The Great USB cable debate poll

Not true, it is subject to the exact same issues. There's really no such thing as a "digital" signal, bits are represented by square waves. Many analog signals have no zero crossing either, like a SET amplifier. The zero crossing thing is a minor detail.

I think you are trying to confuse the issue, and I'll say it again... there is no such thing as a "digital" signal.

 

Unfortunately I lack the naiveté to blindly accept - as gospel - "claims" of improvement, sans proof via proper scientific methodology.

 

It was just a very bad battery. Otherwise I believe mostly if it looks like a duck, talks like a duck, etc and if a tree falls in the forest, the first thing we should not think of, is that too many aliens were sitting in it, so it had to fall.

 

Yup, that was point I was trying to covey.

 

Also, did the jury consist of both women and men represented by the same percentage? How many African Americans and native Indians? Was there a court official and were there detailed notes being made? Have the jury been poligraphed?

 

I'm curious, what spectrum analyzer are you using?

I've been doing some testing and may want to compare experiences down the line......

 

I'm currently using an FFT Optical spectrometer. Although it's principally a digital analyzer the oscilloscope is analog, the receiver is unlike many of the earlier FFT models as it uses no down converter.

 

If such factors were relevant to this issue at hand, you would be absolutely correct.

But they are not, therefore you are not.

Obfuscation and irrelevance are often the last refuge of he who cannot defend his argument.

 

I think we give WAY too much of a pass to the "my system is different/more resolving/more revealing" along with the "you don't hear what I hear" schtick. I don't think it's arrogance as such to point out some of the shortcomings of the "yes" view on this USB topic at all.

When you see products like the one Vidiot posted earlier at £3000+ for a USB cable getting wheeled out, then for sure, there's a real need to call some of this stuff out for what it is.

Where do you stop? I dunno. People buy stuff for a whole host of reasons and rightly so, but I have distinct doubts about the capabilities of an expensive USB cable and the consumer who's lashing the cash on this stuff deserves a balance in perspective that's better than some of the tripe that the proponents of some of this stuff claim with their half-baked theories or shaky logic.

When you see a guy being told that X USB cable at £250 will work wonders and it's a topic that not many people can sit and claim expertise over (not least the salesman!), then I for one feel that that consumer deserves better from a forum like this than the usual "yeah, sure, that must be the dog's gonads" when the jury isn't so much out, it left the building for the weekend.

 

Obfuscation has been the preserve of this once great hobby for way too long. Does the consumer no good either.

 

A DC pulse train is not the same as an analog audio signal. If what you say is true, an ethernet cable (for example) would make an acceptable analog interconnect.

I assure you I'm not trying to "confuse the issue". But you seem to be saying that DC pulse trains will universally benefit from technology developed for analog audio interconnects.

Apples and oranges IMHO.

EDIT: Also, USB 2 pulses per second are effectively in the Megahertz range, which is nothing like analog audio.

 

What I would want to do in that case is sometimes the person running the test would pretend to swap the cable, but actually not. As the test is described, with everybody feeling there are differences but unwilling to really stack-rank the different cables, it seems very possible they're just looking for differences because they know the cable is different and thus the sound should be different. I have a feeling some slight of hand and not changing the cable but telling the listeners you did wouldn't result in them saying "Hey, wait a second, this is the same cable!"

 

To acknolwedge that a better cable makes a difference opens a flood gate ... at least folks are consistent.

 

Did you downconvert the high res files to 44/16 and then compare them to the originals?

 

I see it as a logical fallacy. Why would a very, very slight difference of tones effect the way we can hear a slight change, I don´t see it really.

 

For sure - and me too. All my current gear was bought blind, but with at least a 14-day return. The only exception was the AVI Lab Series CD player, but the rest I could send back. I'm going on holiday in the next couple of weeks, but when I get back and post-next payday, plan to check out something in the £50-100 USB line. My main phono cables are £200+ each (Atlas Navigator and Chord Chorus) but I can't readily justify the same spend on a USB wire.

 

First of all, I spent a good bit of time researching best practices for ABX.

What I did was start with one of my own needledrops. Downsample to 44.1kHz, then upsample to the same rate as the original (96, 176.4, or 192 kHz), then compare those. If you compare two different sample rates, you can often tell the DAC is switching, which makes the test not very blind.

 

One person's "acknowledgement" is another's "claim". So far, we've managed to avoid ideological "truth" in this thread.

 

Lol. Really? My Turntable and CD player would disagree and both quite probably be offended. They've never really got along. I've always just written it off to their inherent differences.

 

Yup. we do that all the time. Keeps everyone on there toes. You can't fool a good listener.

 

right because 50 grand speaker cables make a difference on a cheap receiver

 

Yup, the 1s and 0s are converted to a square wave, then back again. Not sure why this is so difficult to understand, but I'm out. This is seeming like a waste of time... you guys have fun.

 

Actually they will make a difference but it won't be worth $50,000.

 

Based on some of the things I've read about high end cables, one would think $50K cables would have an even greater impact on 'cheap' equipment - hey, if they can increase the soundstage on a $250K system, imagine how much of an effect on soundstage these would have on a $1K system!

Instead, we get the opposite argument so as to filter out all the criticisms of those mere mortals with 'lesser' systems because even super-duper diamond-encrusted high-end cables can't help their lowly systems, and no wonder why you can't hear a difference.