Two more to add to the list, the Pink Faun Ultra USB and the QSALandri Gamma Infinity USB.
The PF has more body and the GI resolves well. Both top of their game.
The PF has more body and the GI resolves well. Both top of their game.
Can't find much information on the performance of the Audience frontRow Reserve USB anywhere.
Yep, thats what I heard too. I am currently evaluating the AA Audio sigref cable, and its very good! https://aa-audio.com.my/product/aa-sig-ref-usb-audio-cable/For what it's worth, I had the Sinope for around a year, and yes it's very good. I have also tried the Network Acoustics Muon2, which is significantly better than the Sinope, and the CAD II-R.
The Muon2, even out of the box, revealed significantly more detail than the Sinope - but after burn-in I found it a little fatiguing for extended sessions.
Two more to add to the list, the Pink Faun Ultra USB and the QSALandri Gamma Infinity USB.
The PF has more body and the GI resolves well. Both top of their game.
What is your feedback to AA audio USB cables? I’ m looking on the USB XT from them !Yep, thats what I heard too. I am currently evaluating the AA Audio sigref cable, and its very good! https://aa-audio.com.my/product/aa-sig-ref-usb-audio-cable/
For what it's worth, I had the Sinope for around a year, and yes it's very good. I have also tried the Network Acoustics Muon2, which is significantly better than the Sinope, and the CAD II-R.
The Muon2, even out of the box, revealed significantly more detail than the Sinope - but after burn-in I found it a little fatiguing for extended sessions.
The CAD however was the goldilocks cable. Beautifully detailed and highly musical. Melodies, chord changes, key changes - they all seemed more obvious and natural with the CAD.
Obviously this is system dependent, but I'm 95% sure the CAD is the one I'll be happier with over the coming years.
Overall assessment:
First off, all of these cables are good. For the majority, I had a hard time distinguishing them and finding differences, only maybe 3 stood out to me, the rest were very close.
I've just spotted this thread and am bewildered by the comments - not that I've read many of them.
The cables under test were between £500 - 6000 - the latter is more than the cost of all my audio electronics - streamer, DAC, amp and all! Why wasn't a £5 cable included in the test - I suspect it would have been covered by the Overall Assessment conclusion above!
I should be getting the top of the range one in the New Year to review. As I said before, impressed with the Sig RefWhat is your feedback to AA audio USB cables? I’ m looking on the USB XT from them !
Do you think a £5 cable would be any good? Quick answer, no theyre not. We moved on from that sort of thing decades ago, not because we are snobs, but because they are crap and not worth our time. Get a David Laboga Emerald2 on loan and find out for yourselfI've just spotted this thread and am bewildered by some of the comments - not that I've read many of them.
The cables under test were between £500 - 6000 - the latter is more than the cost of all my audio electronics - streamer, DAC, amp and all! Why wasn't a £5 or maybe £15 cable included in the test - I suspect it would still have been covered by the Overall Assessment conclusion above!
I should be getting the top of the range one in the New Year to review. As I said before, impressed with the Sig Ref
You may consider my system as "entry level" but I'd disagree (it's actually very good), and on most other forums, I'm accused to splashing out far too much on kit that other members consider could be matched with their sub £1K systems! Incidentally, I'd put my speakers up against yours any day - I used to own Active 50s.Probably because it would heve been a waste of time. There are numerous published and user reviews, and just privately done tests, where an OEM cable has been compared to a specialized audiophile level cable and found lacking. Without knowing your ears, your post suggests that you haven’t made such comparisons and/or your equipment is not at a level where it would make much of a difference. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be bewildered. I encourage you to recognize that there are some things you might not know or haven’t experienced that others of us do or have, and experiment for yourself. You’ll likely be amazed at the differences. But please don’t hold the sound quality of your entry level system (or budget) against us.
You may consider my system as "entry level" but I'd disagree (it's actually very good), and on most other forums, I'm accused to splashing out far too much on kit that other members consider could be matched with their sub £1K systems! Incidentally, I'd put my speakers up against yours any day - I used to own Active 50s.
In fact I don't use and would avoid using USB cables for audio, so I shouldn't really comment other than to question how much of a difference a £6K cable makes over a £15 one. We will never know!!
I try to avoid cables altogether wherever possible, as the cable that IMPROVES a signal has yet to be invented. It's just how little they spoil the signal that is relevant, so eliminating them as far as possible seems to me to be a good thing.
Great Thanks , waiting for the review ..... can you tell me more about Sig Ref ?I should be getting the top of the range one in the New Year to review. As I said before, impressed with the Sig Ref
Well I've also got a USB cable from Z axis audio I'm about to listen too as well, and was going to do an update to this thread or maybe a new one now with the the three back to back. However, as a bit of a teaser I'll give you some of my notes on the Sig ref (compared to the Tara Master):-Great Thanks , waiting for the review ..... can you tell me more about Sig Ref ?
I agree on silver, but I'll be able to tell you within a month or so as Im being sent one to testIn USD, a 1m top of the line AA costs around $950 at the current exchange rate. Quite a bargain…depending on how it sounds (I’m not a fan of silver sound, but one never knows).
I find USB cable to be one of the least vocal cables in the chain. Speaker and power cables are sonically much more pronounced. Single ended interconnects are far behind those two. USB cable is more close to single ended interconnects. If someone were to say their USB cable had a profound impact, I would wonder what was wrong?
A slight adjustment in the speaker positioning can improve clarity far more than a USB cable. I could hear small differences between the 4 USB cables I had on hand. I kept the Intona that cost about $1200. That was a big swallow for me. It was just a tad more smooth than the FTA I let go. Either of them were only slightly different than a AQ cable I had that in the $300 range. Even a stock $15 cable was not bad. It took a concentrated listen to really hear what was changing. It was small. At the time I was flush with money and in a spending phase, so I bought the Intona. I did not purchase the Intona that was 1 or 2 levels higher in price. I did not hear a difference between the one, one level up, and the most expensive I did not like as much as the one I bought.
If I were to change my amp or speaker, I may prefer the FTA. I gave up some top end accentuation for smooth. You really need to think about the gear you have to select the correct cables. It's a system.