USB cables can sound different?

**The Vinyl Adventure** · 21-03-2010, 16:25

All have mine have been basic ones to be fair... We have a posh one at the shop that has been on the shelf for about 3 years ... I might borrow it for educational reasons

**Kris** · 21-03-2010, 16:28

Plug the usb cable of choice into the pc and external hard drive. Copy a file to the HD. Compare copied file to the original. If its identical, the cable is working, if it isn't identical, the cable isn't working. Full stop. Ones and zeros don't sound of anything and the only way to change the resulting sound is to corrupt the ones and zeros.

I wonder, if I use a kimber usb cable to copy a photo over, will the resulting file have more vivid colours?

$42 for a half meter usb cable? A fool and his money are soon parted. IMO.

**The Vinyl Adventure** · 21-03-2010, 16:32

Isn't coax just 1's and 0's... And what about my USB hub question
I have no clue either way.. I'm just interested

**Kris** · 21-03-2010, 16:42

what about my USB hub question

I once bought a mega cheap USB hub. It was crap. half my usb stuff couldn't connect, and when it did there were corruptions. So I bought one for £10. Excellent quality!

One should always buy good quality stuff.

**John** · 21-03-2010, 16:54

Kris I think kimber charge silly money for a USB cable too
But I will not deny my experience I hear what i hear and have free cable that has the same performance as the Kimber but I have several cheap black cables that I find slightly tiring in comparision I do not know the science but trust my ears

**The Vinyl Adventure** · 21-03-2010, 17:09

Why can a bad USB cable be like a bad hub ... My system had issues with a bad hub so why couldn't it have issues with a bad cable?????????

**Kris** · 21-03-2010, 17:10

That's fair enough, good quality cable & connectors probably introduce less jitter than the cheap no name cables.

Quality in no way equates with cost. IMO. but if people feel better about life using expensive USB cables, then that's fine with me. Crack on.

**Rare Bird** · 21-03-2010, 17:33

Originally Posted by John

I do not know the reason why and been very reluctant to share as I knew the reaction would be skeptical I would not recommend anyone to get a kimber cable as I said I got a cable for free which is just as good but if i use a bog standard cable I do not enjoy the sound as much that is my honest experience make of it as you will
As Hamish said this could be either in the connection itself or something else

Even though i don't need the USB anymore cos i'm 24Bit it was connecting my printer to computer before that happened..

**Themis** · 21-03-2010, 17:38

Well, USB Audio has no error recovery, like S/PDIF.
So, the quality of the USB cable can make a difference, as moreover USB has a active (DC) connection right next to the signal ones.

Now, as Kris says, at one point, each of us has to take a decision for:
- stop investing silly money on trying to improve through cables a fragile isochronous interface like USB, or
- start using another interface (S/PDIF, Firewire, etc).

In the end, it is much cheaper getting an S/PDIF card than an expensive cable.

**The Vinyl Adventure** · 21-03-2010, 17:57

It would seem I have made a good decision with my spdif card then

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