Supra 2.0 vs. Wireworld Ultraviolet 7 USB 2.0 (6')

[DancingSea]

Not wanting to go too far down the rabbit hole, and after reading many posts in the forums regarding USB cables, I would appreciate any feedback regarding these two options.

 

What HiFi loves the Supra, was unable to find professional reviews of the Ultraviolet 7.  Supra is $51, the Ultraviolet 7 is $60.

 

Mahalos!

[wwaldmanfan]

I own both of these USB cables. The Wireworld is a pretty purple color. The Supra is boring white. Sonically, I don't hear a difference.

[DancingSea]

Did you see a SQ improvement over the non audio el cheapo USB cables?

[jos]

I believe the Supra cable is light blue or ice blue, as they say. I have chosen for the Supra, because I needed 8 meter. Normally a USB cable could not be longer then 5 meter, but the supra's are having a very good isolation. I also asked the owner of the USB Regen company and he advised me the Supra for impedance reason. Last but not least, the review in What HiFi. I am quite happy with this cable and for some weeks ago, I also bought the Supra cat8 cable. 

[jos]

3 minutes ago, DancingSea said:

Did you see a SQ improvement over the non audio el cheapo USB cables?

I would not advise you to buy a cheap printer cable, just a good quality cable not to expensive, like te Supra's. It will give you peace of mind.

[jos]

This site is quite cheap I believe:

 

http://www.av-connection.com/?PGr=5578

[jos]

I just saw this review:

 

http://www.jenving.com/pdf/hm1311_USB-test_swedish.pdf

[DancingSea]

8 minutes ago, jos said:

I would not advise you to buy a cheap printer cable, just a good quality cable not to expensive, like te Supra's. It will give you peace of mind.

 

Thanks for the feedback.  Yes, I have an el cheapo USB cable now.  Time to replace.

 

I'm in Hawaii, so a European Supra dealer may be impractical on the shipping.  Have had a hard time finding Supra for sale in the USA, just one listing on eBay with an ugly white cable.  If anyone knows of a US Supra dealer, preferably with good prices, please share.

 

The Wireworld does look better, no way around that....

[DancingSea]

9 minutes ago, jos said:

I just saw this review:

 

http://www.jenving.com/pdf/hm1311_USB-test_swedish.pdf

 

My Swedish extends only as far as the Swedish Chef on the Muppets taught....

[jos]

Perhaps you could use Google translate.

I speak Dutch, so very difficult too.

[jos]

This is a very good shop in the UK, very reliable.

 

http://www.futureshop.co.uk

 

I always bought my cables there, and there are planes to Hawaij.

[DancingSea]

2 minutes ago, jos said:

Perhaps you could use Google translate.

I speak Dutch, so very difficult too.

 

I tried in Chrome, but Google didn't seem interested in pdf.  Have done it with good success for webpages though.  I'm confident the Supra is a great cable.  Given how much better the Wirewold looks, wondering if its just as good.  wwwaldman fan seems to confirm, so may give it a try... my setup is where the fashion police have great sway....

[DancingSea]

13 minutes ago, jos said:

This is a very good shop in the UK, very reliable.

 

http://www.futureshop.co.uk

 

I always bought my cables there, and there are planes to Hawaij.

 

A very keen observation ??

 

But once conversation of pounds to dollars and shipping to Hawaii is included, Futureshop is more than Amazon. 

 

Hawaii is very far from jolly old England ?

[kilroy]

USA

https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/cables-and-interconnects/

[oneguy]

19 hours ago, DancingSea said:

 

Thanks for the feedback.  Yes, I have an el cheapo USB cable now.  Time to replace.

 

I'm in Hawaii, so a European Supra dealer may be impractical on the shipping.  Have had a hard time finding Supra for sale in the USA, just one listing on eBay with an ugly white cable.  If anyone knows of a US Supra dealer, preferably with good prices, please share.

 

The Wireworld does look better, no way around that....

I bought my Supra cable on eBay about a month ago from "zendada." Good guy to work with and sells a lot of Supra products. 

[jcn3]

On 3/22/2017 at 5:42 PM, DancingSea said:

Not wanting to go too far down the rabbit hole, and after reading many posts in the forums regarding USB cables, I would appreciate any feedback regarding these two options.

 

What HiFi loves the Supra, was unable to find professional reviews of the Ultraviolet 7.  Supra is $51, the Ultraviolet 7 is $60.

 

Mahalos!

@wwaldmanfan has his supra and wireworld usb cables for sale in the classifieds . . . .

[jos]

On 22-3-2017 at 11:35 PM, jos said:

This is a very good shop in the UK, very reliable.

 

http://www.futureshop.co.uk

 

I always bought my cables there, and there are planes to Hawaij.

 

On 22-3-2017 at 11:26 PM, DancingSea said:

 

My Swedish extends only as far as the Swedish Chef on the Muppets taught....

I did a translation; there a 3 very good cables in this review (Audioquest, Nordost & Supra). The supra is having the best price-quality. I don't like the light or ice blue color too, but mine is for a great part under my wooden floor.

[HardrockInMiniMac]

I agree with the above notion that they all sound pretty much the same. Especially since my Amp does all the resampling and room correction. I have had samples of USB cables here for testing between 50 and 500 bucks and cannot tell the difference, I might not even need my iFi stuff and one of my Audioquest cables would do. So I would recommend to go for a good USB cable in the 50-100 bucks range if not going down the hardcore tweaking path...

