Supra Audiophile USB Cable Review

[EL_PW]

I have a few lengths of Supra speaker cables left over from years past. From their entry level gauge all the way up tp their 4 conductor cable called Quadrax. Of course it doesn't sound any better or any worse than any other copper cable. And the jacket is rather soft. My housemate ran over over one of the cables with a vacuum cleaner and it cut the jacket down to the wire. Not something I would order these days but still comes in handy now and then. And the Quadrax cable is good for bi-amping but it's so stiff its hard to work with in any tight space behind your speakers or amp. I guess it looks nice too. So there you go.

 

[Ropeburn]

Something wrong must have happened when the marketing department was doing its pricing strategy meeting for this product.

Surely they were all around the orange fireplace sitting smack dab in the middle of the pit of the sunken living room of their CEO's place:

View attachment 467041

Passing joints, lines and shots of Aquavit around while their tall blond spouses, all wearing Agnetha Faitskog inspired pantsuits, listened intently and supplied peals of laughter at the appropriate times.

View attachment 467042

Eventually this should have led to a five figure price for this extemely performant USB cable. After all, that's how Nordost does it.

So I gotta wonder if someone forgot the dope, the booze, the chicks, or the wood to make this is only around five times more expensive than it ought to be.

Thanks for the fine review, Amir.

In such an environment, the usual "wife heard it from the kitchen" effect is particularly pronounced, because it's so far away in such a house.

 

[PaW2000]

I already quoted them implying they do have some magic. Here it is again:

"Unrivaled Performance and Design
Say goodbye to the traditional limitations of USB cables. The Supra USB 2.0 Cable provides data transmission distances of up to 15 meters without any signal degradation. Its precision-engineered construction features individually shielded and twisted pairs with an exact impedance alignment of 90 ohms—critical for jitter-free transmissions. This results in a dynamic, rich, and detailed audio experience, free of dropouts or distortions."

Even their claim about 15 meter causing no degradation is an exaggeration. There absolutely is degradation with 15 meter vs 2 meter. You can't beat the physics of this.

I am not much for fancy cables, and it was the owner of the company that told me this, but i like to support local companies (they make the cable here in Sweden (i had a tour in the factory) and maybe the marketing ppl like to make it more fancy then it is.. but in my case i buy all my cables from them (per meter) and solder all for my self and i don´t expect it to be magic.. just a good cable i terminated my self, Speaker, Power, interconnect, both digital (aes/coax), analog (XLR/RCA), usb and ethernet..

 

[Mneff]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the performance of Supra Swedish USB audio cable. It was kindly donated to the forum by a member and sells for US $53 for 2 meter length:
View attachment 466648
I like the light gray look and rather beefy construction. Alas, the latter makes it difficult to rotate the cable -- something you need to do as you align both ends of the cable to plug into their respective sockets. This can also put strain on the connectors and or lift light/rotate weight devices. There are worse offenders to be sure but would be good for cable companies to take this into consideration when making premium cables.

Company names the usual claims about the cable, but also some rarely seen electrical specs:

Features & Benefits:

• Long cables lengths - provides for long distances between devices
• Correct data transfer - utmost sound capabilities
• Perfect shielding and twinning - minimum signal degradation
• Robust type A and type B connectors - reliable, long mobile life
• Made in Sweden - Modern research, production and quality

Mechanical Specifications

Standard	USB 2.0, Hi-Speed
Connectors	USB A Male to USB B Male
Signal Direction:	<->
Application Examples:	Computer, DAC
Data transfer rate:	480 Mbit/s
Solder Tin:	Almit SR-34 Super
Cable clamping:	Molded

Number of pairs:	2
Cross Area:	0.24 / 23	mm2/AWG
No. Wires/Conductor:	19
Wire diameter :	0.127	(mm)
Wire Material:	Tin Plated OFC
Insulation:	PE
Screen:	Aluminium/Pet Foil
Jacket:	PVC
Flameretardancy:	No
Ext. Size	7.5	(mm)
Weight	56	(g/m)

Electrical performance

Resistance:	72	(Ohm/km)
C:	52	(pF/m)
Imp. Z:	90	Ohm
Velo. Factor	0.66c

It would have been nice to see actual performance measurements such as eye pattern. Still, they are providing far more data than many expensive audiophile USB cables.

Supra USB Audio Cable Measurements
As usual, we want to create a reference for our testing, so I grabbed a random 6 foot, rather thin USB cable and measured the Topping D70s with it:
View attachment 466649

Swapping for Supra cable shows the usual run to run variations and nothing more:
View attachment 466650

Dynamic range shows the same:
View attachment 466651

Finally, jitter measurement shows no difference:
View attachment 466652
With USB interface, the USB clock is not used for the DAC anyway so external jitter wouldn't matter. But if the cable picked up noise, it could get transmitted to the DAC. Fortunately, in these short lengths and with a quality DAC, we see that there is no difference.

Conclusion
I know many of you would guess that the USB cable would make no difference, but it is important to test to make sure there is negative consequence either. Such is the case here. Unlike typical audiophile cables, you are hardly paying a premium for the Supra cable. Granted a free one comes with your DAC but with inflation what it is, $53 for something made in Sweden doesn't make my blood pressure go up.

