Recommended USB B cable to connect PC to DAC for Lossless and Hi Res?

You don't need the higher speed of USB3, the 480 Mbps of USB 2 is already overkill for most audio.

As for cables, provided they are certified to work at the speeds and length, it is up to the DAC to ensure that there are no audio differences (if there are, the problem lies in the DAC). So, for 5 quid you can get this:

AmazonBasics USB 2.0 Printer Type Cable - A-Male to B-Male-16 Feet (4.8 Meters): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

 

I bought an ifi headphone amp with USB connection and it sounded fine. Decided to upgrade the USB cable to a Supra USB 2.0 Type A to Type B Cable and it is a great improvement using the AKG K240DF headphones. Much more detailed information, clearer vocals and wider soundstage. Money well spent imho....

 

I have one of these between my Schiit Bifrost 2 and my PC: https://www.amazon.com/Analysis-Plus-Purple-Audiophile-Quality/dp/B0193WOSAI

I didn't buy mine from Amazon but from the cable company. Same price for 1.5 meters. Works for me.

 

Nice. I keep reading good things about Analysis Plus. Gonna have to give them a try soon.

 

I had a used 10 ft. run of their Oval 9 speaker cables I bought from a dealer. They were in excellent condition. Really liked those cables. Up until recently I used Analysis Plus Power Ovals on all of my gear. They've gotten expensive since I bought my first Power Oval in 2007. I think they've tripled in price. For 1.5 meters at $99, the Purple Plus is a very nice USB cable. 1 meter is $79 and a 2 meter cable is around $130.

 

QED USB cables in my experience are excellent quality and value for money....round £30/40 depending on length, readily available on Amazon.

 

Fun read: Do USB Audio Cables Make A Difference?

 

Here's the video to go along with the article:

 

It is possible to cause USB cables to have measurable problems and issues if you do things like have the cable make a sharp bend, or you squeeze the cable, or bang on it with a rubber mallet. The geometry and twisted pairs of the wires inside the cable matters. The good cables will have stronger and stiffer housing and material to keep the wire geometry and twisted pairs in place even has sharp bends or gets squeezed.

 

Lest anyone think this thread is someone still looking for an answer - it was bumped as the first post by a new user who chimed in with a retailer link - and silly claims of clearer vocals etc. Who then bumped five other threads. And was last seen 45 minutes later.

I can run 8-in 8-out 96/24 over USB 2.

USB 2.0, High Speed USB 480Mb, uses the same cable as USB 1 from 1998. A USB 2.0 logo cable is simply one that meets a more thorough testing specification from a trademark-licensed manufacturer. USB 2.0 Cable and Connector Class Document | USB-IF

If there was an unrecoverable, unretransmittable error in the stream, it would be the loss of 512 bytes. Not a coloration of the sound. An error would be detected:



USB isn't going to give up with an error, though. from Intel EHCI specification, 2002:



And multiple assurance layers on top of that, such as the USB host class driver or manufacturer drivers for ASIO, etc...


The data is packetized, buffered, reassembled, reclocked, sync'd. It isn't going to be your source of digital audio "jitter", except if the end product is poorly designed and conducts shielding interference to internal signal ground - in which case the better-constructed cable may be worse.

A USB C/3.0 mini connector (like new phones) on an audio device gives assurance that old cables aren't used - but audio probably doesn't use the added super-speed conductors anyway.

Read a "simple" overview, and quickly be dissuaded of such notions of timbre being subtly affected: USB Made Simple - Part 6

 

USB cables are not audio cables.

 

Amazon Basics. Seriously, well made cables. Don't ignore them.

Looking forward to hopefully Linus using his cable spec tester on some supposedly 'high end cables' in the near future. FAIL!

 

Yes remember folks, USB was designed by people way smarter than anyone in the hi-fi industry. Seriously. This is stuff that has to work to spec across a far range of applications from domestic to military to aviation and medical. Not just to make "the vocals sound more forward in the mix".

 

Like Vacuum tubes?

 

Came slightly before the "hi-fi industry". As for way smarter, you can read: Lee de Forest - Wikipedia (three years of post-grad at Yale's Sheffield Scientific School before expelled for causing a blackout, then PhD.)

 

Can you imagine early ICBM's full of vacuum tubes?!? The Tens or Hundreds of thousands of vacuum tubes it takes to keep an Aircraft carrier running. The US put a stop to it in the late 60's into the early 70's but Russia continued their usage into the 80's!

 

Yes. You'll hear anomalies in poor USB cables like this one:
DEMO & MEASUREMENTS: What does a bad USB (or other digital audio) cable sound like?

Otherwise, bit perfect is bit perfect.

 

Not your grandfather's vacuum tubes ...

Scientists Are Bringing Back Vacuum Tubes for Computers of the Future

Air Force awards FIU $4.2 million to research vacuum nanoelectronics for advanced communication systems | FIU News - Florida International University

Can you say Traveling Wave Tube (TWT)?

WHAT ARE TRAVELING WAVE TUBES? - Elcon Precision LLC

TWTs and 3D Printing: Aerospace Puts a New Twist to an Old Classic | The Aerospace Corporation

Or how about microwave tubes? Microwave tubes are a type of vacuum tube that generate and amplify high frequency microwave signals from 300 MHz to 300 GHz. They can generate high output power levels from a few hundred watts to more than 10 MW. Microwave tubes are commonly used in military radar, electronic warfare, civilian radar-like weather detection and highway collision avoidance systems.

 

USB cables for audio use are going to be bit perfect unless you're using a really poor quality cable. The data sent to the DAC is going to be the same 1s and 0s and the same data packets over a $5 USB cable and a $200 USB cable. Any sonic differences between a cheap cable and expensive cable aren't due to data packets changing or being corrupted.

The issues that more expensive USB cables are trying to fix are things about electrical noise and other noise getting into the DAC from the cable and USB connectors. For example, keeping electrical noise from a computer out of the DAC.

Ideally the DAC would have heroic galvanic isolation and shielding and the quality of the USB cable wouldn't matter at all. Ideally the source USB ports would all have clean power and heroic noise isolation. Ideally a lot of things would be done right and the quality of the USB cable wouldn't matter. But systems are rarely ideal.

I don't buy expensive USB cables. I do try to use USB cables that are good enough or a little bit better than good enough. Spending a lot of money on a USB cable doesn't make sense for my budget and system. I'd rather put the money towards better DDC converters or better streamers that integrate better DDC or better USB inputs on the DAC and things like that. But if someone already has good digital components and DDCs and such and has the discretionary budget to buy expensive USB cables then that's fine. I don't care how they spend their money. I don't care if they choose to drink $50 wine instead of $15 wine with diner every night if they have the budget and appreciate the more expensive wines.

 

Curious evolved. Sounding better every day. I’m using these primarily for playing ripped sacds through foobar to direct stream dac. I splurged but what the hell