£400 USB cable

Caporegime
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LOL standard

the thing is that sort of thing is rather more obviously BS and 99% of people will see it straight away... there is plenty more BS in this industry (that magazine and others are more than happy to play along) that will be seen as more reasonable or met with claims about small differences for critical listeners, diminishing returns etc..
 
Soldato
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I use one of those between pc and usb hd. Data is 110% more accurate and also use one for my laser printer resolution is higher and I get more accurate colours and deeper blacks
 
Soldato
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WhatHifi use to be one of the places to get real reviews and real good advice on products that were good value and produced good sound.

Now they are the worst place to get any advice or product recommendations because they are using manufacturers to pay their wages and all the ad revenue from them too. They stopped being good in the 2000's from what I remember and were good before that and their advice was top quality, now they recommend products based on their ad revenue and manufacturer sponsoring.

Be warned some of the products they state are better than X are normally the worst one and the X product is miles ahead but of course no ad revenue or sponsored by the manufacturer, it changes from year to year there now. So be warned WhatHifi is not what it was and a respected place to get information on value for money or good products.


Regarding the USB cable listed well that is just a bad joke there are many audiophile USB cables with good shielding for less than £25 and they are only worth it if you have interference from Radio or electrical noise, if not a standard good quality USB cable for £1-£5 is more than good enough for audio over USB.


I won't get into the discussion regarding speaker cables as in other threads as digital is one thing and analogue is another, Digital in most cases is if it works it works end of, analogue cables sometimes paying more is worth it because better quality cable, looks nice and reduces power loss for long runs and same applies for HDMI which is digital and benefits with better higher rated cables for 4K (HDR,WCG) and high bit-rate lossless audio, to stop drop outs or handshake issues, but again as with digital cable if it works it works and no magical better quality cable will make picture or audio better. If you spend more it is just a matter of better materials, better quality build on the cables and may look nicer (so jewellery for your audio gear basically).
 
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Caporegime
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These hi-fi magazines have been promoting myths for years, it just becomes more apparent/obvious to people when it concerns digital products as there is less room for the dodgy golden ears type arguments about making tiny diminishing returns they can personally hear etc..
 
Soldato
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audiophile guy I used to work w/ told me high end speaker cables have an arrow on them showing which way to hook them up, to show the flow from the unit to the speakers; apparently the way they draw the copper out for the wires makes a difference in sound quality if you connect the cables the other way around. we had quite the debate as to whether or not you'd spot that quality difference in the real world.
 
Associate
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I have some speaker cables with arrows.. I swapped the direction around as a test and no surprise, no discernible difference. My OCD however made me put them the ‘correct way’ and I can sleep well at night now knowing my electrons flow faster :D

As for What HiFi agree take their reviews with large dose of caution. Their review criteria is suspect.
 
Soldato
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Soldato
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https://www.russandrews.com/russs-10-rule/

Russ's 10% Rule
Hi-Fi magazines and Dealers will tell you that you should not spend more than 10% of the hardware budget on cables or you are wasting money. They believe in the Rule of Diminishing Returns! I have discovered a Rule of Increasing Returns that comes into play when you upgrade the right things in the right order. To achieve this you need to apply my 10% Rule. Spend 10% of your budget on the hardware and 90% getting the best out of it! (Okay, I may be exaggerating a little but not by as much as you might think.)

The standard '10% Rule' might sound fine, but it vastly underrates the fundamental importance of the cabling in a Hi-Fi system. There's no point spending money on your hardware and then never hearing its full potential because the cables you use add distortion and lose information. Think about it in terms of the size of improvement you'll gain rather than what you might 'expect' to pay eg. if a £100 cable makes your £200 CD player sound better than a £500 CD player then that's excellent value for money by anyone's standards.


Something itchy about these businesses selling lies and exaggerations.

Sure, the only ones harmed are badly informed and gullible audiophiles with excess money but it's a dirty sales tactic all the same.
 
Soldato
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Caporegime
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Once you hit the ~£10 mark, there's no benefit.

Anker make solid USB cables. Those are the only ones I buy now.

Maybe £12 - £15 depending on what you use it for. My USB cable was about £13 I think, its braided with metal plugs, gold plated connectors, and has flexible springy bits on each end to prevent fraying from extreme angles etc. It is 1M long also.

I've had Anker cables before and personally find them to be overpriced rubbish. The Micro-B cables in particular, the micro-B connector bends with hardly any force at all, and it cannot be straightened else you will break the connection inside the cable. I bought a box of 10 not two years ago, they are all broken now.
 
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