While personally I have no use for the Supra USB cable, I won't be complaining if you bought one, especially if your in EU.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Cables is cables. As I’ve said many times, I’m not a tech guy, but cables is cables. Or wires are wires. See Don Morrison.

 

[xanalog]

Cables is cables. As I’ve said many times, I’m not a tech guy, but cables is cables. Or wires are wires.

Not any more!

It's -at least- keeping up with inflation...

 

[Rubbersandal]

Thank you dlovesmusic.

 

[DonDish]

Different color perhaps

Dont worry Bleib. You get these in your usual black, grey and white. BTW just ordering a set of C-B for Mac, with two times 5m of Mutec toslink for under $100..

 

[Sweelinck]

If someone is experiencing actual noise from their PC on a USB DAC, a higher‑end USB cable might not fix it, since modern DACs tend to use their own clock and power regulation.
What could help as troubleshooting in those cases is using a built-in PCIe USB card with its own controller (e.g. Renesas) and its own power supply instead of a Mainboard USB port that can pick up noises and interference. It decouples the DAC from the PC’s 5‑V rail and can improve USB stability.
These USB cards are typically inexpensive (around 10€) and could be a more practical option than an expensive cable.

 

[antcollinet]

If someone is experiencing actual noise from their PC on a USB DAC, a higher‑end USB cable might not fix it, since modern DACs tend to use their own clock and power regulation.
What could help as troubleshooting in those cases is using a built-in PCIe USB card with its own controller (e.g. Renesas) and its own power supply instead of a Mainboard USB port that can pick up noises and interference. It decouples the DAC from the PC’s 5‑V rail and can improve USB stability.
These USB cards are typically inexpensive (around 10€) and could be a more practical option than an expensive cable.

They don't decouple the DAC from the PC's ground rail though - which is where the problem normally comes from in the form of a ground loop.

 

[Sweelinck]

They don't decouple the DAC from the PC's ground rail though - which is where the problem normally comes from in the form of a ground loop.

True. My comment was about high frequency noise on the 5-V rail, for example USB controller noise and general motherboard high frequency noise. You’re right that ground loop issues can’t be solved this way.

 

[antcollinet]

True. My comment was about high frequency noise on the 5-V rail, for example USB controller noise and general motherboard high frequency noise. You’re right that ground loop issues can’t be solved this way.

Ground loops also carry the high frequency processor and graphics card stuff. Often (as an example) noise that changes as the mouse is moved.

 

[M.C. Logan]

If someone is experiencing actual noise from their PC on a USB DAC, a higher‑end USB cable might not fix it, since modern DACs tend to use their own clock and power regulation.
What could help as troubleshooting in those cases is using a built-in PCIe USB card with its own controller (e.g. Renesas) and its own power supply instead of a Mainboard USB port that can pick up noises and interference. It decouples the DAC from the PC’s 5‑V rail and can improve USB stability.
These USB cards are typically inexpensive (around 10€) and could be a more practical option than an expensive cable.

Umm, they still run off the motherboard regulated power, the power is delivered over the pcie bus rails. The only difference is between CPU provided USB ports and chipset provided ones.

 

[Sweelinck]

Umm, they still run off the motherboard regulated power, the power is delivered over the pcie bus rails. The only difference is between CPU provided USB ports and chipset provided ones.

Some PCIe USB cards (including mine) use a SATA power connector that draws power directly from the power supply unit, so they don’t rely on the motherboard’s power rail.

 

[antcollinet]

Some PCIe USB cards (including mine) use a SATA power connector that draws power directly from the power supply unit, so they don’t rely on the motherboard’s power rail.

Yet they are all connected together. If you think the impedance of the power cables back to the PSU are going to filter anything out, you are going to be disappointed.

 

[M.C. Logan]

Some PCIe USB cards (including mine) use a SATA power connector that draws power directly from the power supply unit, so they don’t rely on the motherboard’s power rail.

Not common and also relies on a spare rail from the PSU, not common in commercial systems, so only really usable in custom/home built PCs.

 

[EJ3]

Not common and also relies on a spare rail from the PSU, not common in commercial systems, so only really usable in custom/home built PCs.

I thought that is what most people do (for desktop units): either themselves or a friend that's into computers builds it for them for beer, pizza's & a nominal barter.
The "bought" ones: I have rarely seen.

 

[M.C. Logan]

I thought that is what most people do (for desktop units): either themselves or a friend that's into computers builds it for them for beer, pizza's & a nominal barter.
The "bought" ones: I have rarely seen.

Not at all, 95% or so of PC's are retail purchased, home-brews are a niche market, like ASR readers are. And, of course the 6-7% (in the UK) of those which are Muckintoshes are completely non upgradeable.

 

[DonDish]

Not at all, 95% or so of PC's are retail purchased, home-brews are a niche market, like ASR readers are. And, of course the 6-7% (in the UK) of those which are Muckintoshes are completely non upgradeable.

Any small/big tower shop built gamer pc will resemble a homebuilt pc.

 

[M.C. Logan]

Any small/big tower shop built gamer pc will resemble a homebuilt pc.

Most PCs are NOT shop built, they are corporate built, e.g.Dell, Lenovo, etc..

 

[M.C. Logan]

Any small/big tower shop built gamer pc will resemble a homebuilt pc.

True, for "tower" PCs but most PCs (95%+) are corporate built, non "tower" PCs and have minimal expansion potential.