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Does it make sense to buy a $150 USB cable when your DAC sold for $300 in 2014

qguy

qguy

Super Member
Does it make sense to buy a $150 USB cable when your DAC sold for $300 in 2014

DAC is Musical Fidelity V90
USB cable is Audioquest Carbon
Amp is Rotel 1090
Loudspeakers : Acarian Alon IV
No Pre-amp
Source is Laptop

Another option is the Audioquest Cinnamon at $75
 
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qguy said:
Does it make sense to buy a $150 USB cable when your DAC sold for $300 in 2014
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I dicked around with Computer audio & USB quite a bit. Something I discovered was that going to a UpTone Audio USB Regen made much more of a difference than the various USB cables I tried. (Kimber, Audioquest, some hi $$ super dooper shielded thing, one that was designed to be noise free in automotive use, the standard Belden's etc.)

It was actually pretty interesting, once I installed the USB Regen, I could not hear any difference in the various cables I used.

I have since moved away from using a laptop and USB.

BTW, Acarian Alon IV, cool speakers!

Good luck and let us know how it goes.
 
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4-2-7 said:
Yes there is I see a bunch of them
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Oh yes they exist, is an expensive one better than a standard cheapo, nope. I don't get into speaker or component cable debates, but USB is a different animal. Don't get me wrong, different USB protocols vary with results, but will a USB 3.1 expensive be any different than a $4 USB 3.1, no. Same thing with HDMI cables; it's been scientifically proven.
 
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My opinion: anything above midrange in price, say $20 - $50, will yield no sonic benefit (but might look cool and give you bragging rights). Bottom of the barrel stuff (like a cable from Walgreens or the carwash) can be unreliable.
 
And above $30 may be overkill. To Hajidub’s point, paying a little more buys you reliability, more solid connections and maybe some RF shielding; not much else.
 
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If it is a standard 1m or 2m USB 2.0 A-B cable, I usually grab a handful out of the recycling whenever the IT department at work has a cleanup.

I'm not convinced that the digital domain is the place to be spending lots of money on cables in my system.
 
I always buy the cheapest cables I can find. I will confess that I did have a cable that I use strictly for charging break. It didn't really break, but it charged REALLY slow. I didn't think that could happen but I tested it. Sure enough, though it did charge, it was at around 10% of the charging speed of other cables.

BTW, the exception to my rule is speaker wire. There it is about gauge. I get 16 gauge zip cord, not 24 gauge. When it comes to speaker wire, it's all about gauge.
 
I am a little skeptical with USB cables, but because I use all other quality cables, I dropped the $75 for the Cinnamon for my PC based system to feed the Fubar DAC.
 
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