Do USB Cables Make an Audible Difference (Kimber Kable Review)? 

I got attacked by headfi guys for saying I couldn't hear any improvement with the audioquest usb cable against the one that came free. The usual argument came in : "dude upgrade that headphone or upgrade that dac. It isn't transparent enough"

Thanks for your videos. I spent 20 years tweaking my audio/video system. I finally came to the conclusion that wires never really mattered as long as the connections were solid and ground loops were eliminated. The room and the speakers make the real difference. Once I realized that I just sit back and enjoy my system.

I’ve been making saxophone mouthpieces for forty years and used to make them out of different materials. I’d do blindfold tests with players who said they could tell the difference between them but never could when blindfolded. When we took the blindfold off and they saw that they got it wrong, they’d always say “but I still think it matters”.

Chris - "I can't recommend this cable enough." Amir - "I can't recommend this cable." Damn, Chris, you were so close!

I‘m sure you don‘t believe in any of those high end myths, but out there are a plentitude of folks who have no money to burn and no clue of measurement techniques. These kind of videos are of highest value and will increase the number of subscribers faster than a series of presentation of underestimated dacs ever can. Great work.

I am glad you find time to make videos so often :)

Thanks for all your informative videos. I have over 20k on audioquest cables after watching your videos I got very disappointed with what the dealers made me buy where I could use cheap decent cables and get the same results. Just ordered a pair of mcintosh mc901 and again pushing me to buy 5k ea power cables but I said I'm using whatever power cord comes with the amps and I balmed you for it 😆. But thank you so much for honest advices which are coming from your honesty and educations and tests and not coming from someone who thinks about his commission. Thank you and can't wait to watch your other videos

For those who are complaining about the channel and reviews like this one, saying they are repetitive, take a look at the channel subscription growth. This channel has been in existence for 2 weeks and has over 6000 subs. It takes years for some channels to even break 500 subs. People want this. The folks who buy into and the manufacturers who peddle the snake oil stuff will hate this channel.

Excelent, objective and very entertaining review. Really enjoy it!!!

This drives the biggest controversy in audiophile history to the home. : DDD Appreciate that you are not avoiding controversies and repercussions. respect! 🙌🙌🙌

really enjoy reading your website, and now even better on video, always very well explained. Congratulations ;-)

Good topic and well constructed measured data, thanks Geisha!

This is like teasing a cat with a piece of string but never letting them catch it, eventually they'll lose interest. We need an occasional "well, whatdayaknow, it actually does make a difference" video to maintain the suspense

Thank you for sharing all this useful informaiton with us, mortals ! :)

Amir, your work is fantastic. Love the uploads. Your sarcastic humor is an added bonus too :-)

Thanks for providing such valuable content Amir.

Nice one. Many thanks Amir. The kind of test that many of use are looking for. (And I am 'one of these guys' who bought a fancy expensive usb cable..... ) Will be nice to see some power cable and hp cable test.

“So anyways, I took a Schiit...” “...Modi 2 DAC.”

Great video Amir! The knowledge you give to the world is priceless!

You got me with the zoomed in graphs.

Great to see you've joined RU-vid, the ASR website/forum is an amazing resource but YT should expand the audience considerably.

What a great video! Thank you very much!

Amir, thanks for the great content.

omg I love this series... finally someone to enlighten the sheep :) Whenever I get a notification I have a smile on me face:)

Thank you so much, please keep up the good work. Your approach is spot on. I did not know listening to music was going to be an educational experience. And it all started because of the extreme sound quality difference of a RU-vid video with a vinyl album being played.

Thank you so much for this video! I'm super excited to see you on RU-vid! Please keep producing these types of informational videos and disrupt all the myths! :)

The explanations are excellent. Thank you!

Is there a full review of the Bifrost 2 Multibit somewhere? (I can't wait to see the numbers on that specific USB imput from Schiit)

Damn! Your channel saved me a bunch of money. Thank you so much ☺️

could you please test glass fibre optic cables ? love your channel makes my day when you post a new review

Great information and debunk again.

Love it. Well done.

Awesome video! Please keep the debunking videos coming!!!

whenever i think about buying cables i come here and save my money for other things. Thank you...love this site

You are on fire! Look how fast your subscriptions are growing! I hope you monetize your videos once you have 4000 watch hours. You deserve every penny!

Brilliant analysis and advices dear Amir👍 Similar analysis would be very interesting in regards to headphone cables.

I have definitely heard a difference in USB cables: Between one cheap cable that was clearly garbage and was causing obvious and audible noise, and another cheap cable that did not 😸. I agree, re the Amazon Basics USB cables. I use those, and also some relatively inexpensive, but still overpriced, Pangea ones (because they look and feel nice, not because I think they have any impact on sound).

Thanks! Would be nice doing the same with optical cable :)

Only time a usb cable made a difference for me was replacing a faulty one lol.

