for about a month or so until I got around to doing a write-up about it.
I think I commented on it in THIS thread.
I agree that high end speaker cables can make a HUGE difference, but does a high end USB cable really affect sound quality? Isn't it all 0s and 1s anyway?
A few weeks ago, a Wireworld Platinum Starlight USB cable replaced an Oyaide NEO Firewire cable (the Mytek DAC has both FW and USB inputs). I'm still stunned by how big of an improvement I got from this. The NEO had been doing much harm.
The improvement is most obvious in my rips from CD. These have become much more natural sounding. I find it remarkable that a digital cable could have made such a difference.
Just wondering are you sure it wasn't the firewire connection that was degraded and not the cable. If you would have replaced a firewire with another firewire and it made a difference, maybe...
A USB cable is a digital cable.
Digital data is binary, it is a bit or bits that are either transmitted or not transmitted using the cable.
What is the technical characteristic that provides variability in a digital cable that affects the quality of the music? If a cable has good connectors and is manufactured properly from good material then how much better can any other cable be than one that meets the standards for USB cable?
A USB cable is a digital cable.
Digital data is binary, it is a bit or bits that are either transmitted or not transmitted using the cable.
Do you really envision nice clean bits perfectly flowing through a cable?
These provided some good insight into what's really happening in the real world:
http://www.audiostream.com/content/qa-john-swenson-part-1-what-digital
http://www.audiostream.com/content/qa-john-swenson-part-2-are-bits-just-bits
Much more complexity here than what meets the eye.
Do you really envision nice clean bits perfectly flowing through a cable?
These provided some good insight into what's really happening in the real world:
http://www.audiostream.com/content/qa-john-swenson-part-1-what-digital
http://www.audiostream.com/content/qa-john-swenson-part-2-are-bits-just-bits
Much more complexity here than what meets the eye.
Yes, I do envision nice clean bits perfectly flowing through a cable.
And if this is not occurring then there should be some analytic methodology that would measure the variables from cable to cable but we are not seeing this measurement except in the MSRP of USB cables.
How is it that we send spacecrafts to outer space, build supercomputers that suck up everyone's email, create digital images for movies that are absolutely convincing but we never hear about the critical nature of cables used in these high technology endeavors yet our ears "hear" the differences between different USB cables?
Why would you expect to hear about them? You have absolutely no idea of the complexity of cables and connectors that are used in critical applications if you think there is nothing special going on in those fields because you don't hear anything about the cables used. Just because you don't hear about it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Well... many of us are always willing to learn so tell us what equipment and methodology can be used to quantify the relative ability of various different USB cables to pass accurate and consistent data?
Do you really envision nice clean bits perfectly flowing through a cable?
These provided some good insight into what's really happening in the real world:
http://www.audiostream.com/content/qa-john-swenson-part-1-what-digital
http://www.audiostream.com/content/qa-john-swenson-part-2-are-bits-just-bits
Much more complexity here than what meets the eye.
But it's not just about accurate & consistent data (in digital audio) - if you read the links given (& you were willing to learn) then you would understand that it might also be about what rides along with or on top of the electrical signal that represents the bit pattern
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