[liamstrain]

Interesting anecdote - not much to actually work with, and way too many uncontrolled, and unknown variables to be useful, but interesting nonetheless. 
 
Welcome to head-fi. 

 

[grokit]

I believe you!

 

[chewy4]

Quote:

Borrowed a very expensive USB cable this past week to try in my big rig at home.  Source is a Mac Mini > Pure Music (Integer mode) > Ayre QB9.  I had been using the cable that came with the QB9.  As much as I hate to admit it was a huge step up in performance - much greater transparency that allowed much more musical nuance to come through.  Using the expensive cable, playing Emmylou Harris's Boulder to Birmingham (Producer's Cut 24/96), her emotion comes thru in the music and hits hard.  And the QB9 runs asynchronous transfer mode, so you wouldn't think USB cables should change the presentation.
 
Of course all good things must come to an end - cable has to be returned tomorrow.  Took it out the system and put in the old.  Decided to play Boulder to Birmingham one more time.  All that sense of emotion was gone....
 
Before you flame.  Went upstairs to talk to my wife who was in bed in another room.  First thing she said:  Something changed - the song didn't sound nearly as good the last time you played it.  She didn't even know I had a borrowed USB cable in the system.  Wasn't a DBT, but it certainly was a blind test....

Don't you think that the fact that the emotional response changed might have something to do with your own emotions?
 
Interesting that your wife noticed a difference, especially since she was in another room in a separate floor in the house. Did you ask her if something changed or did she just say it out of the blue?

 

[Hi Rez]

Quote:

Don't you think that the fact that the emotional response changed might have something to do with your own emotions?
 
Interesting that your wife noticed a difference, especially since she was in another room in a separate floor in the house. Did you ask her if something changed or did she just say it out of the blue?

That is the part that surprised me - she just said it out of the blue.
 
I don't believe my emotions had much to do with it.  Actual words are a only a small part of verbal communication - tone and inflection of voice provides much more information.  The words can say one thing, and the tone and inflection something completely different. With the borrowed cable, fine details like the quavering in her voice came thru much more clearly, and the music had a larger impact because of it.

 

[chewy4]

Quote:

That is the part that surprised me - she just said it out of the blue.
 
I don't believe my emotions had much to do with it.  Actual words are a only a small part of verbal communication - tone and inflection of voice provides much more information.  The words can say one thing, and the tone and inflection something completely different. With the borrowed cable, fine details like the quavering in her voice came thru much more clearly, and the music had a larger impact because of it.

And those fine details are something that can be heard on a separate floor of a house?

 

[liamstrain]

And those fine details are something that can be heard on a separate floor of a house?

 
Indeed. While doing something else, moving well off axis from the speakers, etc. 
 
I'm not saying there wasn't an audible difference. But we don't have enough here to go on to ascribe any part of it to the cable, much less understand what the difference was and the mechanism for creating it. 

 

[ultrabike]

Actually, headphone positional variation has been shown to affect the high frequencies... Probably more so than the cable...

 

[edn4x4]

That stream of binary data finding it's way is all about the journey, the destination and perhaps most important is the source.
In this case the cable provides the journey - that's the way I look at it.  If you have a good source and it leads you to your destination you should be happy!
I know this is HF and we are always on our journey - enjoy.
 
Remember this:
There are 10 kinds of people in the world. 
Those that understand binary and those who don't.

 

[Griploc]

Okay, do i apoligize for dipping out of thr topic for a couple months but i wanted to burn in all my recent cable upgrades. From headphone cable to usb canle to power cable torven mic cable. So i will say one thing here. I will do my dbt with the usb next weekend to be precise. I wont give you my opinion of what i already think of the usb until i have my students swap them in and out ad well as see if my students can hear am audible difference

 

[Griploc]

Again i am going to be testing the stefan audio art USB, the Apogee USB, and lastly a Regular out of store usb cable

 

[Griploc]

My listening will be done through AKG K702 headphones with SAA endorphin headphone cable upgrade to my Apogee Symphony IO interface(vibration controlled with mapleshade 4inch platform using micropoint brass heavy weight hats and micropoint brass heavy weight footers and based on rubber and cork) using a SAA endorphin power cable upgrade. The USB will be connected from the Apogee Symphony IO to my iMac computer listening directly into a Pro tools 9 session

 

[ultrabike]

Some preliminary questions...
 
How do you plan to rule out headphone frequency response positional variations?
Are you going to evaluate and/or guarantee the integrity of the signal before it arrives to the usb cable in terms of noise, jitter, frequency response .... and so on?
Is the connector of the iMac in "good" condition (mechanically integrity, no oxidation, and so on)?
Are the connectors of all cables in "good" condition (mechanical integrity, no oxidation, and so on) and are they all USB 2.0 standards compliant?
Are you going to conduct some basic frequency response and/or noise rejection characterization of these cables?

 

[Griploc]

The signal chain of each component is at a high standard. All cables and vibration control i have specified are of ultra high end quality and burned in for over 150 hours. I will conduct white and pink noise signal testing prior to the dbt as well to ensure frequencies are as flat as they will be according to the headphones i will be using. All contacts have been extensively treated and deoxified by James, owner of SAA, former tech engineer of Senheisser.

 

[Griploc]

I will also put up a link of a song rendered with and without the upgaded USB to show the head-fi community so they can judge to hear if an audible difference is there

 

[Griploc]

My thoughts towards cables, connector contacts, components, and source has been flipped upside down over the past couple years due to delving into the realm of hi end professional recording and reference monitoring. I have over 10 years of engineering experience and 5 years professional.