Thread: USB cable comparisons

I am currently looking for a USB cable that will fit my system, so I'm not looking for "THE BEST" cable, but the one that will work the best according to my ears.
I'd like to discourage those who do not hear differences in USB cables (or all cables) to post on this thread. I understand and respect your opinions and findings, but we'll have to agree to disagree. As human beings we all have different physical abilities. Some can run long stretches, some are fast swimmers, some are lift heavy weights... you get my point. This also applies to the physical part of listening, too. It's also true that we don't have the same experience (and/or training) in processing the information that our brain receives and, of course, this also applies to listening. So please, PLEASE, let's not let this thread become a discussion about placebo effects vs. hearing and listening disabilities, ok?
A few words about myself (for what it's worth): I have studied classical composition at a University level, have worked as a production consultant on a few albums and work with arrangements for voices, brass and orchestra now and then.

The cables I had the chance to compare were: Resolution Audio Cantata stock USB Cable, AudioQuest Coffee, Wireworld Silver Starlight, Locus Desing Axis and Synergistic Research Basik Active. This is also the sequence in which I listened to them. I will sum up my findings. For those who want are more in-depth description please refer here to my original post in a Brazilian hifi-forum (for those who understand Portuguese or are willing to use Google Translate).

The AQ Coffee definitely didn't do it for me, though it was a very noticeable improvement compared to the stock cable. The name is very fitting: in my system it was very energetic, detailed and fast cable. The major problem was with the HF which was slightly veiled and had severe decay issues (almost no decay whatsoever). Timbres also suffered compared to the other cables. The result was a cable that was very detailed, but that didn't create a cohesive sound stage, resulting in a dissected sound. Therefore I had hyper-layering and very good placement on sound stage, but the music didn't mesh.

The WW Silver Starlight had all the detail of the Coffee, but with far better decay in the HFs. Timbres were better and LFs were stellar. Sound stage was larger, but had less depth than the Coffee. It bettered the Coffee in all regards except for depth and sounded far more natural.

The LD Axis had great LF, but not as good as the Silver Starlight. It had spectacular decay in the HFs, which gave the whole cable a very refined sound. Sound stage was large and spacious. In my system the Axis had good micro-dynamics. The mids, OTOH, were slightly veiled. Higher mids and treble had very good plasticity (for the lack of a better word). Treble is simply SOTA. It's a shame that the mids weren't on par with the HF.

The SR Basik Active's first impression was simply holographic. Sound was very, very 3D. Had similar depth of Coffee, but now I had a continuous and coherent sound stage. LFs were better than Axis, but not as detailed as the Silver Starlight. Excellent timbre all around. Treble decay was very good, but not in the same league as the Axis. Fantastic mids. Clear and clean, very musical and with loads of detail. Probably as fast as the Coffee, but without the negatives. The best tonal balance and, by far, the best mids of the group.

The best cost/benefit cable of the group was, without doubt, the WW Silver Starlight. The SR Basik Active was my favorite, but I'm very interested in getting to know the Platinum, based on what it's smaller sibling did for my system. The fact that I needed an extra outlet for the Basik doesn't make it very appealing to me.
I hope these comments might help point others into the right direction.
Best regards
André

I really really like Kimber Cable's USB Cu cable. All silver is a bit too bright for me, and all copper usually sounds a bit dull. The Cu has 6% silver, oversized conductors, and a decent insulation sheath on it. Sounds really great. Fast, accurate, no extended decay, no truncated decay either.

Cheap too.

Your taste may vary of course, but this really really works well with my system.

-Paul

If your DAC doesn't need to see +5V from the USB port, try fitting a small piece of insulation in the USB socket to prevent pin 1 from sending out +5V to the DAC.
Alex

Mapleshade Audio Clearlink USB (Plus version) - at less than half the price of the Coffee, which I had in my system for months, it was clearly superior. Has some advantages due to not binding power and signal wires close together.

While I solidly belive in the different sound from different cables my computer based system is too basic for me to hear any difference as I am used to hearing in my serious audio system. That said, I wonder if anyone has any experience with the Pangea line of cables? I find the power products to work at least as well as power calbes costing many times more. I can attest to the build quality of every of their product I have seen...

How do their USB cables sound in comparison to the high priced brands??

Did you remove the ferrite cores from the sheath? This is the same cable I've been using (1m), but I've removed the cores. Interestingly, the Ag version doesn't have the RF filters.

Originally Posted by Paul.Raulerson

I really really like

Originally Posted by Paul.Raulerson

Kimber Cable's USB Cu cable. All silver is a bit too bright for me, and all copper usually sounds a bit dull. The Cu has 6% silver, oversized conductors, and a decent insulation sheath on it. Sounds really great. Fast, accurate, no extended decay, no truncated decay either.

Honestly? I don't know- I can make a case for what you say. But pure silver USB cables (here at least) sound brighter and harsher than silver plated cables. I would conjecture that the copper/silver interface provides an environment that mitigates what I call bright, but it is only a conjecture. No proof other than my ears.

Copper cables can sound very bright too, but most of the ones I listened too sounded a bit dull.

-Paul

Originally Posted by Emcee

I was under the impression that silver plated was brighter than solid copper or solid silver. Something to do with the better conductivity of silver over copper and having the signal arriving at two different "times" with the plated. I'm not sure if this applies to USB cables but I've heard solid silver Tempo Electric analog cables that were anything but bright.
I also read on the Audioquest website that a USB signal tends to travel on the surface of the cable which is why their more expensive models have a higher percentage of silver plating.

