Hello there, was wondering if anyone had experience with higher end USB cables, and tell me if they felt it made a drastic change in the presentation of the music?
Would it be wise to make an investment over your standard printer USB cable?
Thank you for reading!
What does your setup look like?
Usb is digital. It either works consistently and supports the standard or it doesn’t.
The one caveat to this is hdmi cables that handle security handshakes poorly. Which won’t ever happen over USB.
Get one that is a reasonable length (not insanely long) that matched the aesthetic you want from a reputable company and you’re good to go
This.
You don’t have to spend money on USB-to-USB cable upgrades if your current one works properly already, unless you’re looking for a longer/shorter cable, or different aesthetics.
“Out of spec”-USB cables make a difference.
The way USB transports audio does not correct for corrupted data, it just gets dropped.
Apart from that, this:
I might add, then when your USB cable “only works when I bend it a certain way”, throw it out. At some point that will kill something.
How to tell good USB cable from a “bad” one (from a practical stand point):
When hooked to an external drive (preferably SSD or a fast USB drive), the transfer speed is consistently high.
Any bad/failed/out-of-spec cable will either drop to low rate or vary a lot in transfer rate.
Yeah i think thats true. but ive heard some USB cables will add noise to the chain. not sure if its true or detectable
How would it do that?
It could pick up EMI from a switchmode PSU or power cable, wich is very unlikely and would only affect that power lines. In any device costing more than 20€, the internal power handling should sort that out.
USB data uses “differential signaling”, the analog equivalent would be a balanced signal.
Digital does not mean a 1 or a 0 in this case.
There are multiple issues here. The first is that the 0 and the 1 are represented by an ANALOG voltage across the cable. Depending on the cable, there may be small irregularities where the receiver interprets a questionable voltage value as a 1 instead of a 0 or vice versa. Another problem is that audio data unlike a file, is time dependent. If there is a slight delay at any point(s) in the stream due to the cable, that results in information that is incorrect. The final problem is that due to the fact that music is based on time, the DAC doesn’t query the sender when/if a packet gets dropped or is corrupt - it just moves onto the next one.
This is different than a normal file transfer where timing is not important. If the receiver (for example your phone) sees a corrupt data packet in the transmission of a your favorite meme, it will query the sender and request that packet to be re-sent. Because if your meme is delayed by half a second it’s no biggie.
Those are the technical reasons as I understand it for a high quality USB cable.
Having said all that, I have never tried high end USB cables nor have I compared them to cheap ones so I have no idea if there is a difference. And if there is, I don’t know if it’s something large enough for me to hear.
It does NOT have to be audiophile quality to make a difference. I am forced to use a 25ft long usb Cable to reach From my tablet to my DAC. I had a simple amazon usb cable i have been using for over a year. It slowly developed noise to the point when i swiped on my screen i could hear the noise in my speakers. I purchased a replacement cable this week. Its a bit better quality, whopping price of $15 shipped. Noise is gone, i could not be happier. If this cable lasts a year or 2 i will have gotten my money out of it 100 times over.
I can give you another example of a USB making a difference but this one is more blatant and very easy for me to reproduce consistently so i can prove to anyones ears. I am keeping the old amazon cable for that very exact reason, to prove to friends that a working usb cable can induce noise.
Fixed by a using a Schmitt Trigger
And that is completly fine.
When there are packets sent at 1000Hz, and 5% don’t make it, you will not notice. Your nerves simply do not react fast enough.
IF USB audio stream was bit-perfect, you would have to copy the whole file over to the DAC as any corruption, even single bit-flip would result in a re-transmit causing a dropout.
High quality meaning in the USB spec, not “it costs $1000 and is made from child souls”
Is there a good high grade use cable for a decent price? say 30$?
I think, like with most cases, the cable really is the very last thing that should ever be considered.
I just got my bifrost 2, it didn’t come with a cable, I bought one for 7$ on amazon and it’s great. Anything more than that is not something audibly better.
I understand digital cables are interpreting a signal that isn’t exactly 1 and 0, but diving that deep isn’t necessary to know that more than like $20 for a usb cable (unless it sweet looking with coils and an aircraft connector for a mechanical keyboard) is not necessary
Yes, i’m using it now, like it. Its an Upgrade and built all thick and cool looking. I have not had a chance to try it head to head on the expesnive set-up vs the Nordost Tyr 2 yet but eventually i will because i’m curious.
I cant post a link off my tablet so go find it off this picture. It’s worth the $30 bucks
For a USB-C cable that is definetly in spec, buy a Thunderbolt cable.
USB 2.0, any cable with good reviews will do.
If you feel it helps and you want ferrite cores for HF filtering, get one with cores at both ends.
Well, high quality and expensive aren’t necessarily the same. I’m willing to bet there are a bunch of $30 cables that are just as good as $500 cables but since no one is giving the cable specs using an industry defined standard, we’ll likely never know. Perhaps on a top tier mega transparent system you can hear the differences. On my “measly” $2500 HP rig I’m fine with cheap USB cables.
Yeah but the one he linked looks really nice. and its OFC copper
I mean $30 for a good quality usb cable isn’t that much if you ask me, I could spend that money on worst stuff tbh. If it works correctly and the build and looks are to your liking then it’s not a bad price imo. When you start paying $100+ for a USB cable is when I would start questioning whether it is worth or not? For some people with high end systems it might make a difference for others probably not.
For reference this is the usb cable I currently use with my Lampizator Amber 3 DAC
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06Y6M2Q93/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1
I use a bunch of those too. I like the look and they bend and hold form which is nice for multi unit set-ups like mine. No discernible difference in sound one way or the other but the extra thickness is appreciated in my application
Tthey have held up well over the past year+ 
These cablesare great but their 3 foot at most. i need a 5 or 6 footer. i cant seem to find one
Here’s a 20 foot cable for 15 bucks
