AudioQuest Carbon Ipod USB cable, 1st impressions

All cables make a difference. As gear gets better then the cables should also be upgraded. Better cables equals better sound. Although there are ostriches around who keep their heads in the sand and deny cables make any difference, anybody with actual experience will tell you what you just discovered. Cables, no matter where in circuit, make a difference.

I just got my Boss to bring in all the Audioquest computer cables. I didn't however have a Ipod cables ordered. Sounds like I should have.

Analog cables including speaker wire I can hear many differences between them. I've been doing these listening test for decades and know for sure there are differences between them.
Digital cables I have had a much harder time hearing differences. optical to optical for me was extremely difficult with one exception. Years ago HD DSS receivers came with a Optical cable. It was a thin plastic 6 foot cable. I noticed some choking or loss of sound with this cable Installed over a better quality Monster cable at that time. It as one of the only times I heard a difference. Even with that cable I didn't think much could be different as it was a light transfer and the end lit up bright red. But I heard those differences.
Years and years later I tried really hard to hear any differences between HDMI cables. Never once did I hear anything at all until I tried Audioquest Cinnamon series vs some Binary , Cheapo comcast and some Key Digital cables I had at that time. I was a little confused why I was able to hear smoother cleaner audio with the Audioquest over the others. The others all sounded exactly the same.
Even the the Audioquest HDMI cable , it's not night and day differences. It's very subtle but yet there are some improvements. I now use nothing but Audioquest Cinnamon HDMI cables in my system. Even Monitor out to the TV as no Audio goes to my TV as it's just a monitor. It doesn't even have speakers on it.

USB cables as I now explore the computer audio thing I'm excited to get a few to test. Right now I'm using high speed USB cables that are rated to 3.0 USB so they are quality cables and get the job done. I'm not exactly sure what a better quality USB cable is going to do but I have an open mind about cables and IF a cable performs better , I except what I hear. If it doesn't I except that 2. I find no better way to judge a cable then sit down and listen to it. Many on the internet judge cables and never do any listening. Thats fine as they just miss out. Some find extreme differences and sometimes I feel people need to feel this way as they spent a ton of cash on these high end cables and need to justify the purchase. Others think they sound better due to the fact they look "COOL". This I find pretty common as a lot of cables out their yield little to no sonic benefits over others costing a lot less.

I work in the field and have met countless Engineers and I have had long discussions on this very topic and really have learned a great deal. The shame of it all is the"Snake Oil" cables out their really tarnish the reality that cables do make a difference as they have a job to do. Their is a job to do and the cable at hand for a given job needs to perform this task to it's fullest. BUT when the job is done 100% there is nothing more a higher end cable can do to make anything improve. Really NOTHING!!!! Trust me on that. The goal though to to figure out what level of cable from what company does it "RIGHT". Many cables get "TUNED" to enhance certain things about the audio signal. Some cables really help the high end and reduce the bass and mid bass to "Enhance" The top end. Some systems actually sound "BETTER" with this style of cable. There are other cables that "Enhance" the "Mid Range" and reduce the top and bottom end. This adds some smoothness to "Bass Heavy" or "Bright" systems. This cable design really helps many lower end not as accurate systems. When one put these in a system , they think "WOW What a Difference". What they don't realize is it's at a cost.

As a musician, I really HATE that so many companies "Tune" their products to sound a certain way. It's a marketing thing thats been going on for years and years and what it does is attract a certain kind of customer. Speakers are probably the biggest culprit. I hate this as I like to hear what was recorded , nothing more , nothing less. Not everyone feels as I do as so many people out their like more. Think of all the people you know who crank the surrounds in a theater system , who crank the sub over reference setting so they can "Impress" there friends with the Monster sub they purchased. Think of all the people who crank the bass on a 2 channel system. All the people who can't watch TV in the native recorded format and feel "Ripped Off" when there are black bars on the TV.

I don't judge these people anymore , I once use to get so upset when a customer would question my calibration of the system I just Installed for them , spend hours figuring out the best possible placement for their speakers and sub , height of the TV only to get rejected due to personal preferences. OK I learned when to fight my battles but it all stems back to personal taste.

Back to the wire thing , it really comes down to how much you care about your performance and how far are you willing to go to squeeze out everything you can out of ones system. Wire is a tiresome journey and if one can learn from someone else with experience in designing systems and has done a lot of the home work for you, please take full advantage of that. Then again sometimes that person might be bias towards a certain product or products do to personal gain. It's so difficult to it. But it's out there and when you can find someone that is trust worthy , you really can design a great system for less then one might think.

Sorry for the rant but wire threads usually go south fast and huge fights get out of hand with personal attacks and all kinds of stuff.

In my setup being able to tell the difference in USB cables take alot of time to hear the difference. None that I have tried have made an immediate night or day difference.

One of my favorites and wish I not sold it was the site where the guy makes them (forget the site but others here have used him) and had him make it without power leads.

I am using wireworld starlight now.

I find the differences suttle but they are there.

I find it interesting to go through the wire learning process. No matter what the outcome is , you get to learn something. I start questioning cables when the sonic benefits don't yield the money your spending. Maybe sometimes in many cases , spending that money on another part of the system might yield better overall results.

tonyb wrote: »

Maybe....sometimes. But also by not spending the money on proper cables are you really hearing what that new gear is capable of ? Everything is relevant in audio big guy.

Agreed, there are times and places to spend on cables and wire. Should you put MIT Shotguns between a 10 dollar cd player and a Sony HTIAB setup, no, but if you've got a decently good setup, better cables may give you the same performance increase as a new piece of gear, and unlike gear cables have as quick a turnover in regards to the introduction of new tech/performance increases, whereas the next big CD player may come out in a week that makes your new gear drop in price.

Its all subjective and different based on everyones setup so like all things audio YYMV.

tonyb wrote: »

Maybe....sometimes. But also by not spending the money on proper cables are you really hearing what that new gear is capable of ? Everything is relevant in audio big guy.

Agreed. You have to figure out what level of cables make sense for the system you are building.