USB Cables

virtue · « **on:** 18 Jun 2009, 08:53 pm »

Guys,
I need some guinea pigs for a new product we're doing: high-end USB cables based on our 4 conductor, polypropelyne insulated and shielded Nirvana interconnect. The first 5 respondents who have a good DAC and agree to send me feedback get cables for free + shipping from Jason in Alberta. Email cables at virtueaudio.com to request a 1M sample.

Seth

satfrat · « **Reply #1 on:** 18 Jun 2009, 11:08 pm »

virtue · « **Reply #2 on:** 18 Jun 2009, 11:14 pm »

Robin, you certainly seem well-qualified for judging! Please email Jason to enroll: cables at virtueaudio.com. The response has been huge so I've increased the allotment... but not too many more today so please email Jason. Thanks so much,
Seth

satfrat · « **Reply #3 on:** 18 Jun 2009, 11:37 pm »

Edit,,,,

pjchappy · « **Reply #4 on:** 18 Jun 2009, 11:42 pm »

I would volunteer, but 1m would be very unconvenient for me, especially for any comparisons.

virtue · « **Reply #5 on:** 18 Jun 2009, 11:53 pm »

Guys, I'm sorry I was not more forceful. I don't want to see your posts here. Please email Jason directly and give him any special requirements you may have. We really want to hear back from you about whether our cables stand up.

Jason T · « **Reply #6 on:** 19 Jun 2009, 12:25 am »

Hey guys, thanks for all the emails. Seth authorized me to give trial cables to anyone who has contacted me today up until now. It's considerably more than 5 and we're thrilled to have so much interest.
We're still tweaking the recipe so I want some candid feedback, privately please. Also, we'd like to know what is a fair price for it.
We were thinking $50 which will pay for a few TV dinners.

Thanks so much,
Jason

pardales · « **Reply #7 on:** 20 Jun 2009, 04:58 am »

If you need any more beta testers let me know.

Cheerwino · « **Reply #8 on:** 3 Jul 2009, 01:55 am »

How are the USB cables doing fellas?

DavidS · « **Reply #9 on:** 9 Jul 2009, 12:08 am »

I was one of Jason's usb cable volunteers. Here is what I wrote to Jason after using the cable for a couple of weeks.

I have about 70 hours on the cable. I think it is broken in. Had a chance to listen to last year's Fleet Foxes album back and forth comparing the virtue audio usb cable to a wireworld usb and a cambridge audio stock usb cable for about an hour this morning. I like your cable the best of the three. It has a quieter back ground, better dynamics and bit more bass punch than than the other two cables. As reported earlier the difference is not huge though - I think less of the digital noise that can be like fingernails on the chalkboard. It is the keeper of the three - the one I will keep in my system if you are okay with it staying here. I still would like to use it with my high end main system although have not got around to moving the gear from the living room into my office where the computer is.

The gear I listened with is Cambridge Audio dac magic, homemade passive preamp, Response Audio 3206 signature amp (60 watts of KT88 push pull), Ellis Audio speakers, and Audio Note cables. My sources have been itunes, cbc radio 2 and Seattle Mariner baseball games streaming.

One other note is that I had a house full of about 70 people on this past Saturday. Had about 6 hours of playlist of summer party music such as Pink Martini, cool jazz, and a little Bob Marley playing through the system. Had a steady stream of people wanting to know more about what I was using to create such great sounding music...so between blending margaritas I was giving tours of the office computer music system - lots of compliments for the sound all around. The Virtue USB was front and centre.

Finally Jason was looking for feedback on a price. I think there is a market for a usb cable in the $100 to $150 range. It is clearly an improvement on the highly regarded but budget wireworld cable that sells for about $70 and not sure how it would stack up against the $300 to $500 cables from Lee at Cryoparts or Ridge Street.

virtue · « **Reply #10 on:** 9 Jul 2009, 12:32 am »

David,
Thanks so much for your message... it's awesome to get such positive feedback. We've had similar responses from others. To be clear, it's not as good as Cryoparts and other ultra-premium USB cables; we never intended it to be. But the folks who've replied so far think that it makes an audible improvement over standard USB cables, definitely.
Rather than charging $100 - $150, we'd rather keep hitting it out of the park on value. So I think we'll under-price it around $60 and hopefully customers won't think that's all it's worth (the catch-22 it seems, of value pricing).
Again thank you so much. We welcome your feedback - critical or praiseworthy - always.
Seth

panomaniac · « **Reply #11 on:** 9 Jul 2009, 03:14 am »

Pink Martini! Love those guys. And they are from Portland! Yeah!

Oh yeah, good on the USB cables, too.

cryoparts · « **Reply #12 on:** 9 Jul 2009, 03:19 am »

Thanks for the nice words! The cable looks to be a great product for $60, that's for sure!

