[lin0003]

Yes they do. My preference is for a silver usb cable. Frank made me a venom usb and it is excellent.

Considering the signal gets there as only 0s and 1s, does copper make it sound warmer? I'm pretty new to all this stuff.

 

[negura]

Quote:

Considering the signal gets there as only 0s and 1s, does copper make it sound warmer? I'm pretty new to all this stuff.

 
Yes, USB cables provide with noticeable sound differences. I haven't had the pleasure to listen to Frank's made USB cables, but I did make a couple myself from his wires and they sound awesome. The resolution of your DAC/USB interface are very important to how much of a difference you will hear. The more resolving, the bigger of a difference you will hear from everything upstream in your chain, including USB cables. That said, and if it comes to this I would prioritize the hardware first, then the cables.

 

[lin0003]

Quote:

 
Yes, USB cables provide with noticeable sound differences. I haven't had the pleasure to listen to Frank's made USB cables, but I did make a couple myself from his wires and they sound awesome. The resolution of your DAC/USB interface are very important to how much of a difference you will hear. The more resolving, the bigger of a difference you will hear from everything upstream in your chain, including USB cables. That said, and if it comes to this I would prioritize the hardware first, then the cables.

So say I want to build a system around a HD800 and I find them too bright after I have got the headphone cable, amp and everything, I should order a copper USB cable instead of a silver one?

 

[negura]

Quote:

So say I want to build a system around a HD800 and I find them too bright after I have got the headphone cable, amp and everything, I should order a copper USB cable instead of a silver one?

 
That is pretty much what I've ended up doing. But as the copper headphones cable made sufficient difference for my HD800s to where I like them in terms of brightness, I am actually using a silver USB cable, just love the added detail and energy. This is highly dependant on preferences, so if you find them too bright in your system still then yes, copper USB should help matters along nicely.
 
And of course, something to keep in mind when balancing your system: If you are using multiple headphones or even speakers out of the same DAC, whereas the headphones cable will only affect that one pair of headphones, the USB will affect the sound with everything.

 

[lin0003]

Quote:

 
That is pretty much what I've ended up doing. But as the copper headphones cable made sufficient difference for my HD800s to where I like them in terms of brightness, I am actually using a silver USB cable, just love the added detail and energy. This is highly dependant on preferences, so if you find them too bright in your system still then yes, copper USB should help matters along nicely.

Thanks for the explanation. Oh, an a last question since you have HD800s. Say that you get one of Frank's copper cables for the HD800, will the sound be a bit darker? The stock cable is also copper I think so the sound signature should stay roughly the same right?

 

[negura]

Quote:

Thanks for the explanation. Oh, an a last question since you have HD800s. Say that you get one of Frank's copper cables for the HD800, will the sound be a bit darker? The stock cable is also copper I think so the sound signature should stay roughly the same right?

 
While I don't remember what material they are using in the stock cable, the SQ is not great and does not come close to that of Frank's copper cables. I've heard the Scorpion and Black Widows from what I remember and both are head and shoulders above in everything compared to stock. You will find more details, musicality, flow, bass, instrument separation, overall clarity with Frank's copper cables I've mentioned. I've not had the pleasure to hear the Venom, but it should be even better.

 

[lin0003]

While I don't remember what material they are using in the stock cable, the SQ is not great and does not come close to that of Frank's copper cables. I've heard the Scorpion and Black Widows from what I remember and both are head and shoulders above in everything compared to stock. You will find more details, musicality, flow, bass, instrument separation, overall clarity with Frank's copper cables I've mentioned. I've not had the pleasure to hear the Venom, but it should be even better.

Thanks for explaining all these things.

 

[Von Soundcard]

Quote:

Yes they do. My preference is for a silver usb cable. Frank made me a venom usb and it is excellent.

What about Silver Plated Copper ? Anyone tried that for USB ?
 
By the way, can you say what type of USB DAC did you try those aftermarket USB cables on ? I am interested if there are clear differences between cables on async DACs with dedicated drivers.

 

[negura]

Quote:

What about Silver Plated Copper ? Anyone tried that for USB ?
 
By the way, can you say what type of USB DAC did you try those aftermarket USB cables on ? I am interested if there are clear differences between cables on async DACs with dedicated drivers.

 
Yes, there are. The DAC in my signature is Async (w.dedicated drivers - I am not sure this matters). Now what is more important though, many stock DAC USB interfaces are actually not at all very smartly integrated, thus nor clean and resolving enough, so they sometimes can be a bit of a bottleneck. That said, in any configuration, good USB cables made a difference to me and the more resolving and transparent your hardware is, the more evident it should be.

 

[Von Soundcard]

That is interesting. Not that I doubt it, but the DAC was operated using the KS or WASAPI driver modes in a player that recognises them (like foobar), right ? Just checking 

 

[negura]

Quote:

That is interesting. Not that I doubt it, but the DAC was operated using the KS or WASAPI driver modes in a player that recognises them (like foobar), right ? Just checking 

 
Of course. Anyway we're going on a tangent on this thread now, so I will stop here. I am posting in other threads as well on this subject.
 
But as a result of my recent findings I will very likely speak with Frank for some USB cables.

 

[inter voice]

I have changed my order from copper BW to Silver Widow for my HD800 after reading some good comments of SW with HD800.  Actually I have a 18AWG Scorpion and it works wonderfully with HD800. Now I make a small gamble of using Silver Widow for my 2nd HD800 which a lot of people said silver cable is not suitable for HD800.  Hope it is not true and they can match well, with fingers cross 

Hope Frank can speed up his work and I can then provide the result of A/B tests for the Scorpion and SW.

 

[lin0003]

Quote:

I have changed my order from copper BW to Silver Widow for my HD800 after reading some good comments of SW with HD800.  Actually I have a 18AWG Scorpion and it works wonderfully with HD800. Now I make a small gamble of using Silver Widow for my 2nd HD800 which a lot of people said silver cable is not suitable for HD800.  Hope it is not true and they can match well, with fingers cross 

Hope Frank can speed up his work and I can then provide the result of A/B tests for the Scorpion and SW.

Why not try a copper venom?

 

[DefQon]

Quote:

Well lookie what we have here 

 
 

 

 

Furutech makes 4 pin XLR's now? (or HD 4 pin in body)?

 

[Von Soundcard]

How do Silver Plated Copper cables sound in comparison to simple Copper or Silver cables ? Are they right in the middle, closer to one than the other, or... ?