Comparison of some usb cables for audiophile use
I've been testing some usb cables for a few months now, to connect the output of my streamer (momentary, I'm waiting for a new toy from Lucas Audio Lab) to the input of my TOTALDAC Sublime! Vincent, the owner of TOTALDAC claims that his creature prefers aesebu connections, but I find it very difficult to find a pure aesebu connection using a PC as a streamer/music server, there always seems to be a double conversion! The PC based on commercial hardware always uses an internal connection via the usb standard! Then let's use USB! Interestingly, changing USB cables changes the sound, for obvious reasons that can be traced back to digital noise reduction or modulation and time delay attenuation (more generally speaking). There are those who believe this and those who have many doubts about it, claiming that there is no basic research that can reveal the real electronic reasons why digital signals are so annoyingly dependent on the type of cable used.
We have a Spirit USB, an old version from a Danish cable manufacturer Dyhrolm Audio priced at 545 euros per metre.
We have an Oyaide Continental 5S V2 USB cable, costing around 450 euros for a metre and twenty.
We have a TOTALDAC d1 USB first version costing around 450 euros for a short length of cable encapsulated in an armoured filter.
We have an AUDIOQUEST DIAMOND USB, costing 929 euros for a metre and a half.
We have my reference cable one metre long, costing over 3000 euros
We will compare these cables with Totaldac's new one-metre GIGAFILTER USB cable costing 1750 euros.
Both the Oyaide and Audioquest have pure silver internal conductors, Dyhrolm Audio's Spirit is a mixed gold-silver and copper cable, TOTALDAC's cable is not known for its composition, it looks like an industrial cat 8 cable encapsulated in an armoured filter but much larger than the previous version. For my reference cable, the internal composition is not known.
The road test will come out with the new article soon, here I focus on the final conclusions and reflections.
I honestly can't fault any of the cables in the comparison, in each cable there are certain characteristics that define its own sound, this is to say that even though I have made a ranking we can find good in every product!
The Oyaide comes across as the least successful cable in the test, as it pushes too hard in the mid-high range, sounding less organic than the others, the apparent perceived detail being more a feature of the material used in its manufacture. It may be fine in a mid-range system that requires a boost up and a damping of low frequencies.
Dyhrolm Audio's Spirit is more balanced than its Japanese predecessor, but it remains more homogeneous, tending to mask things a bit in between! I consider it as a generalist cable with neither too many faults nor merits. For its price, it is nevertheless recommended.
TOTALDAC's first filtered cable, which I think can only be found on the second-hand market, is definitely better than the previous ones, pushing into cable territory costing over a thousand euros. Balanced sound with a lot of detail, wide and credible soundstage, highly recommended!
AUDIOQUEST's Diamond, while containing a nice silver weight, breaks away from metal stereotypes by presenting outstanding characteristics. Wide soundstage, increased dynamics making you perceive details that before were difficult to appreciate, perhaps due to a lesser masking of the digital information due to an active isolation system patented by the American company. In the end, it remains an excellent cable that can be used without too many worries in most audio systems.
We arrive at the summit, where my reference cable fights it out with TOTALDAC's new GIGAFILTER cable.
Making a necessary premise, I believe that at these levels, the audio system we have at our disposal is very important. Using a digital source at a very high level, I am always on the lookout for the best cable to add that extra grain to the music reproduction. Both cables present absolute characteristics, very wide soundstage, extreme dynamics allowing you to perceive even the slightest detail easily without too much attention mode, i.e. you don't have to concentrate on the track to understand one or the other thing, everything is brought with extreme clarity. It is interesting how these cables return a greater wealth of information underneath where the music is lacking in the vast majority of systems that are always ready to go boom boom without a real tonal note of what that boom boom is, here there is something more, very low level information that allows the digital source to reconstruct more accurately what is going on underneath in the depths of the music!
In the end and after quite a few months of plugging and unplugging I preferred TOTALDAC's cable, the GIGAFILTER compared to my reference has something more, a sort of ambience, an aura, a sense of greater naturalness that makes me prefer this type of approach especially for long listening sessions.
I would like to add a consideration. I tried the TOTALDAC GIGAFILTER cable on the system of another friend of mine to see if the conditions that I heard on my system were also present in a more modest system. I must say that, even in a lesser form, I perceived the same naturalness combined with record-breaking dynamics and resolution! It seems, from the test done, that even in smaller systems the GIGAFILTER can give a nice boost to digital reproduction, which is no small thing! Try it out and maybe let me know. Distinctive features: takes the digital feel out of music, brings you closer with a more natural and relaxed performance while maintaining dynamics and resolution at a very high level!
