USB cables

[edorr]

Your best bet would be to contact "The Cable Company". They have dozens of USB cables they will loan you at all price points. Use what's best for your system and ears. It's the only way!

Alternatively, draw up a shortlist of contenders based on reviews / reputation, scan audiogon for any of these to show up for a price you can easily resell at, keep the cable you like, and resell the ones you don't like. Little more work, but if trying out stuff is part of the fun of this hobby not necessarily a bad thing. I personally use the top of the line Wirewold ($500 I believe), but would never vouch for actually being able to hear a difference in a double blind test.

 

[Shaffer]

Just now, literally a couple of minutes ago, I received an assortment of 4 USB cables (different brands) in varying sizes. Paid less than $20. I was asking for cables for a $100 DAC, folks. A $600 cable was one of the first recommendations. Don't you guys find this silly?

 

[es347]

Hi Everyone. I hope you don't mind me crashing your party. I'm Gavin Fish. I work for Light Harmonic.

Just to answer this question, each LightSpeed cable goes through a very thorough final test and measurement. We include each cable's unique test report in the box.

So Gavin, you left MIT? Were you a free agent?

 

[S T E V E]

You said you want to spend as little as possible right?
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10303&cs_id=1030301&p_id=5440&seq=1&format=2
Some drive a Honda, some drive a Roll Royce... both get you from point A to point B ... you can get there fast or in style or just get there... your call.

No offend but Yes i do find $600 USB cable silly...my "take home" every week is less then that,no joke

 

[Shaffer]

You said you want to spend as little as possible right?

No, I said, "Looking for a reasonably priced starter suggestion."

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10303&cs_id=1030301&p_id=5440&seq=1&format=2
Some drive a Honda, some drive a Roll Royce... both get you from point A to point B ... you can get there fast or in style or just get there... your call.

My call is better than Monoprice.

No offend but Yes i do find $600 USB cable silly...my "take home" every week is less then that,no joke

I think it's silly for a $100 DAC. A reference grade component, who knows. Haven't heard it.

 

[mojave]

I want to spend as little as possible, within reason.

No, I said, "Looking for a reasonably priced starter suggestion."

To be fair, STEVE did quote you correctly.

I'm looking forward to reading if you find a difference in the cables you are trying. I keep wondering if I should try different cables.

 

[S T E V E]

haha you have to say it do you?
i too curious to know if there are any different between them.
now to be honest... i (repeat I) would have no problem buying one from monoprice

 

[Shaffer]

To be fair, STEVE did quote you correctly.

The original post:

Looking for a reasonably priced starter suggestion. I have no real point of reference for this sort of thing. TIA

This is post #4, written in reply to John's question:

I want to spend as little as possible, within reason. The problem is, I need a relatively long cord -~15'. Pangea offers one for ~$60, as does AQ IIRC. Again, I know virtually nothing about this. What would you guys suggest?

Clearly, I wasn't talking about a glorified freebie, but something quality-driven. Yes, the words Steve quoted were posted by me, but the rest of the text and the context make the deduction questionable. Hence, the original correction that was supposed to be a pointer of sorts.

I can't believe I just had to explain this.

I'm looking forward to reading if you find a difference in the cables you are trying. I keep wondering if I should try different cables.

Thanks. It make take a while. Playing MP3s isn't exactly my mainstay and auditioning cables is second only to a fecal bath on my personal scale of time well spent.

