USB Cable Double-blind Shoot Out.
First off, double-blind testing is exhausting work, if interesting!
I compared three USB A/B cables:
· a generic Belkin 1.8 m cable that costs locally about US$12 (originally, I was going to use the ‘free’ one that came with my Auralic Vega DAC, but the one I had to hand that I thought this was turned out to be an A/Micro from one of my DAPs when I looked more closely at it);
· a 1m Tellurium Q Blue with a UK list price of £186 (about US$250); and,
· a 1m Nordost Valhalla 2 with a US list at US$3,500 (although I doubt if anyone ever pays near this, I certainly did not).
You can see my rig and set up below, its connected fully balanced. I used my Focal Utopias, which I find my best resolving of HPs for critical listening. To get as close to actual double-blind as possible (I could still hear my friend’s cable changing) I reversed my Eames lounge chair and ottoman facing away from my gear and sat about 1.5 metres away (as far as my 6 ft. Heimdall 2 balanced HP cable would permit). I did not look behind me for the over two hours of careful listening, except when taking a 10 minute break between each round of USB cable pairs (with the first cable being inserted for the next round only after I looked away). Following gregorio’s suggested protocol we agreed to not talk while testing, with my friend writing the cable in order of use for each pairing and me the decision whether the second cable was ‘better/worse’ than the first for each pairing, but we modified this while underway (see below).
Let’s call my friend Freud. I’m sure you can get the psychoanalytical reference, if not, google “Freud’s couch” (Freud intentionally sat out of sight of his patient to avoid giving visual facial clues) and think how my Eames chair/ottoman was now arranged. The only influence I was under during the listening was coffee. But, after we finished, believe me, we both deserved something stronger and accordingly had a nice dram of malt whisky!
I listen to the same track, or part of it, over and over, twenty times for each cable pairing round. This was Laura Marling’s ‘The Valley’ from Semper Femina (5:40).
At first, we followed the protocol suggested by gregorio, but modified it after the third pairing of the first round to avoid what proved to be unnecessary long listening times. In the first round’s first three pairings of listens with each cable, I went through the full track once with each cable before writing my decision down of better or worse after hearing the second cable. However, by the third pairing of the first Belkin/Nordost round, I pretty confidentially thought I knew very early in the listening of the track which cable was being used, and so, breaking the silence protocol, I stated which cable I thought was which at the end of this third pairing after writing down my better/worse answer. Freud confirmed that I was correct. So, we modified the protocol for the rest of the first round and then largely followed this in the subsequent two rounds, where we then played through the full track twice only for the first pairing of each round.
Subsequently, I called out, which cable I thought it was and if it was the second cable, wrote down if it was better/worse, Freud then stopped the track and changed the cable over. In addition, following gregorio’s other protocol suggestion, rather than swapping each cable ten times in the 10 pair round, one after the other in random order; once for each cable in each round (but never the first pairing), Freud only pretended to change the cable, when he had not (while unplugging and then re-plugging it – since I could hear the sound of cable changing in my seat, similarly he did the unplugging/re-plugging if the cable order was changed for the next pairing, as the same cable played immediately again in the new paired test).
Findings Round One – Belkin vs Nordost Valhalla 2:
Better: Nordost 4, Worse: Belkin 4, Same cable: twice correctly identified
There were subtle but consistent differences between both cables that were readily apparent from the very first pairing. The guitar ‘E’ base string strum/thumb pick (I assume) at the start and then after 15 seconds every five or so seconds was almost without significant musical consequence with the Belkin, it was there but just part of the overall musical background, while with the Nordost, it stood out and gave a foundation and important structure to the rest of the music being presented. Further, and especially after about halfway through the track the Belkin, relatively speaking, presented the music sounding thicker, more like a treacle, with all the individual components merged/stuck together – with little palpability/separation – and there was especially little or no separation of the violins, in contrast to what I could hear distinctly with the Nordost cable. Put simply and metaphorically, the Nordost made me more relaxed when listen to the whole presentation and the musical bits and spaces between the musical notes within it, while the Belkin made me unconsciously tense-up at the lumpy undifferentiated mass being presented that was hard and unattractive to audibly digest. But despite this rather extreme way that I have expressed what I heard in trying to describe the differences I perceived between the two cables, these were actually pretty small differences of overall scale – hardly night and day – and unlikely to be noticed without concentrated attention and careful listening to the music of the same track with the two very different in price cables.
Findings Round Two – Tellurium Q Blue vs Belkin:
Better: Tellurium 4, Worse: Belkin 4, Same: twice correctly identified
A bit of non-blind corruption here, I already knew the ‘treacle-ly’ sound of the Belkin from the first dual pairing and the dynamic liveliness of the Tellurium (which is the Tellurium house sound for all their types of cables, including digital) just jumped out at me from the first few seconds of listening (even though I have not used this cable at all for a couple of years). Indeed, the differences were even more strongly initially apparent that the differences with the Nordost, with the Tellurium undoubtedly sounding better and more musically interesting.
Findings Round Three – Tellurium Q Blue vs Nordost Valhalla 2:
Better: Nordost 4, Worse: Tellurium 4, Same: twice correctly identified
Some expectation bias could easily be occurring here. I knew which cable was which from the first few seconds of listening to each. So, it is understandable to choose the one I dropped over ten times as much on as better, but ultimately the Nordost was, at least for me, just a more relaxed and enjoyable listen with greater palpability. While the Tellurium ‘sounded’ in some ways more musically dynamic, it was also a bit etched/outlined or leading-edged focused with the substance of the music notes themselves a bit shallow and hollow, at least compared to the Nordost, whose sound I clearly preferred.
Discussion:
Amazingly, despite the very clear result, I was surprised by how similar these very different in price cables actually were. I can see why people can say all USB cables sound the same to them. These were not in your face differences that I heard. Indeed, I would probably not care about them at all, if I could even hear them, when driving in my car with music shuffling MP3 mode from my old iPod to the car stereo. Rather, these differences are the kind of things you are looking for and hope to achieve with your rig in our hobby when seriously listening, in our impossible, hence endless search for some absolute ‘perfect’ sound (which we know can’t exist).
Addendum:
Understandably, Freud wanted a listen. He is no Head-Flyer or audiophile, his iPhone and buds are his thing when he does bother to listen to music (and he actually prefers watching YouTube videos). So, we swapped roles (and with malt in hand), he listed to the full track twice with the, unknown to him, first the Belkin cable followed by the Nordost. When asked if the second cable was better or worse, Freud replied they sounded exactly the same. I then suggested that he just listen to the effect of the base note at the very start and then repeated about 15 seconds later and then a few seconds later and so on and compare the two cables just based on the sound of those base notes. I played about the first minute of the track, changed cables, and replayed the first minute again. Freud said: ‘do it again’. After the third pairing he said: ‘the Nordost was the second cable, wasn’t it?’ I said: ‘yap’!
PS In an ideal world I wish I could have done this test with chef8489 also just to for the great discussion we would have had afterwards!
