Photon is a good name for a cable. Maybe they know something other people don’t. 😬
Pranawire Photon USB
I’ve been in the hobby about 4 years now.
It’s just been a constant changing out of every single piece of equipment in hopes of hearing and trying something new, or different, or better. I didn’t have any reference as to what good sound was and no one I knew was an audiophile. I grew up in the age of the MP3/iPod. With that said, slowly but surely, I am starting to develop a back catalog of hifi knowledge. If I wanted to know what a Maggie sounded like, I had to buy one ( I did 1.7i), what’s all the talk about electrostats?( got a pair of martin Logans), etc etc.
Its exhausting, it’s financial idiocy, but it’s really really fun. Sorry for the lengthy preamble, I figured it was worthwhile to introduce myself as this is my first post.
Okay, Cables!
I am not a cable skeptic nor do I pray at the altar of unobtanium metal cold welded by a nun’s glance...
My position with cables is much the same as it is with wine. My feeling is that the difference between a $10 cable and a $250 cable is vast; whereas the difference between a $250 cable and a $1250 cable is minimal. I browse A-gon and all the “marts” etc constantly looking for value and for new things to try. I am a sucker for a killer deal.
I’ve bought cables at full retail (chill down spine) and at a slight discount from the cable company before and it’s always been a pleasant experience. Great service. Personal attention.
The other day I was browsing usedcable, their sister site and see a listing for a 1.2 meter pranawire photon USB for $109. I’ve read many people fawn over this cable, even used, it’s just way too expensive.Hmmmm—— how is this price possible?
I look around— looks like pranawire is still in business...
Is it non functional? No— says condition good.
Okay, I’ll order it and expect an email saying there was an error. Nope, get a thank you email, Jason from the cable company tells me it’s going to ship right away and advised me to let it “ settle down” a bit.
Okay, I get the tracking info.
My phone alert tells me the package was delivered.
I go grab it from the lobby.
i am opening the package.
Well, it looks like the pictures that I’ve seen.
There is a wrap around sticker that says pranawire on one end.
i look online, some of the cables have a similar sticker that says photon and had a serial number. But—- others look just like mine...
okay, let me try to wrestle this snake into place...
I place in between my roon core/server. Connect the ifi defender to the low noise “dac up” out on the motherboard, wrestle it a bit more and connect the other end to my mutec MC3 + USB reclocker. Queue up some music on Roon.
Hit play.
HOLY SH#T...
As an aside, my wife loves to make fun of my fiddling around with audio gear. She’s on more than one occasion basically said oooo that sounds great to get my excited and then proceed to laugh at me and say that it’s the same sh#t and I should sell it all and pay down my debt.
Yeah, so there’s that...
She is sitting in the living room and says the system just went from good to “ live.”
She was dead on.
I’ll spare you all the common place superlatives.
A freaking downstream USB cable transformed my entire system. 100/100 would know in a blind test. Day and night.
So, as I write this, I don’t know what to think anymore.
This cable completely killed my assumptions of what I thought I knew.
The real horrible part is that now I know what a cable can really do. I simply can’t afford cables in that price range. Cruel cruel irony.
Again, sorry for the soliloquy, I just felt like I had to share.
It’s just been a constant changing out of every single piece of equipment in hopes of hearing and trying something new, or different, or better. I didn’t have any reference as to what good sound was and no one I knew was an audiophile. I grew up in the age of the MP3/iPod. With that said, slowly but surely, I am starting to develop a back catalog of hifi knowledge. If I wanted to know what a Maggie sounded like, I had to buy one ( I did 1.7i), what’s all the talk about electrostats?( got a pair of martin Logans), etc etc.
Its exhausting, it’s financial idiocy, but it’s really really fun. Sorry for the lengthy preamble, I figured it was worthwhile to introduce myself as this is my first post.
Okay, Cables!
I am not a cable skeptic nor do I pray at the altar of unobtanium metal cold welded by a nun’s glance...
My position with cables is much the same as it is with wine. My feeling is that the difference between a $10 cable and a $250 cable is vast; whereas the difference between a $250 cable and a $1250 cable is minimal. I browse A-gon and all the “marts” etc constantly looking for value and for new things to try. I am a sucker for a killer deal.
I’ve bought cables at full retail (chill down spine) and at a slight discount from the cable company before and it’s always been a pleasant experience. Great service. Personal attention.
The other day I was browsing usedcable, their sister site and see a listing for a 1.2 meter pranawire photon USB for $109. I’ve read many people fawn over this cable, even used, it’s just way too expensive.Hmmmm—— how is this price possible?
I look around— looks like pranawire is still in business...
Is it non functional? No— says condition good.
Okay, I’ll order it and expect an email saying there was an error. Nope, get a thank you email, Jason from the cable company tells me it’s going to ship right away and advised me to let it “ settle down” a bit.
Okay, I get the tracking info.
My phone alert tells me the package was delivered.
I go grab it from the lobby.
i am opening the package.
Well, it looks like the pictures that I’ve seen.
There is a wrap around sticker that says pranawire on one end.
i look online, some of the cables have a similar sticker that says photon and had a serial number. But—- others look just like mine...
okay, let me try to wrestle this snake into place...
I place in between my roon core/server. Connect the ifi defender to the low noise “dac up” out on the motherboard, wrestle it a bit more and connect the other end to my mutec MC3 + USB reclocker. Queue up some music on Roon.
Hit play.
HOLY SH#T...
As an aside, my wife loves to make fun of my fiddling around with audio gear. She’s on more than one occasion basically said oooo that sounds great to get my excited and then proceed to laugh at me and say that it’s the same sh#t and I should sell it all and pay down my debt.
Yeah, so there’s that...
She is sitting in the living room and says the system just went from good to “ live.”
She was dead on.
I’ll spare you all the common place superlatives.
A freaking downstream USB cable transformed my entire system. 100/100 would know in a blind test. Day and night.
So, as I write this, I don’t know what to think anymore.
This cable completely killed my assumptions of what I thought I knew.
The real horrible part is that now I know what a cable can really do. I simply can’t afford cables in that price range. Cruel cruel irony.
Again, sorry for the soliloquy, I just felt like I had to share.
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