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USB-C cables: active / passive / E-Mark chips effect on audio quality?

ZolaIII

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What’s important in cables;
Wire - conductor or transmitter (it's thickness, conductivity and oxidation by AWG or other standard of your own preference) this is less important really in this case (more important in analog or longer range digital [in case of optical other properties are of importance]).
EMI rejection rate which is a long story, basically cage or other type of shielding. And I wish it's a graphite TP-E mixture but wishing is one thing. Someh this is more of an importance (definitely of an importance for analog ones) even with USB cables and digital transmissions but as I said we are rather limited still for my favourite isolation regarding EMI in pretty much anything.
Casing, external cable grommet it's physical and chemical resilience. P-E is a family starting from 10 and going to 35 years (for now) guarantee by the standard it won't change it's physical/chemical properties including decolorization. Termal resistance has it own standards not sure that more than any of two basic starting one's are used in anything concerned to consumer electronics (same applies to first two P-E categories 10~15 and 25 years).
Conectors quality and durability, somehow of rather important in any case.
Actually that's about it when it comes to cables in generally. General rule is stick with the shorter one's when you can (and if you can't all that much make sure it has solid grounding which is a main purpose of balanced analog cables after all), appreciate standardisation and guidance and don't pay to much. Avoid stiff hard ones and don't buy "magical" one's. If you wish you can buy decorative more of a jewelry one's but stick to all mentioned even more in that case.

Just a little remark when it comes to USB Audio as a standard that any USB 3.x standardised cable will work with today's and future DAC's for a very long time, even more so as USBA 3.0 is slow and shy of coming in use. USB C on the other hand is also a great thing to happen, hopefully it will become a dominant port in the future (which is also somehow slow and maybe never going to happen entirely).
 
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mansr

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what if they short circuit for example? Is there absolutely no chance that it can damage my laptop?
Properly built USB ports will withstand a short-circuit without damage. A dodgy cable might not, though.
 

kchap

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Various DACs <$300, mostly with XMOS USB chipset.
I thought it might be some specialist DAC supporting USB3.2. The simple cable will work. Even if you used the very latest 240W cable (48V @ 5A) it will still only 5V to the DAC.
 

kadoke

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I agree, but what I wanted to avoid was noname brands with a chip in them. I mean look at Amazon.de top USB cables:

View attachment 231972

How many of these brand names do you recognize? Now if possible, I'd like to avoid having any chip from any brand I've never heard of. Now it's good to know that in theory, the chips cannot affect the audio quality, but what if they short circuit for example? Is there absolutely no chance that it can damage my laptop?

Knowing that USB 2.0, 3 A cables don't have any chip whatsoever makes me worry-free about any potential issues with that chip. + Selecting from a reasonable brand of course also is a good idea.
If we expand the discussion to the A to C of the image, it will get complicated, so we will limit it to the C to C.

VBUs are classically protected by a Resettable Fuse called PolySwitch.
Some recent USBPoweric not only detects an overcurrent and interrupts the current, but also communicates it to the upper layers.
A warning dialog is displayed in windows or android. Excessive power, water damage detection, etc.
VCONN is similarly protected by FETs and current limits, as is VBUS in a decent design.

There was a well-known glitch with the Raspberry Pi 4 where the cable with the built-in eMarker chip could not feed power, but that was because the Raspberry Pi 4 circuitry was wrong.
 

MCH

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Hi guys, this might be my chance to find what i need:
I have a creative xfi amp that i use as dongle dac connected to a raspberry pi zero 2w
The connection goes like this:
Pi zero (micro usb) > noname micro usb male to usb c female adapter > usb c male to usb c male cable that came with the dongle > creative xfi amp (has a female usb c socket) > headphones
All works great

My problem is that the usb c to usb c that came with the dongle is like 10 cm long, and i would like something like 1 meter long. I bought one and doesn't work. Might be it is only for charging? I am a bit lost.
Can someone recommend me a cable for this setup?
Usb to micro would be a plus but i know those don't exist or are very rare.
I am in Europe.
Thanks!!
 

ZolaIII

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Hi guys, this might be my chance to find what i need:
I have a creative xfi amp that i use as dongle dac connected to a raspberry pi zero 2w
The connection goes like this:
Pi zero (micro usb) > noname micro usb male to usb c female adapter > usb c male to usb c male cable that came with the dongle > creative xfi amp (has a female usb c socket) > headphones
All works great

My problem is that the usb c to usb c that came with the dongle is like 10 cm long, and i would like something like 1 meter long. I bought one and doesn't work. Might be it is only for charging? I am a bit lost.
Can someone recommend me a cable for this setup?
Usb to micro would be a plus but i know those don't exist or are very rare.
I am in Europe.
Thanks!!
I think you will need to stick to OTG cables/adapter's with Pi Zero 2. Cheapest generic adopter I could remember that work's would be UGreen micro to A (and from there regular cable A to C). Or buy a similar short cable. Pi's own is 3 $\€. Which ever work's better for you.
Best regards.
 
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MCH

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I think you will need to stick to OTG cables/adapter's with Pi Zero 2. Cheapest generic adopter I could remember that work's would be UGreen micro to A (and from there regular cable A to C). Or buy a similar short cable. Pi's own is 3 $\€. Which ever work's better for you.
Best regards.
Thank you. Do you mean something like this below + regular A to C? I have 3 of these, that work with other pi zero 2w-dac combinations (always dacs that have USB other than C), 2 of them still have the "otg" mark, and nothing, the dammed dongle only wants its 10cm cable. But with my computer it does work with a regular USB A to C cable. It is driving me crazy....

1664306954537.png
 
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hyperknot

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Received the Amazon Basics USB 2.0 cable. It doesn't work with the Khadas Tone Board (XMOS XU208).

The same DAC works perfectly with a C-A + A-C adapter. With a C-C cable it doesn't, it's not even powering on (it's powered by USB).

Update: found a thread on the Khadas forums about this issue, it seems like this device will only work with the adapter?
 
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staticV3

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Some Chinese USB Type-C accessories indeed do not support direct C-C cables. Examples I can think of are:
Khadas Tone Board
SMSL PO100
E1DA 9038S G1 & G2
Topping LA90

There's probably a missing pull-up resistor inside the Type-C jack or similar.
 

MCH

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Received the Amazon Basics USB 2.0 cable. It doesn't work with the Khadas Tone Board (XMOS XU208).

The same DAC works perfectly with a C-A + A-C adapter. With a C-C cable it doesn't, it's not even powering on (it's powered by USB).

Update: found a thread on the Khadas forums about this issue, it seems like this device will only work with the adapter?
Oohh your amazon basics linked me to a usb-c to micro usb with the same description. Will give it a try in my pi zero - dongle connection.

https://amzn.eu/d/eOmgOOt
 

kchap

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Some Chinese USB Type-C accessories indeed do not support direct C-C cables. Examples I can think of are:
Khadas Tone Board
SMSL PO100
E1DA 9038S G1 & G2
Topping LA90

There's probably a missing pull-up resistor inside the Type-C jack or similar.
The Khadas is a few years old so maybe there was genuine confusion with early implementations of USB-C connectors. However, I thought the LA90 was released this year, I'm surprised there are still problems.
 
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