[spanimal]

The results are in. I purchased a USB cable for 5 bucks. This one is gold plated and significantly thicker than my standard Dacmagic one. At first I heard a difference, I had closed my eyes and concentrated hard - thicker bottom end more condensed overall sound. To rule out placebo - I had a cigarette, opened my eyes and tapped to the music. The difference then vanished when I swapped again - but re-appeared again. After numerous switchings with different songs, focused, unfocused - eventually they sounded the same to me - I will never be able to distinguish these cables in blind test.

Then I got really nervous as I never had to switch cables so often when I initially thought I heard a difference. What if the difference I heard in interconnects was also a placebo? I had also bought a cheap 8 dollar interconnect cable along with the USB plug and had ruled it out as inferior in an earlier session. By now I was really familiar with the sound of my current interconnects from the fresh memory when testing the USB. So I changed connections back and forth with these IC's and very quickly came to the conclusion that differences I hear with IC's cannot be attributed to placebo and that they are audible and real in every scenario I tried.

My conclusion is that in my circumstance I could not distinguish the difference between these USB cables - I will keep an open mind and subject each USB to a lengthier session in my system and collate these results at a later date - though I doubt the results would change or that I will actually be bothered to swap the USB cable and listen critically like this again - it really is time consuming.

 

[iriverdude]

rofl. I wonder which hard drive will make my music sound better, Western Digital or Seagate?

 

[ILikeMusic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iriverdude /img/forum/go_quote.gif rofl. I wonder which hard drive will make my music sound better, Western Digital or Seagate?

I find Seagate drives to be a little brighter and forward with Western Digital having a warmer and more colored sound, but with better soundstage. But of course you need one of Cardas' premium IDE cables to really hear the difference.

.

 

[hybris]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spanimal /img/forum/go_quote.gif After numerous switchings with different songs, focused, unfocused - eventually they sounded the same to me - I will never be able to distinguish these cables in blind test. Then I got really nervous as I never had to switch cables so often when I initially thought I heard a difference. What if the difference I heard in interconnects was also a placebo? I had also bought a cheap 8 dollar interconnect cable along with the USB plug and had ruled it out as inferior in an earlier session. By now I was really familiar with the sound of my current interconnects from the fresh memory when testing the USB. So I changed connections back and forth with these IC's and very quickly came to the conclusion that differences I hear with IC's cannot be attributed to placebo and that they are audible and real in every scenario I tried. My conclusion is that in my circumstance I could not distinguish the difference between these USB cables - I will keep an open mind and subject each USB to a lengthier session in my system and collate these results at a later date - though I doubt the results would change or that I will actually be bothered to swap the USB cable and listen critically like this again - it really is time consuming.

I'm sure you know that this test method doesn't give you a valid result that anyone can use right? Your initial scepticsm towards USB may help you hear that there are indeed no differences, while your initial assumption that there are differences between interconnects may provide you with that experience.

This is classic placebo, and the reason you should do this as an ABX test to get an actual result.

 

[spanimal]

These tests were merely my methodogies to verify my capabilities, the results only suggests to me that my hearing perception is not acute enough to distinguish between only these two capables in only my system - nothing more. It is quite persumptious of you to assume that I have or have not a preference for anything based on my postings - perhaps there is some truth that I did not believe USB can be differentiated - why would I then have initially heard a difference, would'nt this indicate that I believe they would make a difference. Using your reasoning, then changed my mind and believed that they don't and then the differences vanished? This would be equivalent to calling me a retard in a pleasant manner. Your not calling me a retard are you?

 

[manaox2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spanimal /img/forum/go_quote.gif These tests were merely my methodogies to verify my capabilities, the results only suggests to me that my hearing perception is not acute enough to distinguish between only these two capables in only my system - nothing more. It is quite persumptious of you to assume that I have or have not a preference for anything based on my postings - perhaps there is some truth that I did not believe USB can be differentiated - why would I then have initially heard a difference, would'nt this indicate that I believe they would make a difference. Using your reasoning, then changed my mind and believed that they don't and then the differences vanished? This would be equivalent to calling me a retard in a pleasant manner. Your not calling me a retard are you?

I don't think that word (retard) means what you think it does. He's not calling you crazy either. Just hinting that you could easily put yourself in denial in either direction, its common and in no way a mental retardation. You can't always trust your senses, magicians, the media, and even music and video games rely on this.

 

[CodeToad]

Personally, I've found that by using two opposing pyramid shaped crystals with the usb cable running between the points, I can condition the electrons that make up the 1's and 0's to actually teleport from one end of the cable to the other, thereby bypassing the inferior unconditioned electrons in even the best usb cable.

