+1 to the comment from @jaytor
" If a particular listener prefers one product over another, that's ALL that counts."
I've been listening to 5 USB cables with the express objective of figuring out how little I can spend on a USB cable and still get music that sounds good to me. Several of the cables were loaned to me by a friend and the less expensive cables were purchased by me. The cables were:
Generic HP printer cable: Free with printer (I found it still wrapped in our drawer of computer stuff)
Belkin Gold: $15
Pangea Audio Premier SE: $50
Shunyata Venom: $100-200
Phasure Lush: $253
The cables were connecting a Pro-ject Stream Box Ultra S2 streamer and a Denafrips Ares II DAC.
I started listening with the Shunyata Venom cable as a default of something that is widely mentioned as being decent in sound and did so for two weeks. I burned in each of the cables for about 100 hours before listening seriously (streamer, DAC, amplifier all on but with volume turned down). First, I wanted to hear the generic HP printer cable as the extreme case to understand whether cables make any difference at all. That HP cable sounded so awfully bad that I lasted only about an hour with listening to that cable. My specific impressions were:
generic HP printer cable:
Sound feels shut-in and veiled.
Trailing edge of notes have an overhang.
Treble is a bit harsh.
Bass sounds tubby.
A brief synopsis of my listening notes on the other cables was:
Belkin Gold: Not bad at all in isolation, but lacking a bit in richness and detail versus the higher priced cables. I had high hopes for the inexpensive Belkin as it was a former The Absolute Sound recommended product in 2013.
Pangea: More detail than the Belkin, but also somewhat harsh in tone and a bit congested in sound (more detail, but detail was not easy to understand)
Shunyata: Very solid all around (detail, smoothness of tone, timing, fullness of sound)
Phasure Lush: Unfortunately (as this was the most expensive of all of the cables) this sounded best of all. It did everything as well or better than the Shunyata Venom cable but also had conveyed a beautiful, organic sounding tone quality for acoustic instruments and voices, but still conveyed the edge in Kurt Cobain's voice better than the Shunyata and Pangea cables.
Perhaps the most telling takeaways for me was that even though I had five cables that I could use, I ALWAYS wanted to go back to the Phasure Lush cable. I'm listening to Trevor Pinnock playing Bach's The Well Tempered Clavier on harpsichord and thinking/feeling just how beautiful this sounds. I can say that with different USB cables, the Ares II DAC was definitely more/less listenable & more/less enjoyable for me. Can that difference be measured by the equipment and measurements that current science is aware of? Maybe...Maybe not. Would I rather spend my time listening via the Phasure Lush USB cable than the other cables I tested? Definitely.
" If a particular listener prefers one product over another, that's ALL that counts."
I've been listening to 5 USB cables with the express objective of figuring out how little I can spend on a USB cable and still get music that sounds good to me. Several of the cables were loaned to me by a friend and the less expensive cables were purchased by me. The cables were:
Generic HP printer cable: Free with printer (I found it still wrapped in our drawer of computer stuff)
Belkin Gold: $15
Pangea Audio Premier SE: $50
Shunyata Venom: $100-200
Phasure Lush: $253
The cables were connecting a Pro-ject Stream Box Ultra S2 streamer and a Denafrips Ares II DAC.
I started listening with the Shunyata Venom cable as a default of something that is widely mentioned as being decent in sound and did so for two weeks. I burned in each of the cables for about 100 hours before listening seriously (streamer, DAC, amplifier all on but with volume turned down). First, I wanted to hear the generic HP printer cable as the extreme case to understand whether cables make any difference at all. That HP cable sounded so awfully bad that I lasted only about an hour with listening to that cable. My specific impressions were:
generic HP printer cable:
Sound feels shut-in and veiled.
Trailing edge of notes have an overhang.
Treble is a bit harsh.
Bass sounds tubby.
A brief synopsis of my listening notes on the other cables was:
Belkin Gold: Not bad at all in isolation, but lacking a bit in richness and detail versus the higher priced cables. I had high hopes for the inexpensive Belkin as it was a former The Absolute Sound recommended product in 2013.
Pangea: More detail than the Belkin, but also somewhat harsh in tone and a bit congested in sound (more detail, but detail was not easy to understand)
Shunyata: Very solid all around (detail, smoothness of tone, timing, fullness of sound)
Phasure Lush: Unfortunately (as this was the most expensive of all of the cables) this sounded best of all. It did everything as well or better than the Shunyata Venom cable but also had conveyed a beautiful, organic sounding tone quality for acoustic instruments and voices, but still conveyed the edge in Kurt Cobain's voice better than the Shunyata and Pangea cables.
Perhaps the most telling takeaways for me was that even though I had five cables that I could use, I ALWAYS wanted to go back to the Phasure Lush cable. I'm listening to Trevor Pinnock playing Bach's The Well Tempered Clavier on harpsichord and thinking/feeling just how beautiful this sounds. I can say that with different USB cables, the Ares II DAC was definitely more/less listenable & more/less enjoyable for me. Can that difference be measured by the equipment and measurements that current science is aware of? Maybe...Maybe not. Would I rather spend my time listening via the Phasure Lush USB cable than the other cables I tested? Definitely.