The Great USB cable debate poll

Also, clearly, the future is digital ( and the future is pretty much now).

And there is a class of audiophiles that just don't understand digital. On a fundamental level. Cause they can't tweak it.

And that's fine, but applying an analog perspective to digital tech just does not apply. And, to be clear, if you think that digital audio is represented by a graph that looks like a staircase - I mean you.

 

Just because you may not hear a difference in your kit, or an engineer can't explain it with science, does not mean that something like a USB cable can not have a sonic effect.

Whether it reduces the noise floor and/or slightly changes the tone or color of the signal it effects the sonic result.

I am in the minority here on this one but, I have heard these cables and their particular personalities.

They do effect the sonic result on a highly resolved kit, just like an unlikely mains cable (power cord).

Everything matters.

Happy Listening!

 

Are you saying that if I splurge on the $1000 USB cable I'll get laid more?

 

...and artists never prejudge their fellow man either.

 

Like I was saying ; perceived wisdom. Tch.

 

So long as @Gary has apparently sanctioned some trolling in this thread (be nice indeed!), I will say that my experience with some artists is that they are narcissistic and often suffer from a myopic worldview.

But I fail to see what a grandiose, self-proclaimed artists' diatribe comparing engineers to garbage men has to do with USB cables. Could it just be a long winded way of proclaiming his awesomeness?

And how is it not thread crapping?

 

Do not believe everything you read. That is the point of this discussion.

If we allow that such changes actually do exist on the infinitesimal levels that we are discussing, the question remains whether human auditory abilities can make that distinction.

And this is before discussing the fundamentally flawed manner in which such comparisons are made in the vast majority of cases: Ie, trying to remember what everything sounded like before the swap cable swap was made. Meaningful evaluations simply cannot be made in such a manner.

 

Not in my experience, or methodology and not something I just read somewhere. As I acknowledged, in your kit, and your experience perhaps you find no distinguishable repeatable difference. I can respect how that might be the case. But I'm not here to argue a case, just sharing my experience and impressions, AND the cables we swapped, in the system I was familiar with, were clearly unique in their portrayal of music, without question. Was it worth the cable price? That's for each of us to decide.

Your mileage (and opinion) may very. Happy Listening!

 

I'm almost speechless. I don't know whether to clap or to cry.

And Apple is the very definition of "consumer crap". Mass produced phones that the masses have eaten up. And I love my iPhone, but they are made for the everyman to use, even though a ton of attention is paid to detail.

And if you'd rather be with the "artists", don't pretend to know things you refuse to understand. There is an irrefutable scientific reason why people are saying "bits are bits" and "it's there or it's not". The cable itself is only a transmission medium. Waving your hand and poo-pooing the science behind it because "you hear a difference" is ignorant. This isn't the weather, computers aren't looking for a perfect storm or the stars to align. These systems are designed so that a perfect signal gets sent through... or it just doesn't. There's no two ways about it.

 

When will this thread pass square one. It seems sometimes that it does, but this is just an illusion, as the next poster will proclaim he indeed hears a difference, it is always 'audiophile' differences, and apparently very few are actually reading the thread. I´m no doubt a bit sceptical there will be more than this.
Also I find some rather rude, and not really contributing with anything.

 

A USB cable cannot reduce the noise floor or the tone or color of a digital signal. At the time that data is passing through the cable, it is not music. It is data. The receiving end decodes that signal, and the A/D converter is the first thing to touch what you hear as music. That's the end of it. Digital cables do not have "personalities".

 

I respectfully find your theory incorrect to my experience, but whatever. You can pick apart my choice of words to explain what I hear, but it doesn't change the reality of my experience.

 

It's not a "theory". It was designed that way and is implemented to a standard. It's not different simply because of the conduit. I'm sorry, but that's just how it works.

 

This is not his 'theory', VinylRob.

 

As USB DAC technology continues to improve, none of the problems that audiophile USB cables claim to solve will exist.

 

I respect that that may be your experience.

Happy Listening!?

 

That is really the question, so far they are only claims, and we should not confuse that with actually solving anything, even as of now. One could get the impression that they actually are solving anything from Your writing.

 

Responses like this tickle me. You're basically telling someone that 2+2 equals 5.

 

I'm not sure why I keep coming back to this thread but I have been.

Lesson learned: get a USB cable that is not defective and call it a day.

 

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/tvs-...-cables-make-no-difference-the-absolute-proof

Here's a test that explains how expensive HDMI cables were tested with cheap ones -- all had identical output. They used MD5 hashing to verify that each image was bit-perfect and the same test could be applied to digital data sent through USB cables.

 

Me neither it's a bit like a car wreck I can't look away.

In conclusion I will just leave you with this bit of advice - the easiest way to sell someone a map is to first convince them they are hopelessly lost.

 

Oh, my! I would never do that.

 

But you've told me several times that that's what you believe, and you don't care what evidence is presented to the contrary.

 

From my own experience, isolating the power supply leads from the data leads will improve performance of DACs that are susceptible to clocking issues from ground plane noise. And some cables claim to isolate those signals. A USB hub with a very low noise power supply (like the Schiit Wyrd) will make such cables superfluous. And if the data leads have noise from the PC power supply, no cable will filter that out.

A far better approach is a DAC design that doesn't have this vulnerability. And those DACs are becoming more and more ubiquitous.

 

Please don´t make this personal, VinylRob seems like a nice guy. Many, many are not aware of how rigorous you really must be to be able to tell a difference, this is not unique.