While I won't bother watching this video (subject matter, unknown party behind it, silly list of audio gear recommendations), thanks for the warning Yet another idiotic "audio" youtube channel and "reviewer" to avoid.....
It is one thing to subjectively describe how one experiences that something sounds. I do not mind that. That in itself can even be fun to read. But one should then be aware that this is based on the person's liking, taste, perceptions, prejudices, etc., etc.It could be anything. Shame he didn't record that interaction so we could judge how "exact" his wife described the sound as opposed to how much he read into her comments.
LOL. I clicked on the video, heard him start talking and immediately quit watching it. Yikes!Dang it! I got suckered in again. You guys are importing click bait trash into our threads. This guy doesn't know what he doesn't know. He read some articles (a couple) and has not got a clue about what his testing showed. He then goes on to make false claims about why there was no difference. Anyone watching him needs to get on ASR and do some learning. I will never get that time back and everything he says is rubbish, but he is so serious!
So all in all, this guy on this video gets a Bozo award. I need a Xanax after watching that.........
There are some actual differences in USB cables. [snip] . You could get dropped frames.
Usb 1.1 required no more than 400 pS (pico-seconds) of skew between D+ and D-. Usb 2.0 reduced that to 200 pS. There might have been differences in capacitance too.
There are also unshielded "low-speed" cables and shielded "high-speed" cables. Who knows what he used.
Anyway, nowadays, any decent certified cable will meet all the needed specifications and they should all work the same, as far as bit error rate and retransmissions. If one thinks a cable makes any difference, use Performance Monitor (under windows) and you should be able to see Transfer Errors/Sec and Iso Packet Errors/Sec. USB ports always (AFAIK) buffer data, so the pico-second bit timing will not make it up to analog playback.
Also, computers often have different types of USB ports on them, which can usually be told apart by their color. I don't know if he used the same port types for all the DACs. Experimental setup and methodology was a bit thin.
Marc
Great post! Indeed - is it possible to get dropped frames, etc? Sure! Has it been proven it makes and audible difference? No.
Reminds me a bit of UFO believers... Is it possible there is intelligent life out there somewhere ? Sure, after all it exists here ( well... ) Is there proof that we have been visited and/or contacted? Nope. But people minds run wild on the "possible" not on the "proven"...
GIven that bits are bits, and most have accepted it, arguments on digital cables fall on:
1) The bogeyman of electrical noise (not this discussion though)
2) USB Asynchronous mode! as soon of believers find out about this, their imagination runs wild on the "possible"...
Reminds me of a very funny post of someone using an audiophile expensive USB cable to connect to a PRINTER lots of fun raving about how image quality was improved, colors were crisper, etc... Tried to search for that, but was unable to find it though... not lying, though... I saw it! very funny...
v
Dropped frames are very audible, they will normally be clicks/pops. If you are not hearing them it's because you've not got them.
I agree. That is the point I'm making.
Dropped frames are audible as a serious degradation of audio quality. So you can tell if your el cheapo cable is working because there are no dropped frames. If you can't hear them on a cheap cable then it is working exactly the same as an expensive one.
https://www.theaudiophileswife.com/Something tells me the most common internalized response of the audiophile's wife when asked about such differences is, "Jesus! Not again!"