USB Audio 2.0 Cables
Nov 24, 2013 at 11:02 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 6

BruinAnteater

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Hey everyone,

If this has been discussed before, I apologize and will be hally if someone directs me to the appropriate thread. Did a search but couldn't come up with a good one but:

can we list USB cables that are certified or at least are confirmed to work with the USB 2.0 interface? Looking at both mini and micro (mini for my HRT microstreamer and mini for my fiio x3).

My HRT seems to have a few problems with connectivity and I just want a good cable for it. I am also looking to duse the FiiO X3 as a USB DAC but my comouter cannot seem to see it using the cables I have now (already upgraded the firmware to 2.05 and installed the drivers for it), so I am just trying to rule out cable issues for both devices.
 
Nov 25, 2013 at 2:52 PM Post #3 of 6
There's nothing all that special about USB2, any printer USB cable should work fine.  I think they require slightly larger power conductors according to the spec and a few minor updates vs. the sort of cables you might have found lying around 15 years ago for USB, but I don't think the cables are your problem.  
 
Nov 26, 2013 at 9:11 PM Post #4 of 6
There are no name cables you can find in a dollar store.
 
Then there are cables like Monoprice. Well made, reasonable pricing.
 
Then there's the expensive audiophile USB cable.
 
My suggestion, go with something like Monoprice.
 
Nov 29, 2013 at 2:05 PM Post #6 of 6
Thanks for the replies everyone. 
 
The cable that came with the HRT is Monoprice, but perhaps I'll try another heavier monoprice cable. The HRT seems to have problems with JRiver on both my laptop and desktop, even while connected to wall, I've lowered the Hardware buffer and a few other suggestions that were made by other HRT users. Admittedly, since I updated the firmware and JRiver, the problems occur with less frequency but still pop up whenever I ask JRiver (or my system) to do something else (for example, switching to Gallery mode while I have music playing will end up with the sound getting jarbled, then turn into a high pitched noise before completely cutting out). I doubt my laptop or desktop lack in capability, both are 3rd gen Core i7s, the laptop has 8GB of RAM and the desktop has 16GB of RAM AND running the O/S and apps off an SSD. 
 
However, no persistent issues with Foobar. My thought was that foobar is a "lighter" program than JRiver, and might just draw slightly less electricity than JRiver. I was thinking perhaps thecombo is slightly less electricity plus a possible inefficient or faulty cable might be enough to cause the differences. 
 
As far as the FiiO goes, I have yet to try it out on the desktop, but my laptop certainly wont pick it up as a DAC (but will pick it up as a storage device).
 
Thanks for the help, I needed to get a couple of cables anyway, I'll grab a few extra USB cables from monoprice.
 

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