The Absolute Sound "review" of USB cable reads suspiciously like a press releaste

@nonoise it clearly reads as a press release, TAS has a separate News tab full of press releases and this is filed under Equipment Reports. More likely a simple mistake rather than something more nefarious or lazy.

I've read TAS for years and I get their email newsletter. The newest one just came today. The headline reads " Reviews: KEF, Triangle, Nordost, Muraudio | Joe Lovano". The Nordost refers to the USB cable.

It doesn't look like this is a mistake and it's pretty disturbing. I read both Stereophile and TAS and generally I trust their reviews. They are a tremendous help in buying used equipment that I cannot audition. This "review" blatantly crosses the line between an actual equipment report and a paid advertisement. Shame on TAS.

@jond ,
Agreed. I've seen this type of thing many times before with other releases of new product. Sometimes, when perusing reviews at dailyaudiophile.com, I'll notice a few sites that have the very same mention of the very same product.

Some don't even bother to change a word while others edit it slightly, to give their readers the impression that they were the ones to discover it.

It looks like what TAS did put their spin on a simple press release. What I don't understand is some here getting a good case of the vapors.

All the best,
Nonoise

@elliottbnewcombjr

" Who among you believes the construction of a USB cable will make an audible difference?"

You know, I would like to believe that it couldn't.  But I just recently tried a different USB cable between my server to my DAC and it made an unmistakable difference, and all to the better.  Like buying better DAC can.  I don't like it, either, but there is no denying it, IME.  It seems we need to fiddle with this cable, too, to tune our systems in. Oy.

First in order to convince that USB cables do make a difference, people in the business have to be able to articulate at least in theory why would a USB cable would make a difference.  Using common sense, if you can't prove that something on paper make a difference, then how can you convince that it would make a difference in real life or in practice.

Here is a question posed to some of the more prominent cable designers in the industry and, at least IMO, after reading through all their responses, they can't seem to articulate why such USB cable would make a difference in theory.  This comes from a HiFi+ article awhile ago.

How do you answer those who argue that specialised digital cables don’t and can’t make a difference since digital audio is ‘all ones and zeros’ anyway?

“(Laughs) No argument there—you would
not be talking to an audiophile. The fact is
that digital audio is ‘all ones zeros’ and time.
In digital cables, clocking and time arrival
integrity is crucial to musicality. When the
timing aspects of digital cables are right,
the sonic differences should be (and are)
obvious, so if you can’t hear a difference, don’t buy the cable.” George Cardas of Cardas Audio

“First, there is no music until something
vibrates, electrically or acoustically. Second,
in terms of cables, a digital cable “pulses” off
and on quickly. If the cable does not vibrate
in sync with the music signal, there will be errors. “ Bruce Brisson of MIT


“I don’t argue this point. All cables affect
the final sound of a system so if they don’t
understand this, it’s obvious they have not
listened or can’t overcome their negative
expectation bias. Amusingly there is no
such thing as a “one” or a “zero” where
digital transfer through a cable is concerned.
There is only an analogue signal, which
is “interpreted” as a one or a zero, so
there really is no difference between why
analogue cables effect sound vs digital
cables effecting sound. All cables affect sound in a system.” Ted Denney
of Synergistic Research

“Sit down and shut up and have a listen! Any digital cable
(with the exception of optical cables) in a
hi-fi system is carrying an electrical signal.
That signal is as subject to interference and
mechanical noise as any analogue cable is.
We’ve already mentioned how critical we
think the relationship between conductor
and dielectric material is and if anything, this
is more so when it comes to digital cables.
For the same reason, the quality of shielding
and the ability of that shielding to work
at high frequencies are also critical. One
of the areas of musical performance that
digital cables seem to have a profound effect
on is the coherence with which music is
presented. Producing cables that are able to
carry a musical signal coherently is, we think,
fundamental to every cable design.” Nigel Finn of
The Chord Company
“It might start out as “all ones and zeros”, but
the signal from the output must change from
one to the other and the input device has
to determine at which point a one becomes
a zero and vice-versa. If a cable causes
the voltage rise time to lag or linger it will cause problems.” Ray Kimber of Kimber Kable


“Digital signal is ones and zeros, a lot of them!
However, those who argue against the use
of specialized digital cables overlook one
exceedingly important factor which is the
“timely conveyance” of all of those ones
and zeros. In some digital components the
lack of timely conveyance of digital signal
is referred to as jitter. The electric current
in all cables, by which digital information
is conveyed, is impacted by conductivity,
dielectric absorption, impedance, eddy
current resistance and correspondingly
the integrity of the timely conveyance of
the massive amount of digital information
is also altered. At the end of the day, I use
the most sophisticated and precise test
instrumentation in the world, the human
hearing system. And, by that standard alone
it is clear that different digital cables have a big impact on the sound.” John McDonald of Audience


“The digital signals that are used in our audio
equipment are not dissimilar to an analogue
signal, only that they are constant amplitude
but still constitute numerous frequencies.
Exact representation of these frequencies in
relation to triggering and lack of unwanted
interferences influences the end result—the
music that we hear. It is really the DAC that
interprets the signal as ‘zeros & ones’. The
signal itself is just made up of waves, albeit
square waves.” Touraj Moghaddam
of Vertere Acoustics


“We are confident that we can demonstrate
the positive differences that come through
using our digital cables in music systems,
making for a far more enjoyable listening experience.” Graham Nalty of Black Rhodium

“We the only specialized manufacturer
of HMDI and 4K UHD cables in North
America, Nordost has put a lot of R&D into
digital transmission. We have found that
when digital cables are being used, it isn’t
numerical 1s and 0s, but analog square
waves that represent 1s and 0s that are
actually being transferred. The “less square”
a wave is, the harder it is for a DAC to make
a distinction between the so-called 1s and
0s, which results in timing errors. In order to
achieve sharp analog square waves, the cable
must have a large bandwidth and be capable
of high transmission speeds. Therefore,
quality cable design makes a tremendous
audible impact in digital cables.” Joe Reynolds of Nordost

“I explain that those ones and zeros pass
through cables as streamed waveforms with
jitter that creates measurable data errors
that change the sound we hear. I also offer
to send them white papers published by test
instrument manufacturers on that very issue.” David Salz of Wireworld

“They’re correct in that the ones and zeros in
the data remain ones and zeros through the
connecting cable. Where it all goes to hell is
when it’s converted to analog at the other
end, and that is where the connecting cable
and equipment interactions wreak havoc
with the clarity of the sound.
A digital source outputs data, and noise.
The quality of the cable determines both
the integrity of the data and how noise
travels. Today’s digital gear should be looked
upon as an RF system and while designed
to play through faults, the quality of the
analog output, particularly the very low-level
signal portions that brings about a sense of
space and other life-like qualities, is highly
dependent on the care taken in the transport
of the digital signal. Resolution is not black
and white, but rather shades of grey.” Joe Skubinski of JPS Labs

“The zeros and ones are not the problem. It
is about jitter and noise causing a different
sound. Jitter causes timing errors, easily
heard as an unpleasant sonic effect.” Edwin and Gabi Rijnveld
of Siltech and Crystal Cable