Currently trialling an Aurender N100 I decided to compare the only two USB cables with suitable connectors that I had in my house a £750 Chord Sarum Tuned ARAY and a Canon printer cable.
I have never compared USB cables before being innately sceptical about differences between digital cables generally but I was truly shocked - the sound using the Chord Sarum was better in every way - open, detailed and lively whilst the sound using the printer cable was flat and lifeless.
Now I have no idea why the Sarum sounds better and it doesn't mean that I will splash out £750 on a USB cable but I will now have to try some other options. Hopefully at least one of them will prove to be as good as/close to the Sarum at a fraction of the cost....
EDIT: I've read positive comments about the Chord Silver Plus (about £55) and, of course, the TotalDac cable (bit expensive - €360) - any others I should try?
philp i had a similar shock to you. while my upgrade from VERY cheap to expensive speaker cables didnt seem to bring about heaven and earth changes, upgrading from my printer cable to a paul pang usb cable was a fantastic move.
So there is another options for you - paul pang usb cable
audioquest usb cable
jcat usb cable
(16-Jun-2015, 00:14)completeluxury Wrote: [ -> ]philp i had a similar shock to you. while my upgrade from VERY cheap to expensive speaker cables didnt seem to bring about heaven and earth changes, upgrading from my printer cable to a paul pang usb cable was a fantastic move.
So there is another options for you - paul pang usb cable
audioquest usb cable
jcat usb cable
Thanks for those suggestions. I see what I can borrow. Planned power outage today - 6 hours for tree felling! - so I won't get much work or listening done
Once my Aries arrives (delivery in approx. 1-2 weeks), I will be comparing the Chord Silver Plus USB (Price point 50€) with their Signature Tuned Array USB (Price Point 580€) just for the fun of it. Can provide some feedback on the results if you like.
I've been using the Chord Silver Plus for a few months and it really is a very good budget cable. Just bought a Totaldac USB/Filter cable which arrived yesterday.
I am using the silver cable from Atrisan Silver Cables from the UK. Excellent quality and much cheaper than many of the "high end" cable brands
(16-Jun-2015, 08:52)PhilP Wrote: [ -> ] (16-Jun-2015, 00:14)completeluxury Wrote: [ -> ]philp i had a similar shock to you. while my upgrade from VERY cheap to expensive speaker cables didnt seem to bring about heaven and earth changes, upgrading from my printer cable to a paul pang usb cable was a fantastic move.
So there is another options for you - paul pang usb cable
audioquest usb cable
jcat usb cable
Thanks for those suggestions. I see what I can borrow. Planned power outage today - 6 hours for tree felling! - so I won't get much work or listening done
Can see from other forum that the jcat usb cable is very popular,specially among the Aires users
Did a shoot out about 18months ago with a few friends - audioquest coffee, furutech gt2, vertere d-Fi v2 with Aqvox. The vertere d-Fi v2 with Aqvox was preferred over the more expensive AQ. This was tested on a naim 282, 250, supercap, ndac, 555, with a USB/spdif interface and Powerline all the way. We also tried random printer USB cable, which was just slightly worse than the furutech. The preference was based on musical performance rather than details. Details -wise, weren't all that different. The main differences were random USB cable did hear some noise whereas the others didn't. I didn't remember the other details of the shoot out, but the group concluded the Vertere was preferred only with the Aqvox which we inferred the treating of the USB cable's powered 5v pin is quite important. Not sure how this observation is still true with so many new developments in USB cables. Looking forward to learning more as I will need a USB cable when dialog finally works with "Le expert"
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
PhilP, I use the Chord Signature TA cable to great effect. Nearly half the price of the Sarum TA, and in my system well worthwhile.
I've had the TotalDac USB cable for a few days. While it is still not hit its stride, I can tell that it is an exceptional cable. It is very much better than the previously installed Shunyata Venom. Very smooth yet revealing, I hear all of the little details and their timbre is correct.
My D200 hasn't quite settled in, but the difference from both DH Labs and Shunyata Venom cables is remarkable. I am good for now.