Cardas Clear USB cable... anyone tried it?

The only way a USB cable can make the music sound different is if it allows bits to be corrupted, i.e. cable doesn't meet spec. Serial transmission (serdes, 8b10b encoding)is a totally different world compared to S/PDIF. It's quite easy to see if a USB cable is "bad". Just connect a portable USB drive and copy files back and forth and verify the data is intact (checksums, zip file integrity, etc). If this type of data transmission allowed for bits to be flipped, we'd be having a real hard time posting here.

Jibbonacci... thanks for the revival! I'd be very interested in your reports,whatever your findings, on these cables. I have experience with the Poiema and the Alethias (which I think is quite impressive, and the Poiema is no slouch by any means), but none with the Cardas or the Transparent.

USB cabling does make a difference. It's just whether that difference is compatible with your system.

:) listening,

Ed

I have a Locus Design Nucleus USB cable, and it sounded great when i was still using a USB DAC. However, I've now switched to a Firewire DAC (Weiss DAC 202) so am not using it right now.

So Docmark... what cable are you using for firewire? And what do you think about it?

;) listening,

Ed

Use it and love it! Big dif from stock cheapo cable. PC to PSA PerfectWave DAC. IMHO