 

Chris

[DancingSea]

25 minutes ago, HardrockInMiniMac said:

I agree with the above notion that they all sound pretty much the same. Especially since my Amp does all the resampling and room correction. I have had samples of USB cables here for testing between 50 and 500 bucks and cannot tell the difference, I might not even need my iFi stuff and one of my Audioquest cables would do. So I would recommend to go for a good USB cable in the 50-100 bucks range if not going down the hardcore tweaking path...

 

Chris

 

Sound advice, pun sort of intended.  I'm out the door in the $60 range, whew...

[GUTB]

I own the Supra cable, which I use in my reference system, connecting a Paul Pang V3 card to a LKS bridge. I actually haven't gotten around to testing it against a generic USB cable.

 

Supra's thing is that they eschew special technologies and materials for just building a cable that is well-shielded and strictly complies to 90 Ohms (for USB). I see their cables as a "trustworthy quality baseline" against which to test against more advanced cables.

 

As for the lower end Wireworlds and AudioQuests, I doubt they do anything special compared to generic cables.

[skatbelt]

7 hours ago, HardrockInMiniMac said:

I agree with the above notion that they all sound pretty much the same. Especially since my Amp does all the resampling and room correction. I have had samples of USB cables here for testing between 50 and 500 bucks and cannot tell the difference, I might not even need my iFi stuff and one of my Audioquest cables would do. So I would recommend to go for a good USB cable in the 50-100 bucks range if not going down the hardcore tweaking path...

 

Chris

 

Hi Chris, you might want to try an external DAC because that function of your Lyngdorf is the weakest part. Really, night and day if you get something in the 2k region and above. Another option is to experiment with a converter (reclocker) like the Mutec MC-3 + USB to fight the mediocre USB-implementation of your amp. I own the predecessor of the TDAI-2170 and love it for all other qualities (amp, roomperfect, crossover etc.). With a higher standard you will notice that USB-cables will make a (huge) difference.

[HardrockInMiniMac]

Hi, I would disagree so far: 

I have external DACs at home and none of them beats the USB board that comes with the TDAI-2170. There is actually no DAC in my TDAI either, it is fully digital end to end. I have stopped upsampling and all the other software tweaking as the TDAI resamples everything to 24/96 regardless the little helpers. This could also be the reason why they do not make sonic difference, I currently selling all of the Uptone gear and might also sell iFi. 

 

Don't know about the qualities of the predecessor but its technology might be outdated for many years. But I will keep on testing "high standard DACs" throughout the coming years and in the meantime I have the best SQ ever in my HIFI-career ;-)) and so be it.

 

Chris

[skatbelt]

1 hour ago, HardrockInMiniMac said:

Hi, I would disagree so far: 

I have external DACs at home and none of them beats the USB board that comes with the TDAI-2170. There is actually no DAC in my TDAI either, it is fully digital end to end. I have stopped upsampling and all the other software tweaking as the TDAI resamples everything to 24/96 regardless the little helpers. This could also be the reason why they do not make sonic difference, I currently selling all of the Uptone gear and might also sell iFi. 

 

Don't know about the qualities of the predecessor but its technology might be outdated for many years. But I will keep on testing "high standard DACs" throughout the coming years and in the meantime I have the best SQ ever in my HIFI-career ;-)) and so be it.

 

Chris

 

Hi Chris,

Your TDAI-2170 is a powerDAC just like mine. The predecessor (the TDAI-2200) is the same technology and actually a little better because it has more power and a beefier and higher quality power supply. It only lacks USB-input and some extra features in the DSP engine. I had them side by side and decided to keep the 2200 for sound quality. I was told that an important reason to stop production was that the costs to make it was to high for a good profit margin. Don't get me wrong, the 2170 is still a fabulous and unique product. The only point I wanted to make is that it's ability to render a digital signal to a very musical experience is not on the level of the higher end DAC's. Borrow a Chord HUGO for instance, connect it to the analogue inputs of your TDAI and you will hear what I mean. Even with the extra ADC.

 

I agree - if you feed your TDAI digital - it is best to keep native resolutions. I am not a fan of software based upsampling. I don't understand your statement on Uptone products because they function in the streamer side of things and the higher the signal quality in this part, the better.

[HardrockInMiniMac]

I closed the "more power" gap by adding the SDA-2400 and that gives me plenty of power to drive any of my speaker pairs. I agree that the TDAI standalone did not have enough power. 

 

I have tested the Uptone Regen +LPS vs. the iFi iUSB3.0 and found the latter somewhat better but only subtle.

 

Lyngdorf advised (of course they do, no need to tell me) to get everything out of the signal path, just a decent USB cable from the MacMini to the USB input and that's it. Going forth and back over hours I can say that with my gear in my room I could not for sure tell what is on and what is off in a blind test (Regen/no Regen, iFi, different USB cables). In that case I usually go with the least amount of boxes and cables in the chain. 

 

I am not interested in Chord Hugo, I was about to buy a Shiit Yggdrasil but they were not on stock. At some point in the future I will have the opportunity to test one of these highend DACs and up until then I am very happy with what I have got. And by the way, the analogue board that I ordered with the TDAI is a match made in heaven with my Rega gear. This is a lot more important to me than the last 2-3% on the digital end.

 

Chris

[Panelhead]

  I used a Dac with a Room Perfect chip and function. It worked better when all inputs were fed with 96/24 files.

  The 2170 may have a better resampler than that Dac. Pure Music resampling was much improved over hardware. 

  Back on topic, the Supra exceeds normal USB cable length limitations. A 1 - 2 meter Supra cable should do less damage than a normal cable.