Do USB Cables Make an Audible Difference (Kimber Kable Review)?

[amirm]

This is a video digest of a few of my past reviews and measurements of various USB cables. Some of it dates back to 2017 which most of you probably have not seen:

Text versions:
Kimber Kable USB cable review: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-high-end-usb-cables-make-a-difference.11272/

Difference between various generic USB cable: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...s/do-usb-audio-cables-make-a-difference.1887/

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

 

[phoenixsong]

I'm sure many who frequent this forum already know about such things, and those who do not may have a hard time accepting it immediately, but as someone who was very recently just asking about it I find it tremendously helpful and would love to have had such a resource to refer to back then. Thanks for exploring other factors like length as well and the extent of their impact on audible sound! Would have liked to see the difference using the Kimber with a bad dac though just for the sake of science

 

[Frank Dernie]

Would have liked to see the difference using the Kimber with a bad dac though just for the sake of science

Surely it would be cheaper to simply buy a good DAC than buy a very expensive cable to solve problems which shouldn't be there on a bad one?

 

[Mnyb]

Another nice video . Lectures why not it is audio science review after all ? As you said earlier most of it are behind paywalls or in books .
You can lecture about some of the basics . I cant suggest where to start as i'm not knowledgeable enough ( yet ).

 

[Vaskis]

How about special video lecture just to talk about measurements and audible boundaries for everyday people like me? Maybe simple graphs for each product tape?! Or additional "theoretical audibility" line in measurement graphs?
Then You could also just link video of this lecture under every video review and make life easier for yourself. Yeah, 115-120dB is kinda one of "golden rules" for SINAD, but there is more...
Thanks for "the light in HiFi mumbooymbo tunnel"!

 

[diddley]

Great video Amir, you got me fooled tho, i didn't look at the scale

 

[phoenixsong]

Surely it would be cheaper to simply buy a good DAC than buy a very expensive cable to solve problems which shouldn't be there on a bad one?

Exactly, hence as mentioned "for the sake of science"

 

[skyfly]

Could you try to artificially inject noise by placing some noise source (cell phone calling, a wifi router, a computer, an active speaker with switch mode power supply, power amp with linear power supply, etc.) close to the cable?

 

[Frank Dernie]

Exactly, hence as mentioned "for the sake of science"

I don't understand what that has to do with science but never mind.

 

[Longshan]

I watched the first half of this video yelling at my computer. Apparently my computer doesn't know if someone online is having a stroke, lol. I even jumped up and ran across the room the get my glasses in case my eyes were deceiving me. At that point I thought maybe I was the one having a stroke.

Scale is, of course, everything.

That was a good trick you pulled there, Amir.

Great video. Thanks for essentially building up a stockpile of debunking videos we can share with others.

 

[highpurityusbcable]

That piggy from kimber kable review is really nice.

 

[JackStraw5877]

I appreciate Amir’s comment regarding USING CAUTION when we say things like “bits are bits”, etc.

This serves as a good reminder, in general, as we form our own subjective observations based on objective data.

 

[Spocko]

Surely it would be cheaper to simply buy a good DAC than buy a very expensive cable to solve problems which shouldn't be there on a bad one?

And since a "good DAC" can be had for less than $300 these days, you are actually better off spending on acoustic room treatment before anything in your setup as this would make the most audible improvement for the least money.

 

[Xulonn]

you are actually better off spending on acoustic room treatment before anything in your setup as this would make the most audible improvement for the least money.

At the current level of knowledge and technology (SOTA), I think that a basically good setup and room tuning is the best foundation for accurate music reproduction, and then using your preferred combination of EQ, DSP and auto-correction can take care of remaining issues.

 

[KMN]

If the various effects of USB cable tweaks, people are claiming to hear, were only audible when egregious EMI problems exist within a particular device under test, then maybe measured differences wouldn't show up until these sorts of problems got introduced to the DUT's during Amir's tests.

For example: I'm not suggesting to introduce ground loop problems to Amir's pristine test jig but only to within the device under test to simulate typical user experiences. Do the effects of the magic USB devices become more measurable when the device under test has purposefully had audibly degrading levels of EMI noise introduced? It is not hard to make a ground loop so bad it causes audible hum. I can give lessons to anyone who wants to make hum worse. (Edit: perhaps I should qualify this statement: first step would be to lose any dac with isolation of the USB lines for any test where you want to make ground loops worse, ie using non isolated definitely helps create problems.)

There is probably some danger of the slippery slope regarding finding audible differences from tweak products. Though smart people, especially when you explain the physics in an informative video, will understand the difference between how it is better to address the problem at it's source rather than band aid it's symptoms.

The humming buzzing problems can often be due to real emi problems. Most people don't know why or how they can be created or avoided.

Some video lessons, using that sweet lab grade test gear, to teach us how to avoid getting emi problems in the first place would be super sweet!

 

[rodrigaj]

What seems to me to be missing in these discussions is the "marketing" perspective. I would really like to hear from someone who is employed by, or used to work for marketing in companies such as Kimber Kable. Perhaps I am alone, but I would really love to hear about the techniques used by marketers to put forth these audiophile belief systems.

 

[Frank Dernie]

What seems to me to be missing in these discussions is the "marketing" perspective. I would really like to hear from someone who is employed by, or used to work for marketing in companies such as Kimber Kable. Perhaps I am alone, but I would really love to hear about the techniques used by marketers to put forth these audiophile belief systems.

I think the "if you can hear it, its real" idea, first put forward by Jean Hiraga iirc, has been swallowed hook line and sinker by all non-technically minded enthusiasts (and quite a few who should know better) for so long and repeated so often it has become "fact" in many people's mind, so not much extra marketing is needed.

 

[DSJR]

I think the "if you can hear it, its real" idea, first put forward by Jean Hiraga iirc, has been swallowed hook line and sinker by all non-technically minded enthusiasts (and quite a few who should know better) for so long and repeated so often it has become "fact" in many people's mind, so not much extra marketing is needed.

Couple that with the universal subjectivist audiophile vibe that we can hear things in audio equipment which cannot possibly be measured and you've hit the nail on the head with a sodding great sledgehammer.

 

[BDWoody]

What seems to me to be missing in these discussions is the "marketing" perspective. I would really like to hear from someone who is employed by, or used to work for marketing in companies such as Kimber Kable. Perhaps I am alone, but I would really love to hear about the techniques used by marketers to put forth these audiophile belief systems.

Special people hear special things...far beyond what ordinary people hear, or what a simple man made box could possibly measure.

Hearing special things costs money.

Don't you want to be special?

If you want to send it back because it does nothing...I guess you aren't very special after all.

Probably didn't give it enough time to burn-in.

 

[rodrigaj]

I get all of that... but,

I disagree. In fact, I think that a whole lot of marketing is needed. Whether that marketing is from industry "experts" (i.e., PS Audio) or from graphic artists and their respective copy editors, I believe the influence of marketing is crucial to the substantiation and continuation of these companies claims.

I would really love to hear from the marketers. There is an aspect to this that marketers are manipulating.