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This forum is not at all cable friendly but i need to put this out there:
When I set up streaming in my main system I bought an Audioquest Cinnamon USB cable to do duty between my Microrendu and USB interface. I did this because it looked sturdy and was sold by the previous importer at a low price. I did not give sound a second thought and never bothered to compare it with anything.
Recently at a very low price again I bought a Nordost Heimdall USB cable on a whim. I then transferred the AQ to my study where it replaced a bog standard USB cable. The system here is far from high end. It is an Apple iMac connected to a Schiit Jotunheim Multibit to either Sennheiser HD 650 Phones or Yamaha HS 5 monitors.
Last night I did my usual which his watching the video of the week from Jay Leno?s garage. This featured Leno with this week?s guest,a retired Scotland Yard detective and a racing Jaguar E type. Except it was different. Instead of focusing on the visuals my ears were drawn to the voices lapping against the acoustics of the garage,Leno?s slightly nasal delivery now clearly showing his New England roots and the visitors delightfully gravelly delivery. Then the car,they clearly pushed the volume too hard but it jolted me. I never owned an E type but did own a triple carbed Jaguar 6 with racing exhaust. This was exactly that sound!
What happened? Leno got a new recordist? I went back to recent videos I watched. Elsewhere I posted about Claude Le Louche?s film ?Les Rendezvous?. A high speed ride through Paris early in the morning. I watched it a few times and now repeated. I could now clearly hear the "whoop" as he passes cars on the Champs Elysees,the deeper "whoop" as he passes a truck, the changing acoustics as he enters the Place de Concord and then again next to the Seine, The tunnel into the Louvre courtyard, the streets near the Opera and the "wuurmp" as he gets onto the cobblestones of Montmatre. I never heard it like this before. David Gilmour at Pompei suddenly became a focussed musical event ,not a You Tube visual spectacle alone. All through the change from a basic to low range USB cable.
And the Nordost USB cable in the main system? Well,I know the Nordost sound very well. From the week after 9/11 when I brought a roll of Nordost speaker cable and 2 huge capacitors in my luggage through 2 European airports,hellbent on finding bombs. I can just imagine what my luggage must have looked like on X Ray ,yet nobody even lifted an eyebrow. I still run 2 Nordost Shiva power chords as well as a Nordost Tonearm cable. They all have a similar sound,very open but somehow forward and tonally a little threadbare. And the USB cable? Exactly that sound . I am pretty sure I would have IDed even if I did not know what it was.
Neil Young at Massey Hall is a 1971(?) recording of Young returning triumphantly to Canada. It is after After the Goldrush and before Harvest. Young is at his musical peak and brimming with confidence. The Tidal version is simply fantastic. Only 44.1 16 bit but it lights up the HDCD light on my DAC and is a magnificently rich and full sound but with the Nordost thinner and more cerebral,more critical and analyzing.Do I like it? Not sure. Does it sound different from the Audioquest? Hell yes! Chalk and cheese. How can anyone not heard this?
Make of it what you want. I believe everything in a system makes a difference but I wasn?t expecting this from USB cables!
When I set up streaming in my main system I bought an Audioquest Cinnamon USB cable to do duty between my Microrendu and USB interface. I did this because it looked sturdy and was sold by the previous importer at a low price. I did not give sound a second thought and never bothered to compare it with anything.
Recently at a very low price again I bought a Nordost Heimdall USB cable on a whim. I then transferred the AQ to my study where it replaced a bog standard USB cable. The system here is far from high end. It is an Apple iMac connected to a Schiit Jotunheim Multibit to either Sennheiser HD 650 Phones or Yamaha HS 5 monitors.
Last night I did my usual which his watching the video of the week from Jay Leno?s garage. This featured Leno with this week?s guest,a retired Scotland Yard detective and a racing Jaguar E type. Except it was different. Instead of focusing on the visuals my ears were drawn to the voices lapping against the acoustics of the garage,Leno?s slightly nasal delivery now clearly showing his New England roots and the visitors delightfully gravelly delivery. Then the car,they clearly pushed the volume too hard but it jolted me. I never owned an E type but did own a triple carbed Jaguar 6 with racing exhaust. This was exactly that sound!
What happened? Leno got a new recordist? I went back to recent videos I watched. Elsewhere I posted about Claude Le Louche?s film ?Les Rendezvous?. A high speed ride through Paris early in the morning. I watched it a few times and now repeated. I could now clearly hear the "whoop" as he passes cars on the Champs Elysees,the deeper "whoop" as he passes a truck, the changing acoustics as he enters the Place de Concord and then again next to the Seine, The tunnel into the Louvre courtyard, the streets near the Opera and the "wuurmp" as he gets onto the cobblestones of Montmatre. I never heard it like this before. David Gilmour at Pompei suddenly became a focussed musical event ,not a You Tube visual spectacle alone. All through the change from a basic to low range USB cable.
And the Nordost USB cable in the main system? Well,I know the Nordost sound very well. From the week after 9/11 when I brought a roll of Nordost speaker cable and 2 huge capacitors in my luggage through 2 European airports,hellbent on finding bombs. I can just imagine what my luggage must have looked like on X Ray ,yet nobody even lifted an eyebrow. I still run 2 Nordost Shiva power chords as well as a Nordost Tonearm cable. They all have a similar sound,very open but somehow forward and tonally a little threadbare. And the USB cable? Exactly that sound . I am pretty sure I would have IDed even if I did not know what it was.
Neil Young at Massey Hall is a 1971(?) recording of Young returning triumphantly to Canada. It is after After the Goldrush and before Harvest. Young is at his musical peak and brimming with confidence. The Tidal version is simply fantastic. Only 44.1 16 bit but it lights up the HDCD light on my DAC and is a magnificently rich and full sound but with the Nordost thinner and more cerebral,more critical and analyzing.Do I like it? Not sure. Does it sound different from the Audioquest? Hell yes! Chalk and cheese. How can anyone not heard this?
Make of it what you want. I believe everything in a system makes a difference but I wasn?t expecting this from USB cables!
