What brand and price is suitably, and sounds good fore the money, for an USB Cable, for sound transfering from MacBook Pro to my USB DAC? It is a YBA D100 DAC.
USB Cable for sound? What Price?
- Thread starter Klipsch
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bigboss
Moderator
steve_1979
Well-known member
All USB cables sound identical (unless it's broken). Any cheap one that has good build quality will be fine.
chebby
Well-known member
record_spot
Well-known member
Buy two USB cables. One should be a modest cost, but of good build, type - maybe £10, £15? Easily obtained from John Lewis, or Amazon, or similar. Fisual would no doubt make one, or Belkin. The other should be something of substantial cost - maybe an Audioquest Carbon, or Coffee. A USB cable that's in the low three figures - I think the AQ Carbon is about £140 for 0.75m, the Coffee somewhat more. You should buy that from a retailer who will give you sixty days to try it out and return it if you don't feel it's doing it for you. You just risk the cost of return, via fully insured post, so you're at no risk of being out of pocket if the worst should happen.
Is there any maximum length on the USB cable, i have to think about, I ahve in mind 5 Meters, is that to much?
Si O' the Times
Well-known member
Hi,
I've just bought a WireWorld Chroma for £28 from Amazon and I'm very happy with it. I'm not sure how much of it is snake oil/placebo effect, but it seems to sound better than the cheap one that came with my DACmagic 100.
I've just bought a WireWorld Chroma for £28 from Amazon and I'm very happy with it. I'm not sure how much of it is snake oil/placebo effect, but it seems to sound better than the cheap one that came with my DACmagic 100.
Is there any maximum length on the USB cable, i have to think about, I have in mind 5 Meters, is that to much?
Is there any maximum length on the USB cable, i have to think about, I have in mind 5 Meters, is that to much?
bigboss
Moderator
The USB specification limits the length of a cable between full speed (or high speed) devices to 5 meters (16 feet 5 inches) and for low speed devices the limit is 3 meters (9 feet 10 inches).
abacus
Well-known member
USB cables do not carry any audio sound, just digital information, so they either work or they don't.
Go for one that feels flexible, (Less chance of it breaking) has good strain relief on the plugs (To help prevent breakage pulling the plugs in and out) and gold plated connections. (To reduce the buildup of corrosion)
Avoid Hifi cable manufactures, as they will charge you a fortune for a cheap cable with a fancy look.
Your local computer shop or online store will be able to supply a suitable cable at minimum cost.
Hope this helps
Bill
Go for one that feels flexible, (Less chance of it breaking) has good strain relief on the plugs (To help prevent breakage pulling the plugs in and out) and gold plated connections. (To reduce the buildup of corrosion)
Avoid Hifi cable manufactures, as they will charge you a fortune for a cheap cable with a fancy look.
Your local computer shop or online store will be able to supply a suitable cable at minimum cost.
Hope this helps
Bill
Frank Harvey
Well-known member
Like anything, there's two ways you can go about this. One, is to place faith in specs, and believe that no cable can make any difference whatsoever and just buy the cheapest cable you can lay your hands on. The second, is to be open to the fact that the quality of a USB cable could make a difference, and try a standard one and a better quality one. Try them in your own system (get your other half to swap them over if you wish to blind test), and see if you can detect a difference. We've had a few individuals in the computer industry detect differences, despite the fact that they can't understand why there is a difference, or why they're able to tell a difference.
I personally not saying there is a difference, just relaying the findings of others.
I personally not saying there is a difference, just relaying the findings of others.
There cannot be any differences in sound in a digital cable. Digital is not something we discovered like radio waves, electricity or magnetism, we (humans) invented it. There is no mystery or sudden surprises to be discovered. We know how it works because we spec'd it out to the very last bit. The analog-style differences people think they hear when using different digital cables are completely imaginary because the kind of differences they claim to hear just cannot exist in the digital domain. All you need to worry about is buying a well-made cable of the length you require.
...and just to fully grasp how stupid the idea is that 'HiFi' USB cables can make any difference at all, ask yourself if you'd expect to notice any different in your prints if you used one to conntect your printer to your PC. The suggestion I'm sure you'll agree is absolutely ludicrous, yet when the digital data is destined to be converted into music and not a picture, the rules are changed somehow...
Frank Harvey
Well-known member
It's a wonder that we discover anything if we believe everything is impossible.MajorFubar said:
David@FrankHarvey said:
That is because believing has no part in discovering things. It is built and designed for a specific purpose, which is bit perfect transmission, and it works (yay). Else we would have a hard time using our keyboards and mouses.
Frank Harvey
Well-known member
More specifically, it's a case of being open minded. Have you tried various USB cables?Laurens_B said:
Just because it's irrelevant unless you believe in the simplistic 'digits is digits' doesn't make it any more pertinent to ths discussion.Laurens_B said:
David@FrankHarvey said:
It's not about belief or not being open minded. We didn't discover digital audio and digital audio transmission, we invented it, along with every codec and specification that goes with it, none of which permit differences to manifest themselves in the way 'believers' claim to hear. To think otherwise just shows extreme ignorance of the subject, in the same way that there remain other crackpots who claim WAV and FLAC files of the same piece of audio sound different, even when you can prove to them that the files are so identical they'll mathematically null each other if you invert the phase of one of them.
I realise that many people are still reeling from the fact that 30-odd years ago, in one single swoop digital audio in the home wiped-out so much ambiguity and subjectivity that existed with analogue audio, where one person claimed X and someone else claimed Y, and it was often impossible to prove who was right because there was no absolute 'one version of the truth'. But digital just doesn't work like that. Spreading silly voodoo that says otherwise just confuses people like the OP and leaves him uncertain of who to believe.
spiny norman said:
No, it's an absolutely relevant analogy, but your refusal to understand why doesn't make it less so.
Frank Harvey
Well-known member
The joy of forums.MajorFubar said:
According to yourself, there is only one person to believe anyway. And if you'd have read my posts a little more carefully (or just understood it better), all I did was recommend he try some out. It costs nothing to try something for yourself.
David@FrankHarvey said:
Absolutely, but that person is not me, it's everyone involved with the development of digital audio and digital audio transmission, codecs and protocols for about 50 years. All I'm doing it re-stating the blindingly obvious.
David@FrankHarvey said:
No of course it doesn't, on that we agree. But if someone came along and said their CD player sounds better when they bounce the infra-red light from the remote-sender off a mirror, and so please can you give some advice regarding a good mirror upto around £300 that will return the best increase in sound quality for the money, would you explain to them that the differences they think they're hearing are just not possible because it just cannot be the case, or would you recommend some nice £300 mirrors? Because I know the claims about digital audio transmission are just as ludicrous as the above ridiculous scenario, because I understand at least the basics of how digital audio works, that's why I do my best to step in and try to save them some money.
Frank Harvey
Well-known member
I'm glad you understand the basics of digital audio - but it isn't necessarily the basics we are talking about here.
The only thing confusing newcomers are the continuous tennis match replies - say your piece, then get out of the way and let others have their say. That's what forums are for.
The only thing confusing newcomers are the continuous tennis match replies - say your piece, then get out of the way and let others have their say. That's what forums are for.
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