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USB printer cable VS USB audiophile grade cable?

I have converted to PC audio about 2 years ago and enjoying the hobby. I recently upgraded my DAC from a Benchmark DAC1 HDR to a DAC2 HGC mainly to download DSD files. I am now using a 'regular' 12 ft. Belden USB printer cable purchased at Office Depot which sounds great. The Benchmark uses asynchronous clocking system to re-clock incoming bytes from the PC.

I just purchased an audiophile grade USB cable (Furutech GT2 Pro-USB). To my great surprise, this Furutech cable just trounced the printer cable. Noise level is down, music micro-details are popping up and bass goes down much lower. I've listened to some of my older CD's which I am pretty familiar with and hearing details I never heard previously. So it has nothing to do with jitter, since the Benchmark is handling it. The 'bits are bits' theory, which I subscribed to has some cracks to it...

Before I purchased this cable, I was of the opinion that the only sonical gain I would get would be better immunity to EMI/RFI since the Furutech has greater isolation. However, this purchase turned out to be of much greater sonical value for about $300.

I am perplexed and very happy at the same time :-)

What is going on?
dasign

Showing 2 responses by vhiner

vhiner
544 posts
 
When it comes to playing back digital music files, everything matters. If you
have a system resolving enough to re-create the natural micro-details that
convey musicality, you will easily hear the difference between standard
USB data cables and well-designed audiophile grade cables. The best I
have heard so far are the brand new versions of Shunyata's Venom USB
and the Chord Company's Signature Tuned Array USB. They both get
much closer to S/PDIF and AES/EBU performance than any stock USB I
have ever tried. Both companies' websites do a decent job of explaining
their approaches to this interface.
vhiner
544 posts
 
Al,

Excellent post!

There certainly is *not* a direct correlation between price and performance
and I also concur that USB cables may not produce the same results from
system to system. That said, there are a few well-designed USB cables out
there that mange to intelligently address some of the challenges you cite
and, as a rule, these cables perform better than stock USB cables and
more consistently so when it comes to delivering music files.

Nonetheless, the wide variety of computer systems and the noise they
create does pose a significant challenge to designers of the USB interface.
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