To expand on what others are saying, the beauty of digital signaling is either all the bits get there or nothing does. There is no degradation of signal so boutique USB, Toslink, and digital Coax cables are all pretty much snake oil, thatās not to say there isnāt value in getting something decently made with a decent jacket to protect the cable and such, but just an extra couple dollars over the cheapest thing available will get you that.
Some of the high end USB audio cables have not even been made a cording to USB-standards.
They might have ābetterā material inside, so being ābetterā.
So they might not work tech.correct between devices, device recognition might not work, speed is totally off what it should be and other data issues.
2$ printer cable made with standards might work more correctly.
Monoprice makes a pretty nice cable and its cheap too. 13.39$ for 6 foot. check out this description:
- 23AWG solid-core silver-plated signal conductors for low loss and higher conductivity
- 22AWG oxygen-free copper power conductors for better power delivery
- Advanced foamed polyurethane dielectric for low signal loss
- Quadruple shielded for rejection of RFI and EMI
- Signal conductors have separate aluminum foil shield
- Overall oxygen-free copper/tinned-copper braided shield
- Overall double-sided aluminum foil shield
- Silver content solder joints
- 24K gold-plated connectors for best electrical contact
- Nylon braided sleeve for tangle-free handling
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Thatās correct with a file. If a bit isnāt there, the packet is corrupted and dropped. The transfer is stopped and a new request for the data is made. Not so with audio - itās essentially a stream. A missing bit = dropped packet = sound degradation. There is no request for re-sending of bad data from a DAC to the source.
Over a single point to point connection that is running a typical length (less than 10 feet) assuming the cable is of some reasonable spec you absolutely are not experiencing any packet loss at the receiving end. I work on computer networks every day. USB has stayed around so long because itās an incredibly reliable bus for point to point communication. Trust me, there is zero difference in data transmission between a $15 cable and a $95 cable. None. Audiophiles are always in search of better, we can have a fantastic system and we go, hmmmm, what if I did this, and thatās what these snake oil salesmen count on. There is not such thing as an audiophile grade USB cable.
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Cool, thanks for that real world perspective on the subject 
I use optical, I mean everyone knows the speed of light is best. 
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I have used printer cable, Amazon basics, and audioquest. Thereās no difference.
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Year me too,have teseted printer Cable vs the Inakustik usb cabel over 50ā¬ and have heard no difference.
Only thing where is good and suffisant when the cabel are Hf restistend and are shielded in my eyes.Need not more.And can find it for 30ā¬/$.
Better yet - use coax. 2 less signal conversions for potential error introduction (electric ā light, light ā electric).
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@Rorogo just wait till you wire your full systemā¦interconnects, HP cables/speaker cables etcā¦youāll not sleep for weeks instead of just listening to the music?
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and if your computer doesnāt have one of theseā¦
I wonder if I connect that to my printer, it will make my print quality better.
Itās shit like that that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt what snake oil and audiophile go hand in had.
Even reviewers that one would trust, periodically say they have a friend that can can hear the difference between RCA connector HOUSINGS. Or that they plugged in this audiophile quality TOSLINK cable and they could immediately hear the difference.
Seriously.
Now the one place you can make an argument for improvement in cables is in the analog realm. Like I said, digital, assuming you follow the guidelines in the spec and are not using a total junk cable itās all going to be good (except HDMI sometimes because that spec is in a constant state of flux and usually it an HDCP issue more than lost packets)
Now if you want to spend a few bucks more on analog RCA or on speaker cables, there is some justification there. A good set of RCA interconnects can deaden noise substantially. Now thatās not to say you have to pay obscene amounts for quality, but lets say you see a cable at five below and one online for $30, itās a good chance that the $30 analog cable is substantially better.
All this stuff gets grouped together, but there is plenty of evidence that at least some sorts of cables have an impact. Itās just as dangerous to yell snake oil at everything because of a simplified world view as it is to believe everything that get thrown around.
TOSLINK Optical cables for example are among the worst digital transports and there are very measurably differences in error rates between low quality fibre optic connections and higher quality ones. Coax is a much better was to go for SPDIF.
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But the whole point of the technology is that if it works it works. Thereās NO such thing as it works BETTER. When it doesnāt work, anyone can hear it, no just those with golden audiophile ears. I donāt buy bargain basement gear, hell my Toslink cable is an Audioquest, but I buy it because of the bling, not because of the improved functionality.
