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vldom
5
Apr 29, 2019
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Hello! What do you think, what of the USB cable or what of the type of USB cable would be better to connect to Mac Mini 2018? Thanks!
Apr 29, 2019
EniGmA1987
607
Apr 29, 2019
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vldomNo need for a fancy USB cable at all.
Apr 29, 2019
EniGmA1987
607
May 7, 2019
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rastusThat is would be way overkill for this DAC in the first place, but also will not even work with this unit. The DAC has a USB-B port on it, the cable you linked is a -C to -A. The -A end would go in a PC and it is the host end, the -C would go in the end device like a newer phone. You just need a standard A to B cable for this. Pictures show micro-B connector on this DAC, but CEE_TEE said it was changed to a regular -B port by popular request. Any of these cables will work: https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-USB-2-0-Cable-Male/dp/B00NH11KIK/ref=sxin_2?keywords=USB+cable&pd_rd_i=B00NH11KIK&pd_rd_r=f3c75e90-c0a7-4830-aed7-0d0d7a5e4b8f&pd_rd_w=O7fC6&pd_rd_wg=csEZx&pf_rd_p=2f202bc2-a141-4742-bd82-9252d5485b34&pf_rd_r=KF96NJNHWNGGYZRRM9X2&qid=1557239328&s=gateway

https://www.amazon.com/Mediabridge-USB-2-0-High-Speed-Gold-Plated/dp/B001MSU1HG/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=USB+audio+cable&qid=1557239365&s=gateway&sr=8-10

https://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-Pearl-USB-Cable-Meter/dp/B00EJQY9WG/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=USB+audio+cable&qid=1557239365&s=gateway&sr=8-8 (waste of money^^^^^) USB audio quality is far more affected by the receiver chip, the clocking, the jitter, and lastly the power quality than it is from what the conductors are made out of and what insulation is used. This is not an analog audio cable, it is passing digital data. It doesnt care whether the conductor is copper or 1% silver. It does care whether a 1 or a 0 is out of place, which is why quality is affected by the signal clocking and jitter. You cannot fix either of those things with a cable.
(Edited)
May 7, 2019
rastus
1391
May 7, 2019
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EniGmA1987Thanks for the cable correction, not an apple person, exception for my "iPhone", which I often use as a phone... The signal integrity in USB is key, part of the chain. From an old post, hate typing..: The concern is with the streaming / Isochronous part, it is exactly that, all the losses & corruption are yours... no correction, no re-takes, garbage out = garbage played, pretty much. You see soooo much talk about the data being digital ones & zeros, doesn't matter, snake-oil, yaddi-yadda, yes just kill me - you feel reading on and on about it. Yes, I thought the same, for a while, then thought again... so I tested it, done, simple. What really happens in the chip processing world of DAC's? It is really that you get bad data, oh well, the show must go on, we play what works, tone it down or just effectively mute it; here it is from a horses mouth (Cirrus that I use as an example): "The CS4398 can detect errors in the DSD data that do not comply to the SACD specification. The STATIC_DSD and INVALID_DSD bits (Reg. 09h) allow the CS4398 to alter the incoming invalid DSD data. Depending on the error, the data may either be attenuated or replaced with a muted DSD signal (the MUTEC pins would set according to the DAMUTE bit (Reg. 04h)). "https://d3uzseaevmutz1.cloudfront.net/pubs/proDatasheet/CS4398_F2.pdf Yes, I'm a DSD listener, so I'm stuck with USB until we get something better for audio... The clicks & pops folks talk about, that iscatastrophic level data loss/corruption. The pragmatic solution is get a decent, well-shielded USB cable,https://www.amazon.com/Pangea-Audio-cable-solid-silver/dp/B005AUH8SM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1508344791&sr=8-&keywords=pangea+silver+USB . This is something we can correct, poor signal paths within the DAC, well get a good DAC... you do have one. In addition the 5V quality from any PC likely sucks for USB powered DAC's. I feed my 5V from a truly split USB, not power from two connectors, into my USB powered Korg 100 DAC. I got a used ebay, new is overpriced, Gemini, an alternative is:https://www.amazon.com/Pangea-Audio-Premier-Cable-Meter/dp/B06XQFW494 Your Schiit is AC powered, so just clean AC is fine. I simplify [cheat] here with a good UPS, pragmatism again, for both AC (PC & amp) and the USB 5V I use a CyberPower CP1350PFCLCD pure sine wave, protects and cleans;) A good solution to many noise issues, but how this works so well at less than a $1,000.00 is an audiophile mystery... The final solution is optical. The TOSLINK stuff we have now is just a self-handicapped antique, a circa '1983' Toshiba "invention". It is nothing more than a LED photo-coupler first designed for max 6 Mb/s. By today's standards @ 10/25/40/100Gbps, it is equivalent to lighting bonfires on mountain-tops as repeatershttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6LGJ7evrAg . DSD native studio masters over a new optical link engineered specifically for today and the future, DSD 1024?, is what we need. Not some hand-me-down or half-baked “crossover” stuff from the telephony folks either. Make it for high fidelity audio and someone else can “adopt” it, if they wish. The market is big enough in pure audio to sustain it's own optical standard. Hell,, make it dual frequency, one dedicated for the music stream and the other for data exchange, stop the compromising. The fiber is not the issue, but glass should be the standard, no more plastic,, please..., it is the laser and the transceivers that are key. Today' performance fiber lasers are VCSEL's and the transceiver tech has come a long, long way since the 80's. Yes, we could go back to an all-in-one platform and take away the interconnect problem, then we will stifle competition and innovation,, again... no thanks... just take away the interconnect issue.   https://drop.com/talk/2212/lets-see-yalls-rigs/2141950 More reading, not from me; folks like having larger groups of people agreeing for validity: https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/why-usb-cables-can-make-a-difference/


