Do red wine and USB cables mix well? I tried it last night.

[Fourlegs]

Ok, I have a nice glass of red wine at my side and it is time to wind down and listen to some usb cables. I was anticipating that this was going to be a difficult to hear differences type of experience because I had my usb cable skeptics hat pulled down tight over my ears.

But here we are only 30 minutes into the comparison and I feel compelled to do an interim report.

I am listening with the Innuos Statement running Roon and set up to output to the experimental Squeezebox Lite endpoint. (Which by the way is now rock solid since installing the Innuos 1.4.4 upgrade a couple of days ago).

The Statement is connected by USB to an MScaler connected to Dave by my own dual BNC cables. Both MScaler and Dave are powered by Sean Jacobs DC4 power supplies. The Dave is connected to Pass Labs XA60.8 monoblocs amps driving the Spendor SP200 speakers.

I normally use Supra USB 2.0 cables which are not expensive (£30 or so) but are well made and sound fine. By that I mean I had probably made up my mind that USB cables are pretty much of a muchness and as long as they were fully compliant with USB then there couldn’t be any issues.

Indeed when I sat down to focus in on the Supra cables as a reference in the system it sounded amazing. In fact just the way it always sounds. It was stunning.

Sorry, just let me reach forward in Keith Floyd style for a slurp of wine (does anyone remember his cookery programmes?)

Where was I, yes, then I tried the Sablon 2020 cable and after that the Callisto USB cable and I admit was instantly blown away by both of them. This was not a subtle change. Gone was a slightly bloated bass that I hadn’t noticed before and instead there was rock solid bass with all sorts of detail. There are lots of other changes to the music but now I’m settling in to listen to each in more detail. It is now not a question of whether I will change my usb cable, rather which one I will change to using.

I was not expecting this.

 

[Fourlegs]

Has anyone else come across the Sablon 2020 or Final Touch Audio Callisto cables?

 

[Boysey]

Way out of my price range..... ouch ![emoji33]

I’ll stick with the Supra USB Cable.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[StingRay]

How much are these cables?

 

[Boysey]

How much are these cables?

€750 & $500 One meter. (Well, that’s what it say on the Internet)[emoji33]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[MotherSky]

Has anyone else come across the Sablon 2020 or Final Touch Audio Callisto cables?

I should start by saying that I have found profound differences between USB cables - after a bit of experimenting at the budget end of the market, I spent a bit of time sniffing around, and the Sablon cable has an excellent reputation, but is way out of my price range - the Curious USB seems to be the one that gets the most attention, and if I could have got one on approval in England, I'd have probably taken a punt on one of those. I'm well aware that there is a very vocal contingent on the internet who will say it is impossible for USB cables to affect sound quality - I think this is probably a question of expectation bias: they KNOW there can't be a difference, therefore they do not hear one... or perhaps (surely not) they have never actually tried different USB cables in their system... I now use a Vovox 'excelsus' USB cable in my system, and found it a very worthwhile upgrade - I do also perceive clear differences between interconnects (both digital and analogue) and speaker cables, and I very much doubt whether anyone claiming "all you need is a competently constructed cable" is going to make any sort of positive contribution to this thread - MH

 

[greybeard]

Has anyone else come across the Sablon 2020 or Final Touch Audio Callisto cables?

As a matter of interest Nick, did the cables you tested have the 5v power lead, or not?

 

[StingRay]

Nick, have you tried the Curious and the Mad Scientist Audio Black Magic cables?

 

[StingRay]

€750 & $500 One meter. (Well, that’s what it say on the Internet)

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks, I could not see anything for the Sablon, only the old cables, I don't think this is in production yet.

 

[Paul-H]

An Audiophool and his money are easily parted, add red wine to the mix and anything goes. 

You should read up on the science and physics of cables.

 

[Boysey]

Fourlegs, I never doubted your assessment as being anything but genuine. Many have said that there are differences in USB cables and I don’t doubt that may be the case.

However, even although I have a reasonably expensive system, I’ve never quite understood how a difference could be heard with a digital cable. After all, isn’t it just 0’s and 1’s and not an analogue signal?

Anyway, each to their own and if it does it for you, that’s super! Any improvement must be beneficial.

I’ve actually done away with any USB Cables in my system and now connect my Mytek Brooklyn + DAC to the MicroRendu by means of an adaptor, Which I thought did make a difference for the better.

In hindsight, I probably would like to try the cables you reviewed but I think that might not happen, as most manufacturers don’t offer a trail period without an upfront purchase.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[awkwardbydesign]

However, even although I have a reasonably expensive system, I’ve never quite understood how a difference could be heard with a digital cable. After all, isn’t it just 0’s and 1’s and not an analogue signal?

No.  Where exactly are these 0's and 1's you speak of?  There is on and off, supposedly, but how is that transmitted? 

 

[Tony_J]

Ok, I have a nice glass of red wine at my side...

Ah, so this was a blind (drunk) test then...

 

[Boysey]

No.  Where exactly are these 0's and 1's you speak of?  There is on and off, supposedly, but how is that transmitted? 

No idea, you need to speak to someone more experienced than I.[emoji106]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[MartinC]

No.  Where exactly are these 0's and 1's you speak of?  There is on and off, supposedly, but how is that transmitted? 

If anyone's interested, here's an example of an actual digital output signal I measured years ago (Edit: Doh! Not USB of course!):

As a matter of interest Nick, did the cables you tested have the 5v power lead, or not?

This would be interesting to know. If there were a clear difference between those that do and those that don't there would at least be a reasonable mechanism to explain this.

Ah, so this was a blind (drunk) test then...

By far the best way to conduct any form of cable test  :^ .

 

[StingRay]

What would be useful is if these could be recorded and then a link posted on here then we can hear them for ourselves to compare. 

 

[MartinC]

What would be useful is if these could be recorded and then a link posted on here then we can hear them for ourselves to compare. 

I think recording and playback limitations mean there is about a 0% chance of that being useful I'm afraid.

 

[MotherSky]

What would be useful is if these could be recorded and then a link posted on here then we can hear them for ourselves to compare. 

Completely (infinitely?) baffled by this suggestion

 

[Tony_J]

By far the best way to conduct any form of cable test  :^ .

Arguably, the only way  ;-)