Without a doubt it’s a great resource to have. I’m enjoying the comparison between the two USB cables (3 essentially counting my AQ Diamond). Hope to wrap this up soon!
Audience FrontRow USB - I’m puzzled
Since I really dig my Audience FrontRow speaker cables and I had a very positive experience with the AU24se+ USB, I decided to take the FrontRow USB out for a test drive (The Cable Co. lending library).
And here’s the problem I am running into…I get no sound after enjoying awesome sound for some time. The Aurender N200 continues to stream or so says the conductor and my Bricasti M3 DAC shows the bitrate but there’s nothing…total silence.
Rebooting the DAC does nothing. Rebooting the N200 fixes the issue.
A couple of notes…
I never change cables with components powered on
I never had this issue with AQ Diamond or stock USB - both rock solid.
Things I tried
1. Power off dac
2. Clear aurender queue
3. Clear aurender cache
4. Log out from qobuz and tidal
5. Power down Aurender. Power it off completely
6. Connect audience USB
7. Power up dac
8. Power up N200
9. Login to services and start streaming to see if it this problem raises its ugly head and it sure did about 2hrs into it
I spoke with The Cable Co. salesman. We discussed sending a replacement demo. I emailed Aurender support. Awaiting their response.
I also plan on giving Audience AV a call to get their take on it.
I like the sound of this USB cable a lot and I do want to make this work.
Any thoughts?
Please let’s stay on topic…this is not a discussion on USB vs. other connections and superiority or inferiority of one over another. It is also not a cables make or don’t make a difference discussion. Please - only technical thoughts on what can be the issue and whether or not you’ve experienced this and how you have addressed it.
Thanks in advance!
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Update 1: the first FrontRow demo was indeed defective. I’ve had the replacement FrontRow USB in for about 36hrs straight playing my playlist on repeat with zero issues. So Joe at Audience was right when he immediately suspected the cable. I’m glad my beloved Aurender and Bricasti are rock solid and were not the culprit here. 2: I’m really enjoying the Stealth USB. this is somewhat unexpected and needs more listening and evaluation but…I’m really impressed with this USB cable. It’s different from any other USB I ever heard to date. I have more time to evaluate and compare so I’m not in a hurry to decide. I’ll post an update after I complete the comparison and make a decision
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@fthompson251 and all…the results are in! Stealth USB cable has won the shootout. As I stated earlier, I really liked the Audience and the second FrontRow demo worked flawlessly. Audience is an improvement when compared to the AQ Diamond that I currently own. There’s a refinement in top end, more relaxed and laid back mids, details galore. I’ve had over 8hrs of listening with Stealth and as much with Audience so my decision isn’t based on a quick A/B comparison (I don’t subscribe to that as changes take time to sink in). While Audience is really good, compared to Stealth it sounds forward, hyper detailed, analytical and even slightly dry. I know these attributes aren’t typically associated with Audience cables but that’s what it sounds like when compared to Stealth. Stealth USB cable provides warmth, weight, texture, depth, lower noise floor and is the least hifi sounding cable I ever had a pleasure of evaluating. The bass is absolutely mind blowing with colors and presence that’s unmatched by FrontRow. When I went back to Audience for probably the 3rd time, I caught myself listening to sounds, analyzing every instrument’s tone, focusing on high frequencies, realizing there’s digital glare in the mids. Now as we all know synergy is critical, it’s all subjective and system dependent so my conclusion could very well be isolated to my case. Who knows. All I know though is I’m enjoying every minute listening to music with this cable without getting distracted by involuntary analysis of a recording. So that’s it for now!
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- 45 posts total