JPS Superconductor V USB Cable Review

[antcollinet]

I should have added, the cable I came across that I felt boosted the volume was a toslink cable. Switching between 2 of them one was obviously louder...though no measurement was done.

That must have been cognitive bias at play (perhaps similar to Amir's "second cable sounds better"

Toslink being digital cannot alter the volume of the signal. To do so it would have to multiply all the values of all the samples it transmits by a fixed value. Clearly a cable cannot do this.

 

[kemmler3D]

JPS Labs Superconductor V Ultra High Performance USB Cable0.75 meter

New micro insulated quad Alumiloy conductors in a very flexible noise rejecting shielded design offers all resolutions of digital audio beyond DSD sampling rates with excellent clarity. As with analog interconnects, excellent low level details and a highly refined sound. Not dull and boring nor...

jpslabs.com

Alumiloy® Proprietary Conductor

High Performance Wire Alumiloy, the registered trademark of the proprietary conductors used in most of JPS Labs finished audio cable designs, consists of ultra-pure metals and other elements in a composite conductor material. Many years of working with such materials led JPS on a path of...

jpslabs.com

JSmith

Funny enough these descriptions are technically true, in the most extreme sense.

"New micro insulated quad Alumiloy conductors in a very flexible noise rejecting shielded design offers all resolutions of digital audio beyond DSD sampling rates with excellent clarity."

Yes, just like all cables.

"As with analog interconnects, excellent low level details and a highly refined sound. Not dull and boring nor thin and bright, this USB cable lets you hear your music through your front end electronics with true clarity and life."

Again, just like all cables.

"Most cable and wire place huge limitations on performance, while many more costly designs tend to tailor or adjust the sound, making a component sound more like the cable rather than what it could be."

Indeed, huge limitations on performance - like if for some reason you wanted to run 200A through them, you'd have problems. What a limit!

More costly cables sometimes DO try to alter the sound, although the degree of success there is debatable. But they're not entirely wrong.

I actually think they are trying not to outright lie, pretty impressive. Not really worth the effort, though.

 

[dtaylo1066]

Does this cable dance for you or perform other forms of entertainment for $1,000, or do the dishes when not transmitting music or data? What a waste of money.

Amir (stated with the greatest respect and kindness), while your continued test of cables serves to debunk the every-present and much hyped need to spend a bunch of money on cables or speaker wire, at this point, I think you have made abundantly clear with fact based data the truth on this subject. Selfishly, I'd prefer to see your valuable, much-respected and finite time spent on component/speaker testing instead of focusing much more on cable and wire.

Just my selfish two centavos. In the end it is your time and effort, and it is clear this is an area of audio with the greatest abundance of myth. But while component testing here is actually driving some producers to better engineer their products (yeah!), you can't really better engineer a cable or wire after about $50 or $100 worth of components, and no one is going to stop producing these expensive strands of wire despite what you measure. And most subjective audiophiles will still keep buying.

Again, just my selfish thoughts, as I've always just bought very modestly priced wire and connectors.

Many thanks.

 

[fpitas]

One of those days we'll have toslink cables with 5 meters thick RF shielding, oxygen-free platinum connectors, and high grade blue diamond fibres.
It will cost $140,000 per millimetre and only works on high-end equipment.

But it will make every recording sound fabulous!

 

[fpitas]

Does this cable dance for you or perform other forms of entertainment for $1,000, or do the dishes when not transmitting music or data? What a waste of money.

Amir (stated with the greatest respect and kindness), while your continued test of cables serves to debunk the every-present and much hyped need to spend a bunch of money on cables or speaker wire, at this point, I think you have made abundantly clear with fact based data the truth on this subject. Selfishly, I'd prefer to see your valuable, much-respected and finite time spent on component/speaker testing instead of focusing much more on cable and wire.

Just my selfish two centavos. In the end it is your time and effort, and it is clear this is an area of audio with the greatest abundance of myth. But while component testing here is actually driving some producers to better engineer their products (yeah!), you can't really better engineer a cable or wire after about $50 or $100 worth of components, and no one is going to stop producing these expensive strands of wire despite what you measure. And most subjective audiophiles will still keep buying.

Again, just my selfish thoughts, as I've always just bought very modestly priced wire and connectors.

Many thanks.

I'm guessing someone sent Amir the cable, and he was nice enough to test it.

 

[DonR]

I enjoy these types of reviews simply for the obvious LOLs. Thanks @amirm.

 

[Hatto]

Well, maybe the cable hasn't been broken in yet...

I would love to see a representative of the manufacturers to join this forum to enlighten us about what is wrong with tests being done here. After all they're so confident on the performance diffrential claim of their products, we must be at fault not being able to substantiate them.

I would love to hear their perspective if the wrong thing is being measured, or things are measured the wrong way. That would mean they're actually standing by their claim.

 

[Jim Shaw]

"There's one born every minute," and audio seems to have a huge share of them. But it does seem a waste of talented effort to test high-priced frauds to prove their unworthiness. I'd rather read Klippel results of Andrew Jones' latest efforts.

