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Made My Own USB cable

Made my own usb cable.

Since one of my recent usb cables became defective, and had to send it off for repair, I decided to try my hand at a DIY usb version. I have made in the past interconnects, speaker cables and power cords, and I have always tried to use the best materials available.

Well, I just completed the usb cable. And to my surprise it is a lot better than any usb cable I have tried. Way better than some other highly acclaimed $$$ cables that I have on hand or others that I have tried. Hard to believe, but I’m not kidding it is that good.

Construction:

The wire that was used is a 24-gauge .9999 soft annealed pure silver wire. I kept the wires separated and placed them on clear (about 4”) wide packing tape with the sticky side up. I then placed another tape over the wires thus sealing the wires. I used usb connectors that were easy to use and that also helps to keep the wires separated. I also ran a separate pure silver ground wire of the same material. Link to the usb connectors below.

zdyCGTime USB 2.0 A Screw Terminal Block Connector USB 2.0 A Male Plug to 5 Pin/Way Female Bolt Screw Shield terminals Pluggable Type Adapter Connector Converter 300V 8A(2Pack) (Male)

From first play I knew I had made something special. Playing some Hi Rez CCR song, “Green River” where the guitar starts from the right now comes from way over to the right. I didn’t think it could go so far over to the right! It wasn’t a difference that was hard to tell. No, what I heard was a quite natural sound that seemed so comfortable and relaxed but was also very dynamic that possessed a wide, wide open soundstage. The bass has that boogie quality and the mids and treble were again the best I have heard with my equipment. There is a presence in the sound quality that is hard to believe, singers, and images reach out to touch. I made two versions; one was about ½ meter long the other about 1 meter. I’m still undecided as to which length sounds the best.

But I am confused, it won’t pass a DSD signal? Very strange… but, 16-24/96 or 192hz is no problem.

So, cable wire quality and the barest construction method used appears to be very important, even with usb digital cables.

ozzy


128x128ozzy
techno__dude
511 posts
 
My full respect for your skill and patience in making your own usb cable.

I use an Audioquest Coffee coupled to an IFI power filter. The terminations soldering are very important in a usb cable. I trust Audioquest as they have been the first in the  buisness to make high end usb cables years ago when the dac revolution begin. They had the means to do so , working with very thin wire and the precise machines to terminate them.
The difference we ear between usb cables is mostly how they deal with the noise induced by the computer. The less noise in the beginning, the less the difference between cables.
ozzy's avatar
ozzy OP
7,460 posts
 
Thanks for your response and I mostly agree with you.
But... my DIY usb cable would put it too shame.

ozzy
ozzy's avatar
ozzy OP
7,460 posts
 
I just added am Omega E card on top of the business end of my DIY usb which resulted in further improvement!

ozzy
techno__dude
511 posts
 
I really don’t think it would put it to shame. All dacs now have asynchronous usb and with a nice quality silver plated copper cable that has bandwidth and speed, you will ear everything you need to ear in any file send by a digital source.

Asynchronous connexion is not like a spdif coaxial one. There is very minimal jitter, and no loss of information between the gear. 
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