USB printer cable VS USB audiophile grade cable?

Very interesting conversation. Not completely on topic but related, i have been confused as to why i have found better results using usb vs optical cables to connect my macbook to my rega dac. I would think that bits would arrive cleaner by having a sort of wall between the noisy multi purpose computer and the dac. Optical i would have thought would provide this vs a usb which relies on an electric signal from the computer. These improved results were noticable with none of steves suggestions and a cheap printer cable.

I would think that bits would arrive cleaner by having a sort of wall between the noisy multi purpose computer and the dac. Optical i would have thought would provide this vs a usb which relies on an electric signal from the computer.

Yes, that is a potential advantage of an optical connection. However what you have found, at least in your setup, is that the potential disadvantages of an optical connection outweigh that potential advantage.

One potential disadvantage, I believe, is that the electrical outputs of optical-to-electrical transducers tend to have slow risetimes and falltimes (i.e., slow transitions between their higher voltage and lower voltage states, and vice versa), which can adversely affect the jitter performance of the subsequent circuitry in the DAC. Also, my understanding is that waveform quality, and ultimately jitter, can often be adversely affected by the quality, or lack thereof, of many optical cables.

It is telling that in S/PDIF applications, where digital signals are conveyed from a transport to a DAC, coax connections seem to be preferred by most audiophiles to optical connections.

Regards,
-- Al

Better shielding against noise sources almost always pays dividends when needed. No doubt about that.

It's caused by dirty USB power. It actually adds signal to your music. The Furutech cable is well engineered and rejects some of this electromagnetic interference, which is from your computer. Think about it, there are millions of circuits inside your computer and as they operate they cause interference on a quantum level. It does not affect the computer at all, and the noise generated by these effects simply flows with the electricity, no big deal. Now, if you connect your USB cable to your USB DAC then that polluted power can freely flow down the 5 volt power feed, aka V bus, along the powerline inside each USB cable. This extra noise pollutes the analog outputs of your DAC. It goes right through and into your speakers. Your observation totally nailed it.

USB Disruptor solves this problem, you can read more on usbdisruptor dot com - for $49, not hundreds or thousands.

And, even if your DAC reclocks it doesn't matter. I've gotten great sound out of cheap DAC's - no asynch or fancy Sabre chips - simply by removing the dirty usb power. USB Disruptor makes virtually any DAC sound great, and I don't mean it makes any DAC sound like a Bricasti M1, or DirectStream DAC, or any other of the world's finest DACs, what I mean is it lets the DAC do what it's designed to do, and the cheapest DAC's don't sound bad, they just sound a bit hollow, but very musical and enjoyable.

I assure you, no DAC sounds good with dirty USB power, and like you Dasign, you've heard the difference, but there are so many other people out there that are missing out.

And you don't have to spend a lot, this is a simple problem that was not well understood and in some ways overlooked.

Dirty USB power is the cause of digital woes, I will go down as saying that forever because I've heard it first hand.

It's caused by dirty USB power. It actually adds signal to your music. The Furutech cable is well engineered and rejects some of this electromagnetic interference, which is from your computer. Think about it, there are millions of circuits inside your computer and as they operate they cause interference on a quantum level. It does not affect the computer at all, and the noise generated by these effects simply flows with the electricity, no big deal. Now, if you connect your USB cable to your USB DAC then that polluted power can freely flow down the 5 volt power feed, aka V bus, along the powerline inside each USB cable. This extra noise pollutes the analog outputs of your DAC. It goes right through and into your speakers. Your observation totally nailed it.

USB Disruptor solves this problem, you can read more on usbdisruptor dot com - for $49, not hundreds or thousands. It's for sale on Audiogon.

And, even if your DAC reclocks it doesn't matter. I've gotten great sound out of cheap DAC's - no asynch or fancy Sabre chips - simply by removing the dirty usb power. USB Disruptor makes virtually any DAC sound great, and I don't mean it makes any DAC sound like a Bricasti M1, or DirectStream DAC, or any other of the world's finest DACs, what I mean is it lets the DAC do what it's designed to do, and the cheapest DAC's don't sound bad, they just sound a bit hollow, but very musical and enjoyable.

I assure you, no DAC sounds good with dirty USB power, and like you Dasign, you've heard the difference, but there are so many other people out there that are missing out.

And you don't have to spend a lot, this is a simple problem that was not well understood and in some ways overlooked.

Dirty USB power is the cause of digital woes, I will go down as saying that forever because I've heard it first hand.