[Cevisi]

I know i know cable stuff is controverse

Got my self a adi 2 fs that i connect over usb

I bought myself a usb b to usb c cable and was thinking does i higher quality usb cable have benefits i saw some expensive usb cables for 1000 dollar

Does someone have experience with that ?

 

[TiJo]

There are already 1000000 threads on headfi about this and the simple answer is:
If you believe in science, it does not matter.
If you believe in the audiophile gods then it does matter for you.

 

[Cevisi]

There are already 1000000 threads on headfi about this and the simple answer is:
If you believe in science, it does not matter.
If you believe in the audiophile gods then it does matter for you.

Ok it doesn't matter. Thank you

 

[dotashope]

Although it doesn't matter, there are certain factors to keep in mind. First is obviously build quality. And shielding. If a cable is well built and shielded then you shouldn't worry about it. You can add Ferrite chokes for shielding.

 

[Cevisi]

Although it doesn't matter, there are certain factors to keep in mind. First is obviously build quality. And shielding. If a cable is well built and shielded then you shouldn't worry about it. You can add Ferrite chokes for shielding.

These look nice how they compare to crystals

 

[dotashope]

These look nice how they compare to crystals

Sorry I'm not quite sure what crystals mean here. Is it the super highend Crystal Cable that charges hundreds to thousands for their cable?
The only nice usb cable I have is the Monoprice OFC and except the more sturdy build I can't hear a difference :/

 

[Cevisi]

People are sticking crystals on their cables to reduce some weird stuff

Sorry I'm not quite sure what crystals mean here. Is it the super highend Crystal Cable that charges hundreds to thousands for their cable?
The only nice usb cable I have is the Monoprice OFC and except the more sturdy build I can't hear a difference :/

 

[dotashope]

People are sticking crystals on their cables to reduce some weird stuff

This is probably the biggest scam in the industry and a role model of snake oil. I forgot the company name but I visited their website once and they have other ridiculous products there.

But on the other hand I'm aware the mental effects on how we perceive the sound or the placebo effects. Even though there's no actual improvement but our mind believes in an improvement, and therefore hearing it. By the end of the day, hearing is a very subjective experience so people do whatever that floats the boat for them.

 

[dotashope]

This is probably the biggest scam in the industry and a role model of snake oil. I forgot the company name but I visited their website once and they have other ridiculous products there.

But on the other hand I'm aware the mental effects on how we perceive the sound or the placebo effects. Even though there's no actual improvement but our mind believes in an improvement, and therefore hearing it. By the end of the day, hearing is a very subjective experience so people do whatever that floats the boat for them.

btw I found the company, called MACHINA DYNAMICA. They have some pretty funny stuffs there. Smart box for light treating a cd, and bowls as acoustic resonator. I think they are inspired by some occult culture.

 

[Cevisi]

I saw some room spray once that prevent you sonic waves to get intertuptet by the air in the room

 

[dotashope]

I saw some room spray once that prevent you sonic waves to get intertuptet by the air in the room

It has something to do with your room acoustic, there are various ways for room acoustic treatments. I'm only starting to learn this so I can't really give you any useful information

 

[corgifall]

Unless you can find the snake oil snazzy cables for closeout I would get something maybe something not super cheap. I use audioquest cables but I got them all on a really good deal a long time back and at more than half their normal cost. Did I notice a difference? Of course not. The only thing that could possibly help is if you're getting alot of noise in your system. Shielding on a cable might help with that.

 

[bluecar]

I'm not an audio engineer, but I do know USB backwards and forwards! The design and quality of a USB cable will affect your SQ in only 2 ways -

1. The cable is so badly made that it does not support data transmission at the specified rate (although it would have to be truly bloody awful to not sustain 480Mbps) - some cables are like this, and plenty of cables that claim to be USB2.0 or USB 3.0 complaint are only complaint in the sense that they have the right type of plug connector. These types of cables may affect the sustainable data rate, which will compromise your SQ through stutter/playback interruptions...to put that into context, an uncompressed 16bit/44khz stream would only need just under 1.5Mbs for uninterrupted streaming....

2. The cable is standard complaint (i.e. carries the right voltage, right shape plugs, designed to carry minimum data rate as per spec), but is designed to a price (usually about $2/m + terminations) - in this case, the cable will be fine for computer applications, but may still cause SQ issues in audio, but only by picking up RF interference - in this case, the better made the cable is, and the better the materials used, the less noise it will introduce into your signal. It can't make the signal better, but it can make it worse.

My own view, and the physics of it supports the idea, is that very high quality cabling is a way of protecting the quality (primarily SNR) of your original signal. If that's a super-low-noise signal coming from a hand-crafted USB interface in a high-end audio device, it seems reasonable to buy high-quality cables to connect it to another high-quality device.

In terms of cable quality, the cost/quality relationship is a very steep exponential curve (quality on the x-axis, cost on the y). I you want to connect a $10000 streamer to a $15000 DAC, then it may well be that case that a (well-made) $1000 USB cable will deliver less noise into the DAC than a $50 cable (whether you can hear it or not, is another issue!). For more modest equipment, it seems unlikely that spending more than $150 on a USB cable will deliver any perceptible SQ gains.

$150 should be the most you need to pay for a 1.0m cable that will suit the vast majority of (non-esoteric) hifi applications, will be durable, flexbile, will provide effective transmission rates and shielding, and will have accurate plugs/fittings.

<dons flameproof suit and goes for coffee>

 

[TiJo]

@bluecar: Would'nt you agree that the RF introduced by a single cable should be super (unhearable) small. Also a super cheap cable with ferrite bead should be more than fine. I would assume any cable from 1$ - 5$ should be fine.

 

[bluecar]

@TiJo - yes, the interference/noise is very low amplitude and well above inaudible frequencies, but it still finds its way into receiving devices through crosstalk and poor filtering. It's unlikely that the interference would flow as audible noise in the analogue output - but it will affect how the DAC processes and filters the signal as it goes from digital encoding to a modulated analogue signal.

If a USB cable needs a ferrite collar, chuck it in the bin. Ferrite cores knock out AC noise and are most commonly used to supress AC transients before DC conversion in power supplies- if a USB cable has a ferrite collar it means that the cable is rubbish, and will pump RF noise into the device, regardless of the ferrite collar (which is designed to suppress mains noise)

Anyway, it all comes down to equipment - if you connect a high-end streamer to a high-end Dac with a $5 cable it won't sound as clean as a $150 cable with the same kit. Whether it needs a $1000 cable is a matter of taste. For lower-cost components, I doubt the low cost cable will make much difference in SQ, but it will piss you off when it breaks