Recommendations for USB cables!

And you're correct. Interconnects have minimal impact (1% change in the signal from normal copper to OCC) on sound compared to what you can do with an amp/dac/headphone. Phones are what change the sound the most. Seeing that you have IEM's, you might want to get headphones since IEM's tend to be in-your-face. 

But if you want to try, there are a bunch of generic USB a to be cables on amazon. Only a few bucks for them.

And later down the road, don't get hung up on cryo-occ silver/or whatever it is unless you have LOTS of cash to burn. Otherwise, save your money for amp/dac/phones. 

I think that being a digital signal, it wouldn't have that much of an effect.

Quote:

Originally Posted by obobskivich 


Agreed. I'm not dismissing cables as a "thing" - it's just a quite minor "thing" when it comes down to it, and it's always very scary when you go off spending money because you want "better" (because that's nearly impossible to qualify/quantify). If you have a specific problem or gripe you're trying to fix, work the problem - don't just slap down the plastic and start spending as much money as you can as fast as you can. If you just want "more" then re-evaluate in what way you want "more" and go get it.

wise words spoken by o'bobskivich.

Thought I'd weigh in here a little.

I was comparing a pair of USB cables over the weekend with my Bryston BDA-2 / Bryston BHA-1 / LCD-3 rig - a random cable that came with my Dell monitor and the Wireworld Starlight.

I must have swapped it out at least 10 times to try and isolate a clearly audible difference and truth be told, I was struggling. Now, I'm not saying there's no difference as I'm not sure as to whether I heard something or whether it was placebo but one thing was for sure - I couldn't conclusively hear the difference.

Interestingly enough, after this comparison, I moved on to compare XLR interconnects. I compared a pair of cheap Audio GD XLR interconnects and Chord Company Cadenza XLR interconnects. Without the least bit of exaggeration, I stopped after half a minute of listening because there was no doubt in my mind about the audible difference in favour of the Cadenza's.

After this experience, I'm left with the following thoughts,

1.Perhaps digital cables don't have the same kind of difference analogue cables do

2.Perhaps digital cables under one or two hundred dollars won't provide an audible difference and you'll have to go alot higher to hear something (if it even exists at all that is)

3.Perhaps whether or not a USB cable will be audible will depend on the level of jitter in your source and the quality of USB implementation in your DAC

4.I'd much rather focus my budget on analogue cables (assuming the rest of my rig is downpat) before digital cables