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nbaptista
16-03-2010, 22:06
Do you believe in USB cables improvements?This guy from Kimber seems to believe
http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=KKUSBB (select video and watch the Kimber sales man talking)
Many say that this cables only carries 0 and 1 and there is nothing to improve
I´m getting the Kimber next Friday,so I will know the true soon!:violin:

Themis
16-03-2010, 22:21
USB audio has so many imperfections, that the best is to use no cable at all !!! Try this instead : http://www.m2tech.biz/products.html

Fi-Wi
21-03-2010, 12:33
Please be so kind sharing "the truth" with us when you discover it. Or should I say "your truth"? :scratch:

John
21-03-2010, 13:15
I tried this ages ago and can find no difference between the Kimber and the cable supplied by the people I bought my USB converter from; but I do find a slight change against the really cheap black USB cables but I would find it very hard to describe this expect to say that the music seems to flow ever so slightly flowing

Stratmangler
21-03-2010, 13:53
:popcorn:

Rare Bird
21-03-2010, 14:19
Um

The Vinyl Adventure
21-03-2010, 14:44
I have tried a few USB cables, not with intent to see if there is a difference, just through the swaping and changing when stuff gets rewired or moved ... Never noticed any change in sound..
Why is it, just for clarification, that USB cables suposedly dint vary innsound quality when using a USB hub can alter the quality quite drasticly ... Could johns experience not be for the same reasons as using a hub?

DSJR
21-03-2010, 14:54
I've read that USB isn't ideal for digital audio, so, IMO, any supposed difference in performance will be swamped by the USB format. Of course, really cheap-n-nasty wires may have a detrimental effect on the datastream, but so many are reasonably priced I reckon that Kimber are doing it for the diehards who wouldn't accept anything less exalted.

Rare Bird
21-03-2010, 15:08
i have the kimber USB..i'm not even gonna go there

John
21-03-2010, 16:15
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

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? :lol:

$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
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 :)