 

[S T E V E]

lol, can we move on? ;p

 

[MylesBAstor]

I've always been under the impression when it comes to digital cables, they either work or they don't work, period! At least this was my thinking for AES/EBU cables. I've never messed around with USB cables or even USB DAC's until a year or so ago because USB was never meant for audio streaming.
My first foray into USB was the Playback Designs USB-X for my MPS-5. I needed to go this route because on a second Native Pyramix machine that I was using for all my DSD editing for Chesky, I didn't have a viable way of playing the files unless I did a realtime sample rate conversion to 176.4
Enter the realm of USB... Since that time, USB has become more mainstream, I've learned the idiosyncrasies of using different USB cables with my PB and Mytek DAC's. It's a whole new ballgame and some can be pretty finicky.
I've had about 5-6 USB cables in here that have been sent by manufacturers for me to try and the Light Harmonic is the only one that I've actually wanted to buy and keep in my system.
The Light Harmonic USB cable comes in 2 forms, single and split. I have the split USB cable and don't ask me what is "split" since I haven't a clue. I thought it was some marketing propaganda.
Let me tell you this cable made me change my mind about digital signal cables. There was no change in instrument timbres or anything in the frequency domain. What did change for me was 2 things. First thing I noticed was the noise level. USB connections in computers, especially laptops are notoriously bad with lots of noise and traffic on the same bus. This is the only cable that was dead silent. No picking up of cell phones, other software programs, wireless keyboard/mouse movements or anything! The brochure says this is a differential USB 2.0 (10Gbit) cable, whatever that means. All I know is it works.
Second thing I noticed was differences in the time domain, the way the spatial information was conveyed. The imaging was better and the soundstage took on another 10'. It's not magnitudes of change, but if I had to put a % on it, it would be about a .5 - 1% change. As most know, getting that last 5% is what separates the men from the boys.
The cables are not cheap.
0.8m = $999
1.6m = $1399
3.8m = $1999

The configurations I've been using are:

Toshiba Tecra laptop running WinXP, Pyramix DSD Native
MacBook running Audirvana+
Desktop running Win7 Pro 64-bit with HQPlayer

Here are a couple of photos.


View attachment 10933 View attachment 10934 View attachment 10935

http://prorecordingworkshop.lefora.com/2013/08/01/look-what-dc-found/?vm=10#post10

 

[Bruce B]

http://prorecordingworkshop.lefora.com/2013/08/01/look-what-dc-found/?vm=10#post10

Yeah, Dave has a real hard on for me. He's been chasing me around the internet for years.

I'll tell him to go chase Bob Ludwig who uses over $300k in Transparent cable.

 

[MylesBAstor]

Yeah, Dave has a real hard on for me. He's been chasing me around the internet for years.

I'll tell him to go chase Bob Ludwig who uses over $300k in Transparent cable.

D. Collins is also a real jerkoff, know-it-all on FB. I don't understand it. He belong on wreck.audio.high-end.opinion where he can spout off as much as he wants and no one listens.

Maybe we'd all be better off if he spent more time on his recordings than spreading his stupidity around the internet. Oh BTW, I unfriended him a long time ago.

 

[cpp]

I've always been under the impression when it comes to digital cables, they either work or they don't work, period! At least this was my thinking for AES/EBU cables. I've never messed around with USB cables or even USB DAC's until a year or so ago because USB was never meant for audio streaming.
My first foray into USB was the Playback Designs USB-X for my MPS-5. I needed to go this route because on a second Native Pyramix machine that I was using for all my DSD editing for Chesky, I didn't have a viable way of playing the files unless I did a realtime sample rate conversion to 176.4
Enter the realm of USB... Since that time, USB has become more mainstream, I've learned the idiosyncrasies of using different USB cables with my PB and Mytek DAC's. It's a whole new ballgame and some can be pretty finicky.
I've had about 5-6 USB cables in here that have been sent by manufacturers for me to try and the Light Harmonic is the only one that I've actually wanted to buy and keep in my system.
The Light Harmonic USB cable comes in 2 forms, single and split. I have the split USB cable and don't ask me what is "split" since I haven't a clue. I thought it was some marketing propaganda.
Let me tell you this cable made me change my mind about digital signal cables. There was no change in instrument timbres or anything in the frequency domain. What did change for me was 2 things. First thing I noticed was the noise level. USB connections in computers, especially laptops are notoriously bad with lots of noise and traffic on the same bus. This is the only cable that was dead silent. No picking up of cell phones, other software programs, wireless keyboard/mouse movements or anything! The brochure says this is a differential USB 2.0 (10Gbit) cable, whatever that means. All I know is it works.
Second thing I noticed was differences in the time domain, the way the spatial information was conveyed. The imaging was better and the soundstage took on another 10'. It's not magnitudes of change, but if I had to put a % on it, it would be about a .5 - 1% change. As most know, getting that last 5% is what separates the men from the boys.
The cables are not cheap.
0.8m = $999
1.6m = $1399
3.8m = $1999