Originally Posted by Paul.Raulerson

Honestly? I don't know- I can make a case for what you say. But pure silver USB cables (here at least) sound brighter and harsher than silver plated cables. I would conjecture that the copper/silver interface provides an environment that mitigates what I call bright, but it is only a conjecture. No proof other than my ears.

Copper cables can sound very bright too, but most of the ones I listened too sounded a bit dull.

-Paul

None of the pure silver USB cables I have used have sounded"bright", whatever that means. Are you referring to very high frequencies or is it lower high frequencies that sound that way with silver for you?

Originally Posted by Jud

Mapleshade Audio Clearlink USB (Plus version) - at less than half the price of the Coffee, which I had in my system for months, it was clearly superior. Has some advantages due to not binding power and signal wires close together.

Hi Jud,
Thanks for the hint. I'll try to contact them tomorrow and talk to them.

Originally Posted by James1776

While I solidly belive in the different sound from different cables my computer based system is too basic for me to hear any difference as I am used to hearing in my serious audio system. That said, I wonder if anyone has any experience with the Pangea line of cables? I find the power products to work at least as well as power calbes costing many times more. I can attest to the build quality of every of their product I have seen...

How do their USB cables sound in comparison to the high priced brands??

Hi James,
I didn't see any USB cables from Pangea on their site. Where did you hear about them?
Best regards
André

Originally Posted by Paul.Raulerson

I really really like Kimber Cable's USB Cu cable. All silver is a bit too bright for me, and all copper usually sounds a bit dull. The Cu has 6% silver, oversized conductors, and a decent insulation sheath on it. Sounds really great. Fast, accurate, no extended decay, no truncated decay either.

Cheap too.

Your taste may vary of course, but this really really works well with my system.

-Paul

Hi Paul,
Maybe I'll just try to get one on loan from thecableco. It definitely would be fantastic if they could even compete in the same league due to their price.
Best regards
André

Through Maggies, strings take on an artificial hardness that is unpleasant. You know how a violin can sound a bit edgy sometimes? The pure silver cables I tried all made violins sound edgy like that all the time, even over headphones. On the PSBs and Grados, the same thing happens but it also does something that makes all the treble sound a little artificial to me. I call that "bright" but that is probably the wrong term. It could perhaps be described as if the treble was recorded separately and overlayed, not part of the original performance.

That was true with Kimber, AudioQuest Diamond, Pangea, a Voodoo cable, and a few others. In the AudioQuest line, for example, I greatly prefer the Carbon over the Diamond. Cymbals shimmer but don't overwhelm the rest of the music, unless of course, they are supposed to.

Probably just personal preference. I didn't realize that most people heard those cables all the different until just now though.

-Paul

Originally Posted by realhifi

None of the pure silver USB cables I have used have sounded"bright", whatever that means. Are you referring to very high frequencies or is it lower high frequencies that sound that way with silver for you?

Wouldn't sibilance be more like over-emphasized "ess" sounds? Or ess sounds overlaying a glottal stop in some words? If so, that isn't exactly what I am hearing, though actually, I thought it was at first.

More like if you took the ess sound and separated it by a few inches from the rest of the music. Instead of precise localization of an instrument like a violin - it sounds (in a very small way, not grossly exaggerated!) like there are are two violins. Or the shimmer in a cymbal crash is six inches away from where the cymbal sounded.

It's weird, and difficult to describe.

-Paul


-Paul

Originally Posted by mayhem13

The term you might be associating with what you're experiencing is sibilance.

I like the DH Labs Silver Sonic USB cable. Well made, sounds good, reasonable price.

I think the idea with silver plated wires is that due to skin effects conduction primarily occurs along the boundary with if plated in Ag gets you closer to silver performance at near copper pricing.

Nate Mansfield from Kimber suggested removing the ferrite RF filters from the USB cable if you don't have RF issues.

Whenever you eliminate the impossible- whatever is left, no matter how improbable....

The sound changes with different USB cables. Go figger- because I sure cannot. By the way, the cables *all* test perfectly well electrically, and all work perfectly well as data cables. But as audio cables....

On the other paw, probably should get someone with better ears to describe the effect. Other folks clearly hear a difference in my system when I change out USB cables. What exactly they hear, well, that now, I do not know.

-Paul

Originally Posted by mayhem13

If it's different than sibilance, one might make the case that it's distortion of some sort and obviously in a narrow range of the freq spectrum. It would be hard to attribute that to a change in USB cables as such a change would suggest manipulation of the actual bit structure.

The only other cause I can think of is input signal mismatch where the reference voltage of the waveform is greater than the waveform standard OR a poor ground. Either case is not likely but admittedly........possible.......but so are aliens and flying elephants so...

Originally Posted by reverendo

Hi Jud,
Thanks for the hint. I'll try to contact them tomorrow and talk to them.


Hi James,
I didn't see any USB cables from Pangea on their site. Where did you hear about them?
Best regards
André

Audio advisor sells them..

Pangea Audio - USB cable - PCOCC & 4% silver-Audio Advisor

In my system I have had an AQ Forest, Nordost Blue Heaven, and custom USB cable. Overall I preferred the Nordost. It seemed to be the most clear allowing me to hear detail that I did not in the others.

Mind you the level of detail difference was very small, and the Nordost was more expensive (double the custom) than the other cables. The best bang for the buck was the custom cable at half the cost of the Nordost and very close to the same level.

If I had to do it again, I would still go for the Nordost simply because it was the best and even at $249 still in the range of the components I was using.