Will a quality USB cable make a difference....

I especially enjoy those who dismiss the possibility it is the cable yet make unsubstantiated guesses like "I believe that most of the sound effects that are erroneously identified as jitter are in fact the result of elasticity buffer stack overflows" or "I believe that most audiophiles can't discerne jitter (w/ USB2), and wouldn't know what it sounded like even if if they could."

BTW what difference does it make whether or not they can identify the source of the distortion as long as they can hear it. I bet you could inject an audible level of measurable distortion like THD into a system and most couldn't tell you what it is and furthermore wouldn't care as long as they had a way to reduce it.

So to sum it all up, yet another gigantic waste of time. I could search the archives and come up with hundreds of threads exactly like this one. The engineers can't explain it so they refuse to believe it exists while others don't care a hoot about explanations as long as they are convinced they hear it.

Oh yeah, and once again it has deteriorated into a pissing contest between the two factions. Who could have seen that one coming :>)

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It's my money and I can spend it or not spend it. They're my ears and I hear what I hear. When I state an opinion I'll say it's my opinion. When I state a fact I'll say it's a fact that is verifiable. As I've stated earlier in this thread I have listened to a commercial USB cable, a Belden Gold cable and a Nordost Blue Heaven cable. In my opinion, to my ears, I couldn't hear a difference between the Belden and Nordost.

What bothers me is when others tell their opinions as fact. Or don't qualify them as their subjective view. Both objective and subjective views are both valuable tools for evaluation for me. I weight the beliefs of others depending on who's making them. Sometimes I even value some's opinion that is contra to mines if I know their listening preferences are opposite of mine. I don't think I've read any evidence within this thread that has convicted me that different USB cable makes a significant difference between each other above a quality build. YMMV

Over the years, the basis of my listening experience with USB cables is reflected in this incomplete list: Belden, Cryoparts, Locus Design, WireWorld Starlight, stock Oyen Minipro USB cable, dbaudiolabs The Essential Signature, Ridge Street Audio Poiema!!! (two different versions), Ridge Street Audio Alethias (two different versions), Virtue Audio, and tomorrow I'll receive a Ridge Street Audio Enopias from Robert.

My experience is that the use each of these cables results in a significantly different audio experience depending upon which of my three systems they are on, which DAC is being used, and which MacMini (2,1 and 4,1; how much memory each has, and whether they have the stock HD or SSD drive) and what peripheral hard drive is being used and its cabling.

Over the years, my experience is that selection of USB cables matters.

I’ve gained this experience by buying different cables, breaking them in properly, listening to a variety of music through them for extended periods of time, taking notes, listening with other music lovers, comparing, contrasting, and using them on three significantly different systems over which I have complete control. I have my favorites on my systems right now, and I’ll see what the Enopias has to offer in the weeks to come.

My suggestion to those audiophiles new to USB DAC-based music systems is for them to listen to several different USB audio cables and determine what satisfies and pleases.

Your experience might be similar to mine (in which there are large differences to be heard and experienced), or similar to Baka1969 (in which, evidently, no differences were detected), or uniquely your own.

In addition, I can say, based on my experience, that the more the cable is played/used, the more of its inherent qualities are revealed. A simple 1 hour playing/listening will not reveal enough information. Why this time is required (in my experience, sometimes hundreds of hours), I have no idea, but on my systems it is very obvious.

One final comment: when someone contributes to these discussions who has "skin" in the game, e.g. Steve Nugent, I think this makes a difference than say my commentary.

I'm a person who loves music and wants a reasonably good quality reproduction of that music.

Within the limitations of my time and budget, I gain experience by trying out equipment and cabling. I gain perspectives and ideas by "listening" to others with greater knowledge and experience than I have.

When someone has their business and their professional reputation in this adventure, that's quite another thing. Audio is a very small community. Should Steve or someone similar in the engineering, manufacturing, and sales of these devices write something that is not accurate or valid, they pay with their livelihood and reputation. If I say something inaccurate or ignorant, I can apologize and move on without much impairment.

Paying attention to those who have their "skin" in the game, imho is a bit different. After all, contributors like Steve N. could just let audiophools blabber on in ignorance and misinformation and in the process mislead those new to audio.

jmo ymmv

:) listening,

Ed

It is your ears/brain that are adjusting and not the cable. MY OPINION

I appreciate what Istanbulu said. He qualified it as his experience. On a similar note I have found different interconnects and power cords soud different to varied degrees. I still have the three different USB cables with me and will do some listening over the next few days just to retset what I've heard before. I have a very wide variety of genres I listen to (rock, prog, jazz, classical, blues, hip hop to name just a few of the many) so it will give me a decent idea what the USB cables do and don't sound like to me.