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

wynpalmer
Yes, many CDs are just dross, while a few are quite magical.

>>>>I can certainly understand why you would believe that but it’s not because the CDs per sec are dross. It’s because the playback system can not retrieve the data completely or accurately. It’s not even close. One’s hear is not particularly sensitive to various kinds of distortion present on almost all CDs when they are played back on home systems. But almost any yahoo with ears can hear the LACK of those distortions when they are removed. 

@wynpalmer4  

Two questions:

1.  Can a 1 be mistaken for a 0 at the usb receiver if the waveform is degraded enough?  

2.  If the DAC is receiving a degraded waveform and the data recovery circuitry is working hard to sort through it, does this circuitry not increase the electrical noise in the DAC?  If so, is it negligible or does that just depend on the DAC design?

My approach is to try to provide the cleanest signal possible from streamer to DAC within reason, if for nothing other than peace of mind.  This does not include cables made from unobtainium however.

Just thought of another:

I upsample all of my PCM content to DSD 512.

Is the data recovery fast enough to handle a poor signal with that much data coming through? 

My approach is to try to provide the cleanest signal possible from streamer to DAC within reason, if for nothing other than peace of mind. This does not include cables made from unobtainium however.

No need for unobtainium or exotic metals as long as you adhere to USB 2.0 regs, which require:
copper wire of the appropriate gauges,
a real aluminum sheath and not some aluminum vapor deposited onto some cheap, thin mylar sheet covering 100% of the cable, 
a copper sheath covering 65% of the cable,
and able to meet transmission rates.

Think of all the meat you buy and realize that not one major meat packing company meets USDA requirements, yet the meat has the USDA stamp of approval on it.

Same goes for USB 2.0 compliant cables. Do your due diligence and you'll find companies that'll gladly appraise you of what's inside their cables, meeting or exceeding standards, that won't break the bank.

All the best,
Nonoise

Just a FYI.

The reason redbook format has such low resolution, because at the time, you know back in the early digital age, the CD storage could not hold as much information as it does now.  If redbook was to have the same resolution as SACD, the size of the disk would be huge which made it impractical for portability (for example a hand carried player).