USB cables do they make a difference?

Basically I agree with this article:
archimago.blogspot.nl/2014/01/de … sb-or.html
if the cable is VERY bad you get transmission errors and retransmissions that may at the end produce a click/pop, otherwise it’s ok.
And, more important, the level of quality necessary to avoid this is not difficult to achieve, as I said, a 3m cable costing 3-6 €/$ is fine.

An external HDD doesn’t need constant-rate transfers, guaranteed bandwidth or bounded latency. It just waits for data or tries to send data, for disk protocol is different then audio. To contrary belief, USB supports many protocols, some place more demand on the USB 2.0 standard then others.
The current USB standard is designed to reach 192khz at 24 bit, at a length of 5 m. Bit perfect transfer can require 1000 packets a sec. Bios, OS, hardware, USB cables that can’t meet the spec will cause audio issues. Many argue over USB cables digital faults. Does an Amazon $3.00 cable sound different then an expensive cable , the issue might not be do to the digital factor, but the 5 volts being delivered as well. Creating voltage drops, on suspect USB power supplies. The one thing that we can say about high quality USB cables, the enhancements will improve propagation delay and reduced voltage drops. Things that some hardware need, because the hardware isn’t perfect. The CM6631a chip I bought for my system is from the same lot used in a very high priced DAC. They both function, but are they both perfect, how about that USB circuit, or the BIOS-OS?
This argument has been around since 2007. Much to many people hear improvements. Is it just a placebo effect. I don’t think so, for to many people have heard the differences. ABx is also subjected to the equipment being used and is not always reflective to everyone’s systems. Your Raspberry pi is a $40 computer, do you expect that it is perfect? Anyway that is my two cents.

Neither does audio, there are buffers on both ends of the cable and buffers can take up to 100ms of data, that is more than every retransmit can ever require.

Oh, people hear what they desire, that’s not a point. Audio is more experience than specifications, for example people waste money on cables when the same amount could be spent in a better room insulation (both from outside or from internal reflections) that would bring SO much more improvement… And other people buy speakers like Indiana Line (the first I have in mind) or others, and all these speakers “color” the sound a lot, therefore making it different from the original and making expenses on cables totally useless. If they cared about purity/fidelity of the sound they would buy “monitor speakers” that are made specifically to reproduce the sound as it is fed to them. And the same applies to tube amplifiers, they horribly distort, but people like it.

I am saying that cables do not improve the objective sound or specifications (if we take away the very cheapest ones). If the listening experience requires you to spend money on them because you want to feel more relaxed, ok. But novices should have VERY clear that the sound is (scientifically) not affected by them. And then they will decide where to spend the money.

We are talking about cables. You can use cheap or expensive cables on the same R-Pi and compare. The same applies with higher-end systems. No need to compare R-Pi with other systems (even if, as bits go, everything before the DAC has almost zero importance, provided the software is the same).

Hard disks have large caches and use protocols that allow for the retransmit of bad packets.
USB devices in DACs do not have enough buffer to retransmit bad packets. They only require 1ms of buffer. We get bit imperfect transitions on occasion, or loose entire packets.
Poor circuitry and RF implementations are usually the greatest fault of USB, mostly circuit based, but do not exclude cabling as part of that circuit.
I am not saying we all need $500 cables, made of low oxygen coper, covered in pure silver, and then frozen. I am saying, do not contribute to the defects of USB. Cables are important part of the circuits.
Cables also add noise and attenuate high frequencies. This will slow the rise time of the digital data. That makes the edge detection inaccurate. This is a prime source of jitter. I like my square waves, square and not rounding in the corner and my signals accurate.
So we are taking both transport integrity and jitter, something that can be contributed to all aspects of the circuit including cables. If I have a $1000 DAC, I have no attentions on limiting it performance with cheep cables.

I think choice of cable makes a significant difference to SQ assuming you have the equipment to hear it. Having said this a $5000 cable won’t improve the sound of a $500 system. You have to keep things proportionate.

The single biggest improvement I ever made was getting the cardas replacement senn hd-650 headphone cable. $150 way back when and still going strong…Cables that sit still are less subject to this ; not ony was there a significant improvement in the sound quality, but this cable moves around a lot, and is constantly being plugged in and out and is a lot longer than stock, so it was a very good deal!

On the other hand the bell cable that I laid when the carpet was lifted for my then cheap left rear and right rear speakers is now driving what were my much more expensive front speakers. As I upgraded the front ones. And sent the old fronts to the back. A purist might have lifted the carpets again and laid naim cable or some such, but the things are only ever outputting rear channel sound effects and so on. They get music played on them only when I play my few 5.1 concert dvds… And then it’s at most applause and hall echo’s so ‘it’s just like being there’… So why bother changing the cable?

I certainly put good quality cables between my rega dac and the preamp (Linn blacks and chord prodac pro.) And they certainly made a big difference. The USB/spdif has prodac sliver plus which I go it 2nd hand on eBay, into the dac and I can hear the difference… So now I need to decide on the USB cable, between the Cubox-i and the USB/spdif.

My instinct says that spending $30-$60 on a cable between a $60 converter and $130 mini computer is idiotic as I already have a ‘printer’ USB a to b that seems to work fine… But every other cable I’ve replaced has audibly improved sq compared to stock… So I’m struggling with this one.

Any evidence?

That’s like asking if you can prove that a girl is more beautiful than her friend or the Ferrari Enzo is a better car than the Fiat 500.

The evidence in all these cases is subjective and comes from your eyes, ears, feelings, desires, standards and needs.

I can hear the difference between a Linn Black or Chord Prodac and standard cabling. On my system, set up my way. If I couldn’t I wouldn’t keep buying them. But what you can hear on your system may be entirely different.

This is the beauty of HiFi - Or audiophillia - The permutations and variables are so huge no two systems ever sound quite the same. An iPod of similar age and quality of file, sounds pretty identical to the next iPod. A system consisting of a turntable, on a shelf bracket, with a tone arm, stylus, phono stage, cabling, preamp, 3 poweramps, and 5 speakers, some biwired ; a head phone amp, head phones. With a CD transport, DS transport, hi-res dac, HFi DVD player, Satellite TV receiver, and network media player. All connected by over a hundred cables is not in any way shape or form going to sound the same as any one else’s.
eg My turntable is 30 years old. It’s had three new motors, one of which was an upgrade. Two new tone arms, a tone arm upgrade and about 6 styluses. Thee last sytlus was a major upgrade. Each time something changed I could hear the difference.

So really, listen. Trust your ears. If you can hear a difference, and it sounds better, go with it. If you can’t then don’t. :slight_smile: