Yeah they do but Saphire gives a sweeter tone.
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KIMBER KABLE: Do High-end USB Cables Make A Difference?
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
The directional cables referred to by your friend have the shielding grounded at the source end and are free-floating at the receiving end. The shielding acts as a dielectric and the field thus created can absorb and retransmit interference. If they are oriented correctly the charge goes to ground.This reminds me of 2 different friends who said they noticed the difference in sound when their audio cable was connected in the reverse direction when they moved home.
They said something about electrons aligning the cable molecule structure and.....
Raindog123
Major Contributor
oh boy
A digital cable can NOT change the tone.
Here, for those interested (though sounds like @DonH56 knew this already):
Bridging the Gap Between BER and Eye Diagrams
And this one is a must-read, particularly simple and clear:
Efficient Bit Error Rate Estimation for High-Speed Link by Bayesian Model Fusion
I had some idea. In my day job I test receivers that routinely run error-free from a closed (external) eye. The SerDes is much more sophisticated than in a DSO (even the fancy $500k~$1M USD models we have in our lab). Eyes are used in Tx testing, some parts of Rx calibration, but not in the actual Rx validation -- we actually measure the internal BER.
I have no desire to one-up each other on a subject few know or care about. I am a simple engineer, not a theoretical guy, just understand enough to get by. For the record I did not use Bayesian, just let the computer grunge through to the numerical solution, after I set up a script that would do the job (programming is not my strongest suit either, but the job requires a goodly breadth of knowledge, and I wanted to match the scheme our BERT used based on a Poisson distribution). Bloody BER equations have no closed-form solution... It was a bit complicated since I had to take FEC and burst error runs into account as well. I did find a couple of errors in some papers and one of the base specs that our T10 rep helped correct so wading through it myself wasn't a complete waste of time.
None of this was for USB, at least not by me. I haven't had any problems with whatever Media Bridge or Amazon Basics USB cables are in my system. I know they are looking more at retimers (vs. redrivers) for USB-4, but again not my area.
I've seen some bull posted here even in just the last month, but that is extreme.
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FWIW, the same SerDes is used for USB 3/4, PCIe/Thunderbolt, and SATA/SAS.
Raindog123
Major Contributor
…and don’t forget good old Ethernet - can be directly (MAC to MAC over short distances) or through PHY (as SGMII/XAUI).
Sure, but that's a completely different interface. 1000BASE-T uses PAM-5 encoding at 125 MHz. I haven't looked into the faster variants.…and don’t forget good old Ethernet - can be directly (MAC to MAC over short distances) or through PHY (as SGMII/XAUI).
Raindog123
Major Contributor
Killingbeans
Major Contributor
What's the point of higher performance, if it has zero influence on the output of your DAC?
These tests just underline the fact that any well constucted USB cable will be able to transfer the needed data reliably. Audio doesn't require anything extraordinary. There's no need to look for a Top Fuel dragster when any non-broken mode of transportation can get you to the grocery store down the street.
Not at my company... And there are different flavors tailored to specific markets. I am talking of the ASIC design IP (semiconductor) side of things. I have no idea what other companies are doing, of course.
I was thinking of the spec for the external interface, which at least looks very similar, and ports often allow choosing between multiple protocols. No idea what happens inside the chips.
No, you are mixing two things here.
One thing is how data transfer over USB works. It defines the data protocol(s) (handshakes, speed, cables/signal lines, frequency of the voltage changes, voltage levels used,...) used to exchange data between two points (e.g. between two computers, or your computer and a printer). In the good old times with telephones it was the definition on how to connect two phones, which cables should be used, how to make a phone on the other side ring and so on.
And then on the second layer we have the definition on how the data is encoded, which is sent over such a cable, which - back to the old phones - is the language used when two people were speaking with each other. If you send a data stream from one machine to another, the second one needs to know what information you are sending or it can't use it.
What an "audiphile cable" has to do, if it really does what the snakeoil producers claim it does, is to decode the digital signal sent over it, use maths to identify the different frequencies the audio signal consists of, apply some changes (like dampering or enhancing a frequency range) to the signal, reencode the signal to the digital audio stream, and send it to the machine receeiving the data. And the cable must be able to do this without causing the data packet being dropped because the receiving machine uses error correction/detection mechanisms data and spots a change in the data, or - what is even more interesting - without even knowing what kind of data is sent over it.
So if you change the data stream from lets say DSD128 to DSD64 on the sending side and you still can "hear" a difference in the sound quality of different usb cables, someone has told the cable at which point you changed the digital data stream and the cable automatically knew which routines it has to use now to decode/reencode the audio signal exactly when this change happened.
And if you change the data format sent over the cable again and you still can hear a difference, then we have finally reached the point where it becomes clear that the cable is more intelligent than you.
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Last side note: if anyone thinks that the final sound quality can be enhanced by exchanging the USB cable used to transfer digital audio data, then (s)he is in the same boat like people who think they can improve the quality of the print outs of their printer by doing the same thing ("a much better black and more details in the dark grey areas since I use the Kimber cable instead of the cheap Amazon baisc one. Oh my good.")
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