People on here have cracked on Zeos before, but he's said in multiple videos to save your money on expensive cables. Coincidentally, he had linked an Amazon Basics USB-A to USB 3 cable (which is the one that powers and sends data to my DAC) and said that if you spend more than $10 on them you're crazy. I then stumbled on your channel that gave me the numbers to prove it. Kizmet!

Fabulous information, what I have been looking for, for years. Many thanks

Thankyou for this, I would like to know do the materials or type of metals used to make a cable effect the measurements ? For eg- Silver vs copper or tin etc.

Sir, I wished you had joined youtube years ago, It would of helped support your work. Great insight on a complex subject. You are definitely encouraging youngsters to study about the realm of Sound. Thank you for all the reviews on ASR over the years, I really appreciate them.

Amazon Basics...the new audiophile reference.

Thanks again, clear, succinct and supported with evidence! Too many proponents of audiophile cables (accessories) of all sorts fall victim to the straw man fallacy, sometimes on purpose, other times because they just don't understand the salient points of a discussion. As someone else mentioned, I would appreciate a test of a basic fiber optic cable to an "audiophile" grade fiber optic cable. Thanks again!

Thank you for these videos. I’m learning a lot about what really effects the sound. I’m looking to buy a new dac or streamer for my marantz pm8006.

I have though bought £20 USB cables for my DAC, not however, for improvement in sound quality but for the better looks and nicer build quality than the cable was thrown in the box. If it looks nicer...that's enough! The technical side is covered whatever cable. I have to say I've bought a lot of Amazon cables and they have all been really good.

Im so grateful to find a channel finally who doesn’t buy into the audiophool snakeoil bs…

Thanks Amir.

As a total noob at high end audio. I have watched a load of your videos now. Based on your measurements I now believe most high end is mostly smoke and mirrors and a gallon of snake oil. I have given you a new title. You are a Wizard man. I bet a lot of the industry will not have you on there xmas card lists. How many normal people would hear a difference in blind audio tests. In normal v high end. Well as long as they are happy I suppose. Plus some are making a good living. I used to listen at high volume levels most of my life. Three years ago I got frightened a lot. In the last three years I have learned to listen to much much lower volumes than I used to and love it. So my ears have not repaired themselves. But my brain has been retrained. Keep up the good work. May you live long and prosper Sir. I trust you and your knowledge.

Oh my god man, You are on a myth debunking streak.😂😂 The last time i waited for videos this excited was while watching Game of Thrones.

Keep it good work review on high price equipment

@Audio Science Review Thank you, Amir for caring enough to take the time to produce and post these videos and this information on a more popular general forum (RU-vid). It's difficult to get people that I refer to ASR to actually go to and read these tests and data on an enthusiast forum that they are not familiar with. But just about everyone has no problem going to RU-vid and clicking a link to watch a video. 👍👍

Thank You Amir.

Love your videos. Great educational information. Can you do a video on headphone cables? Is it the same result as the USB cable?

Great reviews once more! Now I look forward for a reviews of my Curious Evolved Regen USB DAC cable (mine is 200mm long and cost is US$ 200.00) compared with Amazon Basics USB cable. Good job!

A mind is an amazing thing. It is extremely adept at fooling its owner into believing anything. That's why we need objective measurements, data and science, like what you are providing. Thank you!

I have some very broken in vintage usb cables for sale. They have excellent color, timbre and ambiance. One BTC each. Takers?

Thanks, how much money will be save, just because this channel, great job

As I suspected, thank you ✌😎👍

I once compared a Curious Evolved USB Cable to a stock cable that came with my printer, to a DIY USB cable that I made using $3 solder, and a few thin necklaces that my grandmother had in her jewelry box. I made sure that the necklaces didn't touch each other and I carefully plugged them into my DAC. I'm SURE the measurements would be different between these cables, but they sounded EXACTLY THE SAME! Then I went to my trusty Home Depot 12 AWG wire, and although it was very difficult to solder using my $10 soldering iron I tried really hard not to have any shorts. I tested everything to make sure it was fine before plugging it into my DAC. Once again, IT SOUNDED 100% EXACTLY THE SAME AS EVERYTHING ELSE! The lesson is simple. Use the cheapest printer cable that you can possibly find and spend no more than $5 on it. If you can find it in the bargain bid at Best Buy then even better. Plug that into your Mola Mola Tambaqui and laugh at the fools who are using 'so called' audiophile USB cable. They are only hearing SNAKE OIL!

thanks for making a video with an expensive cable compared to a decent one and not the cheapest cable you could find on ali express.