(Edited)
May 7, 2019
loadexfa
281
May 8, 2019
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vldomYou could go the extra obsessive route and get a USB decrapifier, Schiit Eitr, or similar.
May 8, 2019
EniGmA1987
607
May 8, 2019
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rastusWhile what you said about needing to maintain signal integrity is true, the cable is one of the smallest parts of making sure the data doesnt become corrupted. The data signal is already going through non-audio optimized trace lines on a circuit board both in the computer (or phone, etc) as well as in the DAC. Though more expensive DACs do optimize the data traces more specifically for their use. USB data transfer is already a differential signal so it resists environmental interference. Both inside a circuit board and in the cable. This differential signaling does a far better job already than using exotic conductor materials or other things like that. Shielding can help, but a basic shielded cable is quite cheap and there is no need to spend $40+ on that, the differential signaling also makes a shield not be needed as much. What does matter a lot is the clock generation and jitter of the system. If the clock is off slightly (from the jitter) (which they always are, thats why people pay so much money for femtoclocks) then it will lead to some of those 1's and 0's being misread. https://www.soundguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Jitter-Explained.jpg This issue is so important that the newer USB Audio specification expanded on the synchronization capabilities as well as the error detection and correction capability. The jitter matters in all USB, as signal integrity must be maintained, but for regular data transfer it isnt as important as audio use because we can keep retrying data packets until we get an error free one. With audio, you are time limited on getting the data to the DAC before the error will become an audible thing.
May 8, 2019
rastus
1391
May 9, 2019
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EniGmA1987There is no “retry”, a very common misconception in audio usb use; re-read? The signal going through the copper, or whatever metal or alloy or plated, wire in a usb cable, is in the analog domain,, btw; another common misconception. A Corning usb optical cable is operating in a true digital domain. What crappy “square” analog usb shit looks like:
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Courtesy of (damn another usb "tell it straight" article;) https://jmaxwellusb.com/ Ever look at Barkhausen noise from an hdd, amazing they work with that crappy overall signal. Please link a dac, with this usb checksum & retry capability, I would be very interested to stand corrected. btw, looking back at the cable thing; how is a usb A going into a Mac mini? I am so getting to hate usb... optical audio standard... time... usb has become everyone’s whore... raising the bar nowhere... It would be nice if they displayed the delivery error rate on dac’s, so we could see in real time how our rigs are actually performing. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9FnO3igOkOk I was using ‘just’ a split usb (5V),, and then put a Corning optical usb inline; I first though something was wrong,, and then realized it was ‘right’, try one and let me know. I do so want a dac with a Rubidium ticker;)
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(Edited)
May 9, 2019
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