$500 USB cable

I just finished counting up all the blind testing results for cables over the past 40 years and the results might surprise you. 32,455 heard differences, 54 did not hear differences. I suggest we behave like adults and throw away the 54 outliers, pick up the pieces and move on.

An ordinary man has no means of deliverance.

wmarkhall
18 posts
02-04-2017 4:04pm
Cable sales hinge on confirmation bias and gear G.A.S. I've done blind testing with interconnects and speaker cables. I failed miserably, and I'm a musician. Then I examined the science. Cables are snake oil. There's nothing else to be said.

We can throw out blind tests that have negative results since the are outliers. There are many reasons why someone doesn't get positive results. If you like I can list them.

All signals are analog. The only difference is the information contained in the signal. In one case it’s an analog waveform, in the other a series of square waves representing voltage levels. So actually the so called digital signal doesn't contain ones and zeros, but representations of ones and zeros. Both types of signals are electromagnetic waves, I.e. Near Light Speed, I.e., photons.

kijanki
Perhaps we should understand what is happening to fully understand insanity of expensive USB cables. In asynchronous USB, computer transfers the data in frames at about 1kHz rate. USB DAC places the data in the buffer and responds with under/over buffer signal causing less or more data in the next frame. This data is clocked into D/A converter with internal DAC clock that is independent of the transfer or computer. The only thing that can remotely affect the sound is noise injected/radiated by the cable.

as fate would have it the same arguments can be applied to digital cables, both metal conductors and fiber optic cable TOSlink. Yet, in the case of digital cables there are obvious differenes in sound quality depending on the cable type and manufacturer. Consequently I'm not ready to buy into the similar arguments for USB cable, either.