$350 Audiophile USB Type B cable / $1000 Ethernet Cable

[kasugatei]

21 hours ago, mr moose said:

Just wanted to say if you have interference when using an external USB sound device, a cable can make a difference, but it has to be an isolated cable.  This is a USB cable that uses opto-isolaters to electrically separate everything.  It can stop both ground loop and some data line noise issues.

 

However that will not cost more than $20 to implement in any sufficient quality cable. so $350 is a wank.

That is true because ground loops are nasty and it is difficult to pinpoint the source of it. I agree with this point of view, but I believe that the issue is claim that something sounds better than other, not counting interferences from ground loops. 
 

If we had galvanically isolated cheap decent quality USB cable and the most expensive USB cable the sound would not change at all. Unlike what manufacturers of those “audiophile grade” cables promise. 
One manufacturer promises low jitter and low distortion audio. That is not something that depends on the cable but something which is mandated by USB driver chip as well as DAC chip and overall design of the interface. All digital connections have various bit protection techniques implemented. Unless there is significant interference coming from the environment or that used digital cable is utter crap, those protection algorithms are able to detect and rectify errors in the transfer. 
 

To make a long story short, digital connections guarantee that data from the output (eg. PC) is THE SAME as the data which external device will receive (eg. DAC) as long as the connecting cable standards are met. Analog connections are different and prone to distortion because of the outside interference and paying a bit more for the good analog cable makes sense. 

[kokakolia]

This video just freaked me out:

 

 

On one hand, the dude is trying his best to be helpful by telling what to focus your money on. He claims that you should spend the time to improve room acoustics and speaker positioning. Further, you should track down albums with good audio production and mastering. He tells you to ignore expensive cables, hi-res audio formats and worrying about physical formats VS digital formats. 

 

On the other hand he doesn't practice what he preaches. He claims that expensive power cables, speaker cables, USB cables, ethernet cables, weights on amplifiers (+ rubberized feet) & DACs do make a difference on high end systems. He also subscribes to a multitude of streaming services and listens to various physical formats. KEYWORD: high end. 

 

And that's my gripe. You can listen to your music like a plebian and not worry about all of the weird marketing mad science. Or you can be a true audiophile and spend your money in 100 different ways. It does make a difference. But we'll be as vague as possible about quantifying the differences. 

 

Looking at the bigger picture, I suppose that it's subjective. Some guy said that placing a watermelon on his speaker made a difference to the sound. Just let him be. Any one component can make a difference in your system. It's just not clear if these differences are noticeable or if they're genuinely improving the sound (VS degrading the sound). 

[Derkoli]

5 hours ago, kokakolia said:

This video just freaked me out:

 

 

On one hand, the dude is trying his best to be helpful by telling what to focus your money on. He claims that you should spend the time to improve room acoustics and speaker positioning. Further, you should track down albums with good audio production and mastering. He tells you to ignore expensive cables, hi-res audio formats and worrying about physical formats VS digital formats. 

 

On the other hand he doesn't practice what he preaches. He claims that expensive power cables, speaker cables, USB cables, ethernet cables, weights on amplifiers (+ rubberized feet) & DACs do make a difference on high end systems. He also subscribes to a multitude of streaming services and listens to various physical formats. KEYWORD: high end. 

 

And that's my gripe. You can listen to your music like a plebian and not worry about all of the weird marketing mad science. Or you can be a true audiophile and spend your money in 100 different ways. It does make a difference. But we'll be as vague as possible about quantifying the differences. 

 

Looking at the bigger picture, I suppose that it's subjective. Some guy said that placing a watermelon on his speaker made a difference to the sound. Just let him be. Any one component can make a difference in your system. It's just not clear if these differences are noticeable or if they're genuinely improving the sound (VS degrading the sound). 

John Darko's stuff is great. He's into more "future-fi" stuff now in his videos. He reviews and complements stuff which is amazing, such as the Kii Three's, KEF LS50 etc.

 

But yeah, he has expensive power cables, expensive USB cables etc. But atleast he preaches room treatment and speaker positioning.