Audience FrontRow USB - I’m puzzled

Amazing that it retains its good sound quality when it's defective. 

Defective cable would be my guess as well.

That is what I’m suspecting as well. 

I haven't used the Lending Library.  I assume these are cables that have been sent out on multiple occasions for review?  Perhaps it got damaged by one of the reviewers. 

I'm probably stating the obvious.  I'm just not familiar with how the lending library works. 

@fthompson251 thanks! let’s see it it works. this will still be s demo. Hopefully I’ll get it in time for the weekend. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Meantime I’m researching alternatives just in case.

Oh and the FrontRow I’m getting will be the standard copper version. Because I need 1.5m the Reserve (silver) is much more expensive so I have to pass on that for now. 

@audphile1  Good to know you got a chance to get this resolved, now get ready to really enjoy your music, give the cable lots of time-that silver is a boitch to break in. 

Spoke with Joe over at Audience who thinks it’s a defective cable.
Plan right now is to get another demo from the cable company.

@fthompson251 yes it is a really nice sonic improvement. I’ll be calling Audience later today to see what they say. Hopefully they know what the root cause of the issue may be. 

Sounds like voltage drop to the point the the signal is not recognised. Just an uneducated guess however. 

As to the sound I’m very impressed with it. Relaxed, airy, natural and laid back but very detailed. My AQ Diamond is slightly thinner and more forward sounding in comparison.

This is EXACTLY the difference I heard when I introduced the frontRow Reserve USB into my rig. I hope you get this figured out. The common dominator seems to be a defective cable-but weird that it works for a while. I hope you can exchange for another cable to try.

@zlone Yes my AQ Diamond and stock USB work fine. I stated that.
The issue is intermittent with the Audience USB

On the bright side it sounds like it offers a perfectly black background. 😀

Maybe obvious, but not stated, if you put your old cable back in, do you get sound?

Thanks!

It’s 1.5m - same as my AQ Diamond. Nordost was 2m and stock USB is probably 1.25m. I don’t think it matters or at least it shouldn’t when we’re talking 1.5m long usb.

Curious. 

Is it a longer demo cable or roughly the same length as the others you tried? Like you, I struggle to understand how a cable can work intermittently though I could see how a long cable “might” introduce communication issues. I think you’re right that it must be a defective cable with a marginal connection to a pin somewhere in the termination. 

Hope it gets sorted out.

Best,

That’s not a bad idea to test it with a computer. I can use mac mini to stream from tidal snd see if it craps out. I opened a support ticket with Aurender as well. Hope they find something.
 

As to the sound I’m very impressed with it. Relaxed, airy, natural and laid back but very detailed. My AQ Diamond is slightly thinner and more forward sounding in comparison. The Audience is a clear winner - the difference is not subtle. I also prefer the FrontRow over Nordost Tyr 2 that I just demoed, which also worked flawlessly without hiccups. 
I hope it’s just a defective cable.

Does the USB cable work on a computer peripheral connect to a computer? Do you have a portable USB drive that you can use to transfer some files from a computer. The computer maybe more informative if an error occurs.

I am interested in your take on the FrontRow USB. I am not one for boutique USB but I love the FrontRow speaker cables and was wondering about their USB.