The configurations I've been using are:

Toshiba Tecra laptop running WinXP, Pyramix DSD Native
MacBook running Audirvana+
Desktop running Win7 Pro 64-bit with HQPlayer

Here are a couple of photos.


View attachment 10933 View attachment 10934 View attachment 10935

Bruce did you try that cable with your Mytek dac

 

[Larry Ho]

Hi, Bruce

It looks like quite some people agree with you...
Like Steven Plaskin.
http://www.audiostream.com/content/light-harmonic-lightspeed-usb-cable

Thanks for your feedback.

Larry/ Light Harmonic

 

[Bruce B]

Bruce did you try that cable with your Mytek dac

Yes, the Mytek was connected to the MacBook running Audirvana+

 

[dallasjustice]

There will always be reflections, on USB, since the "RX" end is never terminated, until it becomes the "TX" end. USB is not the same as spdif. Asynchronous USB is not trying to recover clock data sent. Cable reflections are built into the USB protocol.

Hi, Jeff

This is a very good question. And actually maybe need a lot of people, more than us to do more exploration. Some parameter's impact should be easier to find, some should not.

In the test report, we make the regulation especially tight. For example, 90Ohm impedance is the USB cable standard. So for example, if one cable only has 70 characteristic impedance, and it will cause impedance mismatch. So in the beginning and end of this USB cable will generate reflection of digital square waves. It will interfere/cancel/enhance the original signal which will make USB sender IC and
receiver IC work hard to correct it. The correction process at least will create jitter, the worse case, will create error... (e.g. 1 become 0, or 0 become 1)

So in the test report and my point of view, digital related parameters, more accurate to its original specs it should be, the better. For analog related one, it needs a lot of experiments.
Impedance needs to be as close as possible to 90Ohm. When there is a very close to perfect match. I think what Bruce found in sound quality improvement will show up. Timing accuracy, more natural and spectral information correctness.

Hope this helps!

Larry

 

[Priaptor]

The best one I've tried so far is the Light Harmonic

Bruce,

I recently got one for audition. I have to say this is the MOST bizarre cable I have ever tried. I have learned my lesson with cables and understand the "burn in" process, but this one was unique. When I first plugged it in, my impression was "this sucks" and was ready to give it back from where it came. From past experience I said, let it just play. I have never in my long audiophile life heard such a transition as with this cable. There is no doubt this cable is different and I really like the direction it is going after having it for about a weeks worth of playing time.

However, buyer beware, the spacers DO make a difference and be prepared for a "burn in" process like you have never experience.

 

[Bruce B]

Bruce,

I recently got one for audition. I have to say this is the MOST bizarre cable I have ever tried. I have learned my lesson with cables and understand the "burn in" process, but this one was unique. When I first plugged it in, my impression was "this sucks" and was ready to give it back from where it came. From past experience I said, let it just play. I have never in my long audiophile life heard such a transition as with this cable. There is no doubt this cable is different and I really like the direction it is going after having it for about a weeks worth of playing time.

However, buyer beware, the spacers DO make a difference and be prepared for a "burn in" process like you have never experience.

That's why I have a seperate system just for this. I have music going 24/7 because I'm always burning something.

Glad you liked it!

 

[Ronm1]

^
^ Cable/ component cookin, an audio hobby offshoot

 

[Priaptor]

That's why I have a seperate system just for this. I have music going 24/7 because I'm always burning something.

Glad you liked it!

Clearly THE MOST UNIQUE cable I have ever used!

Where it is now compared to where it started is pretty amazin.