xyzzy1

once you have a $100k system and hear what cables can do you’ll want $20k of that to go to into cables (and power conditioners, etc). it’s definitely cheaper to be ignorant.

Much agreed (and in my case its Pass Labs.. :-) ). This is the fun of this hobby. There is no gear that gets 100% right and we have choices based on our preferences. Thats where our discussions should be! In the end perhaps until we get to some level of holographic sound (like a Star Trek holodeck!) we will always have to choose between flavors and what we like.

On your note on "If you're trying to 'understand' what the musicians are doing...." I think we are saying the same thing and why I used the term "artistry of the musicians" which means anything the musicians (& producers) do I want to hear what they intended including pre and post work to the recorded sound. However, I will add, if I am going to do a critical auditory critique of an audio system or component I will pick recordings which are comprised of sounds that I have a reference for in real life like unamplified human voice and unamplified acoustical instruments. There are no shortage of natural sounding recordings though they are much harder to come by with more modern music where the panacea now is to distort the voice and instruments and add sonic effects. So I trust that if an audio system can do well with acoustic sounds it will also do well with effects that have been added. Of course I would also listen to effects laden music, they are fun after all, but would not be a big part my criteria for selecting an audio component.

Not when the opinion comes from someone with no experience. That is the consistent theme for the audio cable, et al naysayers.... no experience listening to any high end audio.

I agree with you on this from my personal experience. I have an audiophile friend who loves music from the 30's 40's. Listening to 78's and older 33's on his high end system can reveal a lot of the artistry and gestalt of the musicians that comes through all the crackling and limited bandwidth.

the true honest audiophile is listening to music on their expensive audio equipment and trying to get a more intimate experience of the artistry of the musicians. As with any hobby there are plenty of charlatans who buy expensive audio equipment because they can and then listen to vapid pop or the same few tracks because it sounds spectacular and loud. Honest audiophiles thank these folks for helping keep the high end companies alive :-). This same happens with wine where there are plenty of wine snobs who couldn't tell the difference between boxed wine and some fine wine but are wealthy enough to spend insane amounts of money on wines that others report are great. Honest wine lovers probably hate them for jacking up prices. Same for cars, food, or pretty much any hobby venue.

Not at all true in my experience, good audio components of any combination reveals differences in cables. The better the audio components are the more pronounced are differences that can be heard between cables by a careful well seasoned listener.

People who are critically and carefully and repeatedly listening to high end audio equipment can hear that there are differences in cables of all kinds. It takes at least an entry level high end audio system and lots listening to favorite songs. It's then that one can notice the subtle nuances and differences. Expensive is not best and many cheaper cables sound quite good. If you are not sweating to hear every detail in your audio system then, yes, any cable will do.

Hello, Thought I would post my experience with this plug. While I am a fan of Furutech products and find their DIY cables and plugs make a huge positive difference in my mid-level high end audio system this particular plug is a dud. In my use in a DIY cable (using Furutech male plug and Furutech power cable) I let this break in for over a month and found the sound to be grainy and a bit harsh. This became quite apparent when I substituted the FI-68 with a Furutech FI-C15 plug. Furutech has discontinued this FI-68 plug (and I got it at a discount). Sorry I did. Love Furutech products, not this one.

Thanks, good write up on your experience with these cables. I am quite convinced that various usb cables are not improving sound but rather it’s a competition of which usb cable is less destructive with electrical noise being attenuated and added by each cable due construction and flaws along with noise electrical noise coming from the source. Source noise can cause the usb cable to react badly and make the noise worse. Have you considered trying a jitterbug or an Ifi iodefender with ifi ipower that can replace the source usb power? These helped quite a bit when I was playing with usb cables. In the end I moved to using an optical cable which was a significant leap forward in sound quality over any usb combination I tried.

no it’s not. Please use this thing called the internet to look up dealers. Thecableco.com does loaners and Audioadvisor.com offers 30 day return just to name a couple.

Thank you... thank you... thank you...! I have had so many similar discussions On circuitry that’s involved and that it’s not so simple as just 1’s and 0’s. It takes careful design of electronics and good cable to reduce electrical noise that will leak into the dac and it’s analogue amp and that there is no perfect isolation.

Feeding a project dac s2+ from a MacBook pro. Tried generic USB cable vs Pangea USB cables, heard differences in amount of edge/harshness in the sound with the Pangea cables being the better, but not by much. Switched to a linear power supply for the dac s2+, that made a pretty big improvement in sound clarity and reduced edge/harness further. Then tried optical cable as the MacBook has optical out in the headphone jack and heard a huge improvement in sound quality with much reduced to almost eliminated edge/harshness and nice added liquidity/naturalness to sound of voice and instruments. No way I'm going back to any USB cable. Strongly recommend moving to optical cable if your setup allows it.

No offense taken and thanks!... I know it and hear it! I am into high-end audio but not yet ready to lay down this kind of coin for digital when the tech is still evolving so rapidly. Every few months brings on new generation of dacs & streamers at all price points with better sonics than the previous. Though, I have spent well more than twice the original price of this Aurender streamer on my turntable! For now I need an inexpensive streamer/dac combo that has passable & engaging sound quality while continuing to await the higher priced dac/streamer gear to evolve to a point where 6 months later is not guaranteed obsolescence. Have been checking the $500 and less price point dacs every year or so. Using the digital coax out from my CD player and listening to the dac would have me returning the dac. Finally a current generation low priced dac that is not digital grating and fatiguing to listen to. The iFi Audio iDefender was a noticeable improvement after I started using a usb computer connection. Hence my post here as the iFi Audio iDefender would be a positive sonics move for anyone using a standard mac/pc computer as the streamer. Someday will be all-in with an investment in digital when it nears or outdoes my turntable. That ain't yet though.

Hey all, been following this thread for awhile.... On cable differences I quickly went to this device 'iFi Audio iDefender3.0 USB Ground Loop Eliminator' because it seemed to me the first act is to eliminate noise from the computer power feeding into the dac. This adapter has a micro usb input which, if plugged in, interrupts the power from the computer and supplies it from your external supply. Using a plugged in external power supply made a huge difference, easy to go back and forth to compare what I heard (plug then unplug). The sound of the music reproduction having an edgy glare was significantly reduced when using the external power supply. I also tried a switching power supply and a linear power supply. The linear power supply was superior with further glare and noise reduction. Could hear more into soundstage. My next step was a *doh* realization that I am using an older macbook and have an optical out. Switched over to optical out and it is far superior to usb. This is how I have the hook up now so I am out of the USB world. So if you have an optical out this would seem to be the way to remove computer electrical noise from getting into your dac. If you don't have the optical out as an option I recommend using the 'iFi Audio iDefender3.0 USB Ground Loop Eliminator' with a linear power supply. It would be interesting to hear if USB cables continue to make a sonic difference once this device is in place and bypassing the computer power,