I believe it works by increasing the spin of the Muonic neutrino's and creating an imblance in the Muonic antineutrino's and thusly affecting the spin of the Tau lepton's which affects all of the Electron neutrino's charges AND spins. I think this creates the positive charge which draws the electron to the negatively charged end of the cable through teleportation, but I'm not absolutely 100% on that.

The science is sound and has been proven through the ages (unlike the example that exists in our fractional reserve banking system where pyramids and reverse pyramid structures create "something" out of "nothing" - that's just MAGIC). What my system does is actually manipulate and condition electrons at the particle level.

 

[dvw]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spanimal /img/forum/go_quote.gif These tests were merely my methodogies to verify my capabilities, the results only suggests to me that my hearing perception is not acute enough to distinguish between only these two capables in only my system - nothing more. It is quite persumptious of you to assume that I have or have not a preference for anything based on my postings - perhaps there is some truth that I did not believe USB can be differentiated - why would I then have initially heard a difference, would'nt this indicate that I believe they would make a difference. Using your reasoning, then changed my mind and believed that they don't and then the differences vanished? This would be equivalent to calling me a retard in a pleasant manner. Your not calling me a retard are you?

I am sure someone in this thread already pointed out the signals are packetized. Meaning all digital information including timing information are in a container and so the cable should not matter.

An analogy in plumbing will be in stead of water being delivered out of a pipe, you are now drinking bottled water. So how the bottled water is delivered don't really matter.

 

[nirvanaxp]

Usb cables can't sound different. And if you do buy a gold usb cable you would also need to buy a computer with gold interconnects inside to handle the the digital signals.

 

[hybris]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spanimal /img/forum/go_quote.gif These tests were merely my methodogies to verify my capabilities, the results only suggests to me that my hearing perception is not acute enough to distinguish between only these two capables in only my system - nothing more. It is quite persumptious of you to assume that I have or have not a preference for anything based on my postings - perhaps there is some truth that I did not believe USB can be differentiated - why would I then have initially heard a difference, would'nt this indicate that I believe they would make a difference. Using your reasoning, then changed my mind and believed that they don't and then the differences vanished? This would be equivalent to calling me a retard in a pleasant manner. Your not calling me a retard are you?

It's amazing how a lot of people are immediately offended when it is suggested that they have been a victim of placebo.

I can assure you that placebo affects everyone. Regardless of wether you are wether you are black or white, male or female, rich, poor, or indeed mentally sane or a retard.

 

[spanimal]

Okay, lighten up everybody, I was only being light hearted with my comments.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CodeToad /img/forum/go_quote.gif Personally, I've found that by using two opposing pyramid shaped crystals with the usb cable running between the points, I can condition the electrons that make up the 1's and 0's to actually teleport from one end of the cable to the other, thereby bypassing the inferior unconditioned electrons in even the best usb cable. I believe it works by increasing the spin of the Muonic neutrino's and creating an imblance in the Muonic antineutrino's and thusly affecting the spin of the Tau lepton's which affects all of the Electron neutrino's charges AND spins. I think this creates the positive charge which draws the electron to the negatively charged end of the cable through teleportation, but I'm not absolutely 100% on that. The science is sound and has been proven through the ages (unlike the example that exists in our fractional reserve banking system where pyramids and reverse pyramid structures create "something" out of "nothing" - that's just MAGIC). What my system does is actually manipulate and condition electrons at the particle level.

There was once a legendary Australian racing car driver that released performance road variants that had been fitted with his "Polariser" device. This device contained crystals that he proposed aligned molecules or something making everything better. GM would not warrant his products and everyone thought he had gone crazy - He died recently in a fatal racing accident. RIP - Still King of the Mountain.

 

[royalcrown]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spanimal /img/forum/go_quote.gif To rule out placebo - I had a cigarette, opened my eyes and tapped to the music.

Not trolling - how does that procedure rule out placebo?

 

[Real Man of Genius]

Spanimal is being cute and funny.

 

[spanimal]

If only I could get that comment from a hot babe - that would mean a green light to conjure evil manipulations to get to second base.

 

[b0dhi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dvw /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think there is something wrong with the Onkyo translation. My understanding is that the USB protocol is by packets. In another word, the data is asynchronous. Clock and jitter in the data transfer is not relevant. The timing information is regenerated in the USB DAC. The word regenerate kept reappearing in the article. My guess is they have a better technique in regenerating a low jitter clock. The Asahi chip as with any other DAC chip have high jitter tolerance as standard feature. This is independent of the quality of clock that Onkyo regenerate. Keeping it simple, I don't think Onkyo said anything in USB cable jitter affecting sound quality.

The timing information is regenerated. The timing information comes from the USB ofcourse. Most DACs regenerate the clock, but how well they do it is another matter. I doubt that anyone could hear a difference between USB cables, but it isn't beyond plausibility.