USB Cable Dilema

audioluvr

Well I've been experimenting with finding a longer USB cable to connect my laptop with my streamer/DAC. Tried Silver Sonic cable but it didn't compete with my $25 printer cable I got from Staples. An awesome member here recommended a couple cables that he liked ranging from $65 to $1,000. Well I opted for this one off eBay:


After waiting almost a month to get it I eagerly hooked it up for a demo only for my laptop to say "Cannot recognize device". Strange? Did I do something wrong? Put in my old one and everything worked great. Well this sucks! So I contacted the seller and first response was "Is your USB 2.0?" Yes. "Well some stuff just isn't compatible with one another. Send it back and we'll refund your money" So I go to FEDEX and they are like that will be $73. WTF? No! Go to the post office and they say $17 first class IF customs accepts it and sends me home with a form I need to fill out for customs.

I get home and think "maybe they just had a single wire crossed or something" so I got my ohm meter out and find out that the outside shell used for shielding is showing continuity with Pin 4 which is used for clocking the DAC. So since I'm boored I disassemble it and lo and behold it was intentionally wired that way! Then I noticed that the outside shielding wires on all but the ground were NOT connected to anything essentially making them NOT shielded.

Since the basic components were of good quality I decided to rebuild it properly. I also decided since the Pin 1 5v+ power cable can add noise to the assembly when in close proximity, that I would unbraid it and add a quick disconnect to it since my Cambridge Audio 851N doesn't need the Pin 1 5v+ wire to function as it provides it's own power internally.

This would have been an easy job if it was unassembled components but the builder hot melt glued everything! So eventually after getting it rebuilt properly I hooked it up and so far have very pleased with the results. Imaging is tighter, wider, deeper just all around mo betta!

Here's what I found when disassembling the cable.



Here's the reassembled cable with the power wire separated.

msg

That sucks! but glad you got it sorted. Did you send them a bill?
You shouldn't have had to do that, obviously, nor should you have had to pay return shipping.

Curious if it would have worked at all on anything else. I haven't looked closely at USB connection requirements.

audioluvr

@Clipdat has this cable and it works for him. There are basically 5 connections on a USB.

Pin 1 (clocking and 5v -)
Pin 2 (data -)
Pin 3 (data +)
Pin 4 (Powered handshake and 5v+)
Chassis Ground - connects the outer gold connectors via the shielding wires

If they would have isolated the Pin 4 - wire it would have worked fine (which it does now) but nothing would have been actually shielded other than the pin 4 - which is pretty much useless. Most cables have the 4 pin wires encased inside one shielding wire which works but having the 5v+ inside the shield with the data wires can introduce noise. That's why I chose this cable because I thought it would be easy to isolate the 5v+ but that's what I got for thinking I guess.