No, I can't justify buying one for Klippel testing, but maybe someone richer could.

 

[uwotm8]

I'd rather read Klippel results of Andrew Jones' latest efforts

I think that any other component is beaten by cables in terms of weight and shipping cost and as far as these reviews make at least same amount of fun...

 

[respice finem]

Silly? idea: If I were the buyer, I'd try to return it, based on this review (not without a hidden cam)

 

[bkdc]

i really want to cry thinking about who would buy such an offensive abomination.

 

[Triliza]

Well, maybe the cable hasn't been broken in yet... (sarcasm, don't shoot)

I would love to see a representative of the manufacturers to join this forum to enlighten us about what is wrong with tests being done here. After all they're so confident on the performance diffrential claim of their products, we must be at fault not being able to substantiate them.

I would love to hear their perspective if the wrong thing is being measured, or things are measured the wrong way. That would mean they're actually standing by their claim.

You can be 100% sure they know what they are selling, they would shoot their own foot engaging in here, it's not going to happen. They make it sound like they are using the large Hadron collider to do their research on particle physics to make their cables, I'd bet they are using the same bulk cable conductor the rest of the normal (price-wise) usb cables use.

Personally I don't really have a problem with the money of people that can afford it changing hands in these kind of pointless transactions, they offer temporarily some placebo satisfaction to the buyer, the problem are the people that can't really afford to spend that kind of money, but being the victims of the traditional hi-end fantasy, spend money they could put in good use to themselves and their family. That is the main reason I don't like much all the snake oil bunch.

 

[fpitas]

You can be 100% sure they know what they are selling, they would shoot their own foot engaging in here, it's not going to happen. They make it sound like they are using the large Hadron collider to do their research on particle physics to make their cables, I'd bet they are using the same bulk cable conductor the rest of the normal (price-wise) usb cables use.

That's my guess, too. Probably still made in the far east, with perhaps a cursory inspection for prettiness as they arrive.

 

[Hatto]

You can be 100% sure they know what they are selling, they would shoot their own foot engaging in here, it's not going to happen. They make it sound like they are using the large Hadron collider to do their research on particle physics to make their cables, I'd bet they are using the same bulk cable conductor the rest of the normal (price-wise) usb cables use.

Personally I don't really have a problem with the money of people that can afford it changing hands in these kind of pointless transactions, they offer temporarily some placebo satisfaction to the buyer, the problem are the people that can't really afford to spend that kind of money, but being the victims of the traditional hi-end fantasy, spend money they could put in good use to themselves and their family. That is the main reason I don't like much all the snake oil bunch.

My point exactly.

If I had a product that I'm absolulety confident to present an objective performance and value proposition and see/hear about anyone claiming to objectively prove otherwise, I would intervene to show them the error of their ways. I believe anyone who's confident in their product would.

By not engaging in here, they cease to stand by their claim, which is the equivalent of admitting that they're STRAIGHT OUT LYING to their customers.

 

[voodooless]

Pff, obviously this cable wasn’t burned in yet. Classical beginner mistake

 

[Robbo99999]

(I can feel ASR slowing down, still absolutely relevant, just I feel it slowing down.......this is very by-the-by & in no relation related to the comments above.....it's just a feeling. I still love ASR if that's appropriate albeit a bit dramatic. no responses required. this is vague = yes)

 

[theREALdotnet]

Can we at least agree that this cable is directional?

 

[fpitas]

(I can feel ASR slowing down, still absolutely relevant, just I feel it slowing down.......this is very by-the-by & in no relation related to the comments above.....it's just a feeling. I still love ASR if that's appropriate albeit a bit dramatic. no responses required. this is vague = yes)

All this science and measurement stuff is a passing fad. In time we'll go back to golden ears and expert reviewers for the real story.

 

[DualTriode]

As I noted, there is not time. No mid to high-end DAC uses USB as a power source anyway so I don't think it matters what it does.

Hello,

Okay due to the time crunch it was a data test only.

Sometimes (often) USB cables are used for both power and data at the same time.

Back when I bought a QA401 audio analyzer that was not supplied with a USB cable, so I test drove a couple that were handy. The first one was the USB that came with my APx555 and the other was a USB that came from the surplus store.

See the attached test plots:

Thanks DT

 

[mhardy6647]

@amirm Does this cable make a difference compared to a generic one with a DAC that has a crappy USB input (I believe an old Schiit qualifies) ?

I know.... invest $ 1000.- to connect a poor $ 100.- DAC and then connect the audio using expensive RCA cables as well ...

Oh. Well. I mean, there's your problem vis-a-vis the listening tests. The system clearly wasn't resolving enough.
And... heck... any first year student in the hard sciences knows why the measurements tests didn't show the true worth of this kilobuck cable. Heisenberg. The act of measuring distorts the data. Electrons know this, and any cable worth its salt is just brimming with electrons!

I mean, do I have to explain everything to you guys!?!