Peace,

Lee

Quote from: virtue on 9 Jul 2009, 12:32 am

David,
Thanks so much for your message... it's awesome to get such positive feedback. We've had similar responses from others. To be clear, it's not as good as Cryoparts and other ultra-premium USB cables; we never intended it to be. But the folks who've replied so far think that it makes an audible improvement over standard USB cables, definitely.
Rather than charging $100 - $150, we'd rather keep hitting it out of the park on value. So I think we'll under-price it around $60 and hopefully customers won't think that's all it's worth (the catch-22 it seems, of value pricing).
Again thank you so much. We welcome your feedback - critical or praiseworthy - always.
Seth

pardales · « **Reply #13 on:** 13 Jul 2009, 02:47 am »

I have had my Virtue USB cable in the system now for a couple weeks, so it is broken in. Anyway, this is the second audiophile USB cable I have tried.

I believe this cable has improved the overall sound of my system. There is really no doubt in my mind that I am enjoying the sound more than I was a few weeks ago with the Beldin cable. Fuller, richer, better tone and soundstage. It really sounds better.

Anyway, this cable is not coming out of my system as long as I am using a USB connection. And yes, it easily bested the previous audiophile cable I tried. At $50 you guys will sell a lot of these. The previous cable I had retailed for 5 times that and the Virtue USB sounds better to me, in my system. A great value!

jwes · « **Reply #14 on:** 13 Jul 2009, 03:43 am »

I have mine. It looks great, but I have been traveling. Will be able to test this week, however. It will be going between a mac book and a Red Wine Audio Isabella with the Isabellina DAC...

droht · « **Reply #15 on:** 14 Aug 2009, 03:39 pm »

If anyone wants to demo the Virtue USB cable, along with the similarly priced CryoParts USB cable, let me know. I have both available.

Christof · « **Reply #16 on:** 2 Nov 2009, 12:30 am »

Just received one of these new USB cables from Virtue. I'll wait a bit and let this cable burn-in before I give any opinion of the sound (or hopefully lack thereof). As for build quality...I'm very impressed. This cable will connect a Mac Mini to an UltraFi Dac in my system.

c.

genjamon · « **Reply #17 on:** 9 Nov 2009, 05:58 am »

I've had Droht's Virtue and Cryoparts cables for the past few weeks. I'm using an external hard drive with USB feeding an Asus EEEpc laptop running Ubuntu EEE version, USB feeding a Red Wine Audio USB-SPDIF converter to Channel Islands VDA-2 with power supply, to a Peachtree Nova for preamp duties, to Wyred 500 watt monoblocks, to Tyler Acoustics Linbrook Monitors.

I've had a Ridge Street Audio Alethias USB cable between the Asus and RWA converter for the past eight months or so - it was a very significant improvement over the basic shielded USB cable I was using. The biggest differences were a great reduction in haze/hash, much greater separation of instruments and spatiality to the sound.

A couple weeks ago I compared the Virtue to the Alethias. I found the Virtue to be quite competent, with significant separation of instruments and spatiality that I missed in a basic USB cable. However, it still had significant haze to the sound compared with the Alethias.

Today, I swapped the Virtue in between the external hard drive and the Asus, instead of the basic USB cable I had before. I hadn't tried any kind of audiophile USB cable between hard drive and laptop until this point, assuming that it didn't matter. Well, that was a bad assumption. There was significant additional reduction of hash/haze and better articulation/separation of instruments with the Virtue feeding the laptop. I wish I had two Alethias to compare (yeah right, what am I made of, money?!!!). Suffice it to say, the Virtue cord is on my "to buy" short list for that connection. This whole exercise is beginning to make me think seriously about the Empirical Audio Pace Car or similar solution to eliminate the need for such expensive USB cable solutions.

~Ben

Nuuk · « **Reply #18 on:** 12 Nov 2009, 07:39 pm »

Quote

Today, I swapped the Virtue in between the external hard drive and the Asus, instead of the basic USB cable I had before. I hadn't tried any kind of audiophile USB cable between hard drive and laptop until this point, assuming that it didn't matter. Well, that was a bad assumption. There was significant additional reduction of hash/haze and better articulation/separation of instruments with the Virtue feeding the laptop. I wish I had two Alethias to compare (yeah right, what am I made of, money?!!!). Suffice it to say, the Virtue cord is on my "to buy" short list for that connection. This whole exercise is beginning to make me think seriously about the Empirical Audio Pace Car or similar solution to eliminate the need for such expensive USB cable solutions.

I found exactly the same thing Ben when testing another USB lead

http://www.tnt-audio.com/accessories/vertexaq_illimani_e.html

Again, it goes to show that we can't just say 'ones and zeros' and ignore how they get from A to B!

I doubt whether I will be ordering two of those cables though!

KDus · « **Reply #19 on:** 12 Nov 2009, 07:56 pm »

Yes, we can say it's either a 1 or a 0. If it gets from A to B wrong, then we call it an error.

Is someone going to show data that this cable passes fewer errors than another cable????

Is someone going to show data that shows a change in that Bit Error Rate when a cable "burns-in"??

Is someone going to suggest that sending photos over the same cable will result in better looking pictures on my PC? A photo, music, and documents are all 1s and 0s. If there are errors, we can indentify them, if not, you get exactly what you started with.