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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
jaytor's avatar
jaytor
757 posts
 
The construction technique you are describing will result in a cable with very low capacitance but high inductance. This will create higher impedance as the frequency goes up. This might help to reduce noise transmission, but it will also limit the maximum bandwidth of the cable. This could be why you are not able to get it to work for high frequency DSD signals. 
ozzy's avatar
ozzy OP
7,423 posts
 
jaytor, Thank you for your info.
 
I also think the extreme separation of the wires contributes greatly to the reduced interference of noise transmitted from wire to wire.

However, you get to the end, the sound quality is impressive. 
The only DSD files I have are ones that I created on my Tascam recorder and they may not be representative of a downloaded DSD file. 

Today I will post some pictures of my DIY cable on my systems page. It's not pretty, but again, the sound quality is what it is all about.

ozzy
ozzy's avatar
ozzy OP
7,423 posts
 
Note:
I just added some pictures of my DIY usb cable on my systems page at the end.

ozzy
maplegrovemusic's avatar
maplegrovemusic
1,113 posts
 
Ozzy would you have any interest in building a lot of 5 10 15 20 cables and selling them here on audiogon I would be interested in buying a 2-meter anyone else have interest let him know thanks Ozzy
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
The basic USB cable/interface is a balanced data interface which means there are two data wires (one normal polarity and one reversed polarity).  You must make sure the two data wires are exactly the same length.  If you have unequal lengths, you can cause data timing errors on the receiver side.  This could potentially also explain why the higher bandwidth DSD signals are having a problem.
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