Consider the same sources telling you they hear a a difference in the Toslink cable are the ones telling you they hear a different in the $1000 dollar Ethernet cable. The Ethernet cable that connect to a TCP/IP (error corrected) protocol router.
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Another example is the importance placed on the CD mechanism. The above and beyond lengths they claim to go in the mechanical side of the drive to make sure you get audiophile quality CD reads. The same CD reads that happen at single speed Redbook. Yet we all have CD drives in our computer that read (spin) at rate 20X or greater than the original Redbook audio spec. And they read that data bit perfect. Hell, I can rip a high quality FLAC with dB Poweramp at 15X speed using a $30 dollar USB connected CD ROM.
We have to as a community accept that some things really ARE snake oil. We may not care, but they are. In all things there are degrees of importance, and we all agree that good cables matter, but we are all still allowed to have different reasons why we prefer the bling. It is just lunacy though to say otherwise.
I would offer my services and rip a CD file using a $15 dollar cable and using a $150 USB cable and do an ABX comparison where you pick out 5 out of 5 correctly. Now remember, this is a RIP happening at 15X Redbook audio speed. So there would have to be a difference right?
EDIT: as a matter of fact, thinking through this, we can do this exersise as a community and see what we come up with.
One person (Iād be more than happy to volunteer) creates a rip of 5 songs. A/B/X comparison. So one example with a $15 dollar USB Cable, one example with a high end cable, and then one random example of either. So it would be in one folder, file A, file B and file X. It would be up to the member to listen and say which two files are identical and when tabulated we should have a clear picture whether it was recorded with the inferior quality USB cable or not, we should be able to pick the pair.
Do this with five songs, and we all report what we think we hear on the a thread. At the end of a month letās say, the author of the test posts the correct answers.
Such fun.
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Iād be totally down for this. Win or lose.
I mean the listening part lol
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As I have already written above, I personally find it totally sufficient if the cable is HF protected or against electromagnetic interference.
I would say itās worth it from $ 20 to $ 80-100 to see where that can be done.
However, the price is irrelevant, anything up to $ 100 and you fulfill these two things and beyond that would only be a bonus.
With the USB cable I really noticed zero differences.I have now paid ā¬ 50 for almost nothing except that it is future-proof and can transfer more data. Maybe for DSD if the standard becomes interesting. I would start with the USB cable. Protected by electromagnetic fields and high data transfer rate.
At Audiquest Nrg Z2 and Z 3 compared to the standard cable, I could hear a little bit of difference.
At the beginning of the Z2 I thought wasted money, sent back and stamped under Voodoo, standard and suddenly something was missing.I thought it shouldnāt be true.
So I went over to the Z3 because it is even better insulated, the expensive fun.
But it was worth it, the background was darker and calmer and a little more open and a little more pep.
Surely a $ 100 cable that meets the requirements would also have done that.
I didnāt test it.
But for me that was the point where I said shit you have to stop.
Reasonable cable okay as long as the price is right.
I like audio quest very much. They have great products that are mostly sensible and also tickle something.
But what really annoys me is that you have very tight tolerances on the connector, which is probably because of the contact surface, but it is extremely annoying.
Thanks to the warranty, I was able to have two Golden Gate Rca cables exchanged again after 3 months of use because it had kinked when pulled out and broke.
With the Nrg Z3 when I pull it I have the feeling that I have the Dac in two pieces.
I also believe that Db_Cooper is not wrong with his statement, I am almost certain we would not hear any difference.
And in one point I also have to say if there were really audible differences whether the recording was so deep that you could actually perceive it. These nuances are very minimal in terms of ācable soundā
Is a interesting point do you have 
.
The other point is where I still wanted to address. I enjoy audio very much and everything I have nothing against good or better cables as long as they are affordable for everyone who just wants to enjoy good music. However, I find industries that are always senseless Less resources are wasting for any misconception as well as those where they produce extremely cheaply without quality behind them where everything does not matter if it comes to a cable fire.
These are the people who only destroy and destroy the reputation, the market and the scene with their stupid ingenuity that you show and also rip people off with it.
Something has to be forbidden, because you can make good things with much less hocus-pocus.
An Rca cable that is supposed to be made of silver, where the Rca connection is made of wood, to ask for $ 2000 is just rip off.
The last tip is to follow a golden rule.
Setting yourself the limit of what I want or can I spend, what is important to me?
And doing a little research saves more money in the end.
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