Do USB cables make a difference?

[Ismael Betancourt]

Hello everybody, this is my first posting. I am by nature a very pragmatic and driven by facts. So off course the cable issue is very interesting to me. Anyway I just came across an article from "positive feedback" about USB cables and the author decided to ask HIFI cable makers about the issue. What do you think? My only issue is that why ask just only cable makers if the make a difference. What are they going to say no? I guess the main question too is that if they make a difference does it have to cost hundreds or thousands.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Fact: No honest usb cable would ever cost "hundreds"
However there are small variations in quality which could be important, but as it's not about better sound quality, it's pretty much a Black or White situation - the cable ether works for you or it doesn't.
For shorter runs - even cheapest usb cables usually A ok, but for longer runs (typically at or exceeding the 16ft max length of USB spec) things might get more finicky and you'd want to buy higher quality cord.
But we talking extra $10-20, not hundreds.
I recommend go with product which has most amazon reviews.

 

[herbu]

My USB cable makes a HUUUUUGE difference!!! With it, I can connect my phone to computer, phone to charger, camera to computer, computer to printer, and on and on. It is truly magical!

 

[Midwesthonky]

USB cables are a bit different from audio cables. Audio cables just transmit the audio signal. So really bad audio cables will impact sound quality. But there really isn't a difference between decent and expensive audio cables.

It is different for USB cables. USB cables also transmit the power to run your device (for the sake of this, I will refer to the device as a phone from here on out) and to recharge the battery of your phone. So a really cheap knock-off USB cable can transmit too much power and damage or even fry your phone/phone battery. I would be cautious on USB cables for connecting your phone and go with ones that are well reviewed and/or have a trusted brand name. You don't need ones that are crazy expensive, but the ones for $2 made by some Chinese company you never heard of...I would tend to avoid.

 

[slipperybidness]

USB cables are a bit different from audio cables. Audio cables just transmit the audio signal. So really bad audio cables will impact sound quality. But there really isn't a difference between decent and expensive audio cables.

It is different for USB cables. USB cables also transmit the power to run your device (for the sake of this, I will refer to the device as a phone from here on out) and to recharge the battery of your phone. So a really cheap knock-off USB cable can transmit too much power and damage or even fry your phone/phone battery. I would be cautious on USB cables for connecting your phone and go with ones that are well reviewed and/or have a trusted brand name. You don't need ones that are crazy expensive, but the ones for $2 made by some Chinese company you never heard of...I would tend to avoid.

+1

I will also add......I don't use USB for audio if I can get around it.

 

[Chu Gai]

Hello everybody, this is my first posting. I am by nature a very pragmatic and driven by facts. So off course the cable issue is very interesting to me. Anyway I just came across an article from "positive feedback" about USB cables and the author decided to ask HIFI cable makers about the issue. What do you think? My only issue is that why ask just only cable makers if the make a difference. What are they going to say no? I guess the main question too is that if they make a difference does it have to cost hundreds or thousands.

I would hazard to say none of those companies are actually makers or manufacturers of cables but buy from outside suppliers who provide the requisite customization be it color, the type of wire, shielding, requisite branding, etc. For short runs, the extra costs need to be absorbed in the selling price. Note that you'll rarely find cable mangers fighting among themselves and there's quite a simple reason for this. They're all stealing from the same people. If you feel your present cables stink, I recommend smearing some Vagisil on them.

 

[Chu Gai]

Here's some thoughts by his wife, Carol Clark.

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue1/beltpen.htm

Cut from the same cloth.

 

[jinjuku]

Here is what John Siau of BenchMark Audio has to say on the matter.

This is a post of his from Mark Waldreps sight realhd-audio.com:

"
This is John Siau, VP and Director of Engineering at Benchmark Media Systems, Inc.

I can confirm that we do not recommend purchasing high-priced USB, AES, or Optical cables to achieve an improvement in the sound.

When we introduced the DAC1 in 2002 we published detailed FFT plots that compared the performance of the DAC1 connected with two different cables: Cable 1 was a high-quality 2-foot long balanced AES cable and Cable 2 was 1000 feet of CAT 5e cable. Both produced the same results at the output of the DAC1 because the DAC1 has near-perfect jitter attenuation (see page 36 of the DAC1 manual). This plot confirms that the sound did not change when 1000 feet of generic CAT 5e wire replaced the short high-quality AES cable.

However, I should point out that the 1000 foot cable really put the DAC1 jitter attenuation system to the test. This is demonstrated by the eye-pattern plot on page 29 of the same manual. This plot shows that the 100 foot cable caused significant attenuation and distortion of the waveform that was carrying the digital information. In spite of this distortion, the DAC1 was able to recover all of the bits and was able to fully attenuate the clock jitter that was induced by the long low-quality cable. see http://benchmarkmedia.com/pages/manuals

Bottom line – A fancy digital cable may improve the shape of the waveform that carries the digital data, but if the DAC is well-designed the cable will not change the analog waveform exiting the DAC. On the other hand, if the DAC is not well-designed, a long, low-quality digital cable may cause changes at the analog outputs.

"

Here is what Schitt Audio has to say:

USB PYST. This is the complete redefinition of USB cables. It actually, physically transports you* into an alternate universe where superbly-mastered, 24/192 music streams 24/7, free of charge to all listeners, for all genres. Supermodels in this alternate world are all deeply into high-end audio, and will beg to go out with you. Butterflies swirl in fantastic colors over clean-lined porcelain cityscapes, everyone is a millionaire, and flying cars run on air. It's a beautiful place to be!

http://schiit.com/products/pyst-cables

*Or not. It may have been a hallucination. USB PYSTs are actually just nice, 1M long, USB 2.0-rated cables that have thicker than normal power conductors and silver-plated copper data lines. We think the electrons like silver better, or something. Or not.

http://schiit.com/products/pyst-cables

In any case, you can get PYST, or you can save some money at Monoprice.