I've been testing some usb cables for a few months now, to connect the output of my streamer (momentary, I'm waiting for a new toy from Lucas Audio Lab) to the input of my TOTALDAC Sublime! Vincent, the owner of TOTALDAC claims that his creature prefers aesebu connections, but I find it very difficult to find a pure aesebu connection using a PC as a streamer/music server, there always seems to be a double conversion! The PC based on commercial hardware always uses an internal connection via the usb standard! Then let's use USB! Interestingly, changing USB cables changes the sound, for obvious reasons that can be traced back to digital noise reduction or modulation and time delay attenuation (more generally speaking). There are those who believe this and those who have many doubts about it, claiming that there is no basic research that can reveal the real electronic reasons why digital signals are so annoyingly dependent on the type of cable used.
We have a Spirit USB, an old version from a Danish cable manufacturer Dyhrolm Audio priced at 545 euros per metre.
We have an Oyaide Continental 5S V2 USB cable, costing around 450 euros for a metre and twenty.
We have a TOTALDAC d1 USB first version costing around 450 euros for a short length of cable encapsulated in an armoured filter.
We have an AUDIOQUEST DIAMOND USB, costing 929 euros for a metre and a half.
We have my reference cable one metre long, costing over 3000 euros
We will compare these cables with Totaldac's new one-metre GIGAFILTER USB cable costing 1750 euros.
Both the Oyaide and Audioquest have pure silver internal conductors, Dyhrolm Audio's Spirit is a mixed gold-silver and copper cable, TOTALDAC's cable is not known for its composition, it looks like an industrial cat 8 cable encapsulated in an armoured filter but much larger than the previous version. For my reference cable, the internal composition is not known.
The road test will come out with the new article soon, here I focus on the final conclusions and reflections.
I honestly can't fault any of the cables in the comparison, in each cable there are certain characteristics that define its own sound, this is to say that even though I have made a ranking we can find good in every product!
The Oyaide comes across as the least successful cable in the test, as it pushes too hard in the mid-high range, sounding less organic than the others, the apparent perceived detail being more a feature of the material used in its manufacture. It may be fine in a mid-range system that requires a boost up and a damping of low frequencies.
Dyhrolm Audio's Spirit is more balanced than its Japanese predecessor, but it remains more homogeneous, tending to mask things a bit in between! I consider it as a generalist cable with neither too many faults nor merits. For its price, it is nevertheless recommended.
TOTALDAC's first filtered cable, which I think can only be found on the second-hand market, is definitely better than the previous ones, pushing into cable territory costing over a thousand euros. Balanced sound with a lot of detail, wide and credible soundstage, highly recommended!
AUDIOQUEST's Diamond, while containing a nice silver weight, breaks away from metal stereotypes by presenting outstanding characteristics. Wide soundstage, increased dynamics making you perceive details that before were difficult to appreciate, perhaps due to a lesser masking of the digital information due to an active isolation system patented by the American company. In the end, it remains an excellent cable that can be used without too many worries in most audio systems.
We arrive at the summit, where my reference cable fights it out with TOTALDAC's new GIGAFILTER cable.
Making a necessary premise, I believe that at these levels, the audio system we have at our disposal is very important. Using a digital source at a very high level, I am always on the lookout for the best cable to add that extra grain to the music reproduction. Both cables present absolute characteristics, very wide soundstage, extreme dynamics allowing you to perceive even the slightest detail easily without too much attention mode, i.e. you don't have to concentrate on the track to understand one or the other thing, everything is brought with extreme clarity. It is interesting how these cables return a greater wealth of information underneath where the music is lacking in the vast majority of systems that are always ready to go boom boom without a real tonal note of what that boom boom is, here there is something more, very low level information that allows the digital source to reconstruct more accurately what is going on underneath in the depths of the music!
In the end and after quite a few months of plugging and unplugging I preferred TOTALDAC's cable, the GIGAFILTER compared to my reference has something more, a sort of ambience, an aura, a sense of greater naturalness that makes me prefer this type of approach especially for long listening sessions.
I would like to add a consideration. I tried the TOTALDAC GIGAFILTER cable on the system of another friend of mine to see if the conditions that I heard on my system were also present in a more modest system. I must say that, even in a lesser form, I perceived the same naturalness combined with record-breaking dynamics and resolution! It seems, from the test done, that even in smaller systems the GIGAFILTER can give a nice boost to digital reproduction, which is no small thing! Try it out and maybe let me know. Distinctive features: takes the digital feel out of music, brings you closer with a more natural and relaxed performance while maintaining dynamics and resolution at a very high level!
