USB Cables (A-B) for DAC's

spooks1982

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Will a regular cheapo £1 or freebie cable perform the same as a top end £1000 cable? Does shielding from RFI actually matter?

I am guessing a freebie / cheapo cable is going to perform the same but happy to hear opinions.

:)
 

Friesiansam

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I have to say very cheap USB cables are more prone to connection issues, need to be unplugged and plugged in again more often. Could be an issue with contacts wearing, if you plan on keeping your DAC a long time. I found Amazon basics cables to be particularly poor in that respect when I used one with a USB WiFi dongle. For my Pathos DAC/headphone amp, which I expect to keep for many years, I bought QED's cheapest with gold plated contacts and it just works. cost less than 20 quid posted.
 
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muljao

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Cables should not matter as long as they are well built and to spec. A lot of USB cables that you can get in discount shops for phones etc only have the charge wires in them and won't do data though (I know these are not the usb you're talking about).
 
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spooks1982

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Thanks for the responses. I'll guess I'll have to try something reasonable but not super expensive and see for myself. If there are real tangible benefits then I'll get a good one... after all my system is pretty high end so wouldn't want something like a cable holding it back.
 

abacus

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As mentioned above, stay clear of cheap ones as they are usually very poorly made and will not last long and cause connection problems.

Get one from a pro music store as they will stock those which don’t keep getting returned as faulty. (Unless really long don’t spend more than £10 on one)

Bill
 
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kukulec

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Will a regular cheapo £1 or freebie cable perform the same as a top end £1000 cable? Does shielding from RFI actually matter?

I am guessing a freebie / cheapo cable is going to perform the same but happy to hear opinions.

:)

They can sound a bit different (maybe just a trick of my brain), but in my experience USB cable brings the least change in sound. I had/have: printer cable, Klotz, Vertere d-Fi, Wireworld Chroma 8, QED Performance Graphite, QED New Reference High-Resolution. The latter is the best, and I like it a lot. Still the best price/quality ratio goes for QED Performance Graphite as it is cheap and nearly as good as anything else. I heard more expensive USB cables with quite expensive systems and all I can say, if there is a part where we can save a lot of money, it is on the digital cables. Oh, and your Luxmans are great :)
 
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spooks1982

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Jun 9, 2015
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They can sound a bit different (maybe just a trick of my brain), but in my experience USB cable brings the least change in sound. I had/have: printer cable, Klotz, Vertere d-Fi, Wireworld Chroma 8, QED Performance Graphite, QED New Reference High-Resolution. The latter is the best, and I like it a lot. Still the best price/quality ratio goes for QED Performance Graphite as it is cheap and nearly as good as anything else. I heard more expensive USB cables with quite expensive systems and all I can say, if there is a part where we can save a lot of money, it is on the digital cables. Oh, and your Luxmans are great :)

Thanks very much - yes I am in love with the luxmans. Infact I think I've almost reached audio nirvana - I'm not sure how much better it can get but I don't think I'm to bothered about exploring it anymore. I'll stick with what I've got and enjoy it. I'll give the QED cable a go - my first proper hi-fi system was cabled with QED exclusively and was happy back then.
 

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