[I.Greyhound Fan]

monoprice has a new monolith usb cable.. solid core data signal conductors and seperately shielded data + power lines.. and nice and cheap with cheap shipping

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=33463

I am going to have to try one out of curiosity

[SamA]

The Monoprice Monolith USB cable is easily the best $14 I've spent. From my laptop to a Schiit Modi 2 and Magni and Beyerdynamic DT990 Pros. Immediate upgrade in sound, sound stage and instrument texture - right out of the shipping envelope. It was like hearing some of these tunes for the first time. Previous cable was a generic Monoprice USB.

I look forward to trying more Monolith cables down the road. 

[wushuliu]

Based on my own experience with Monoprice cable products I can't help but regard the potential of the Monolith cable with skepticism, so I'm curious to see what the consensus will be over time before I even think about ordering one.

[audiobomber]

Because I use iFi Audio USB accessories in my headphone system, I was able to check out some USB 3.0 cables. The 12" freebie cable that iFi supply with some components does not sound good in my system, highs sound muted. A 6' Belkin was better but the 3' StarTech ($16.00 CA) I am using now is punchier with better clarity in the high frequencies and no down side or compromise that I can identify. USB 3.0 is worth a try for anyone who uses iFi gear.

HP System: i7 laptop (USB 3.0 port) > iDefender > StarTech USB 3.0 cable > iPurifier2 > Korg DS-DAC-10R > Asgard 2 > DT 1990 Pro.
The iDefender powers the DAC via iFi 5V iPower.

[charmerci]

I have the Wireworld Platinum, Curious, Oyaide Elec D + USB Class A, among many others.  But nothing even comes close to completely bypassing the USB cable altogether with something like these.  It's actually quite scary how much USB cables (any cables for that matter) change the sound when they can be compared to "bypass."

USBadapter by drjlo2, on Flickr
USPCB by drjlo2, on Flickr

Thanks for the reminder on this. I rearranged the set-up a little bit and did this - though I can't say whether or not it changed the sound of my system.

[mfsoa]

That Uptone USPCB shows you just how colored other (Curious, cheapo and AQ I forget which) cables sound.

No going back once you have tried, unless your system prefers the rounded, smoothed sound that a conventional cable gives you, which is totally possible.  But information-robbing.

[Joetiii]

I would be interested to see if anyone has compared DH Labs entry level cable with the Oyiad Class B...

[genjamon]

That Uptone USPCB shows you just how colored other (Curious, cheapo and AQ I forget which) cables sound.

No going back once you have tried, unless your system prefers the rounded, smoothed sound that a conventional cable gives you, which is totally possible.  But information-robbing.

+1
I played around with USB cables quite a bit a few years ago, including some on the more expensive side of things and also those using scientific USB standards as their basis. Curious, Dana Cable, JMaxwell, some DIY using Zenwave’s tip end silver/gold wire, and the most recent DB Audio cable. I have gone back and retested this over time as well, as my system has evolved and improved. Even the very best of these USB cables pale in comparison to the clarity that the Uptone USPCB provides.

USB cables are bottlenecks, pure and simple. If I were ever to need to move on from my Sonore Ultrarendu or something with similar form factor that can connect via USPCB right into the DAC, I would absolutely look for a DAC with properly designed Ethernet input before ever buying a music server that requires a USB cable to my DAC. The issue is that important in my mind. You can certainly get good sound with a USB cable, but it’s going to be a big bottleneck to any system’s true potential.