I have an Audioquest Forest 1m usb cable going b/t my desktop and FiiO X7 mk2 mp3 player while in USB mode. That in turn is hooked up to an Aune X7s, balanced OCC silver litz headphone cables, and Empire Ears Cerberus 3's. It's more resolving than any stereo system I've heard at any price; essentially my personal reference system. When I changed the no name USB cable I was using to the Forest cable, I honestly did not hear a difference. Regardless, I don't regret buying it b/c it was only $40, looks nice, is well built, and has taken on a lot of abuse from me accidentally kicking my desktop and jamming the USB cable at a 90 degree angle between the back of my desk. Didn't even flinch. But $40 is the most I'll ever pay for a UBS. What DID make a difference, was going from having 3 really cheap and skinny 10 foot USB cables all wired in series going from my desktop to home theater setup on the other side of the room. With that setup, I had random dropouts of sound every 20 seconds or so, and complete disconnects which required restarting my device to amend. I went to a single 30 foot shielded thick USB cable from a reputable audio company for $25. It reduced the problems by 3x, but didn't completely prevent them. So I bought a Schiit Wyrd. I know. But wait - it actually helped. Upon using the Wyrd, with its onboard USB power supply which throws away the 5v power coming from your USB source, and it reclocking feature, sound dropouts and disconnects of my FiiO X7 were reduced to once every 2 - 3 hours of continuous listening. It really did work and made my long range USB setup usable. However, I did not notice a sound improvement using the Wyrd at point blank range with a 1m USB cable. So, it seems that the longer your USB run, the higher quality the cable should be (thicker gauge, purer copper, better dialectric material, better shielding, better twist geometry, etc...), and the more hardware you will need, such as reclockers and 'decrapifiers' . But at close range, anything UL certified will likely be just fine.

There was a time before Fahrenheit invented the thermometer. Temperature still obviously existed before that instrument. Over time, we have learned much about atmospheric measurements, and now we can measure temperature more precisely but more important is that we measure so many more things. We have also learned about what we as human beings are sensitive to. We have begun measuring visible light, but we have also begun measuring infrared and x-ray. While I can't see these, they still impact my body - and not in the same way. Obviously the thermometer still gives us a very important and very real measurement, but now nobody looks up the temperature before going outside, we look up the RealFeel or whatever branded, proprietary calculation of weather service you use. Similarly, it's been recognized already and should be more so that frequency response is not so critical to human hearing - so many people love very uneven FR graphs. Adding on a few other measures helps - it contributes to truth - but it is so far short of the whole truth. There are many, many facets to the human experience beyond what can be scrolled through in a few minutes. What does a human being actually hear? What about the differences between two humans? Funny we don't have time in this video to get into psychoacoustics (which is actually the core of this debate - what do we people actually hear?) Trying to reduce the human sensorium into just a handful of measurements is, quite frankly, unsophisticated. We must be advocates for complex thinking. We need instruments like oscilloscopes, but those do not answer the question at hand. The instruments can be deployed in the study of physical phenomena, and those measurements can be mapped to the experience of the human being, but the human being itself is the thing we need to measure and understand.

Hi Amir, good video. Have you tried on some expensive DACs? Thanks.

Merci, you are trust

Can you do a test on footers too? I saw someone trying to claim his new diy needle bearing footers improved resolution on his DAC. I myself am not a believer, but I'm happy for this individual enjoys his music more lol

I smile every time I see a new video from you. Thanks so much for the ride - very educational and enlightening as well as beneficial to the wallet! I would be very interested to hear what your personal speaker/headphone listening system is composed of. And by the way, about those unidirectional digital cables from Audioquest.......

I've run in to a few bad ( not to spec ) usb cables ( they dropped the connection when moving a ton of data, even issues with a printer ). I did replace them with amazon basics and other cheaper but to spec cables.

What about isolation from ingress? Was any sort of full-spectrum noise producing device placed near the cables?

Amazon Music HD sounds the best with Amazon Basics cables - maybe Kimber needs to launch a streaming service?! ;>)

Thank your for this one! Could you make a video about DAC/AMP, specially the üprtable dongle solutions? I've tested different portable solutions and cant tell any difference. If I read the reviews, people talk about day and night differences? That topic is really confusing and is there any scientific way to show audible differences?

Snake oil still sells well.

we need some headphone videos from you on this channel. You need to shake up the world of hp's on youtube. lol.

Amir, I have a question... Is your AP providing the input signal for the USB cable? If not, what is? Also, have you ever done testing on early USB DAC input implementations? In other words, maybe it’d be worth testing a 12+ year old DAC to see how the behavior has changed. No doubt there have been improvements in implementing USB inputs in audio, especially with regard to noise rejection.

Hey Amir, I love your site, I purchased my latest DAC the SMSL SU9 based on your detailed measurements. I do find the on going debate about exotic cables quite entertaining, coming from a music production bacl ground I know that measurement is important in being able to describe a cables performance, and to be honest, if there was any weight to the very expensive cables sounding better, then we would have started using them in studios a long time ago, but we don't, and the good old balanced cable is all we need. But I have been thinking, that cable guy you referenced in the video, I've been watching his series of videos on speaker cables and he claims he'll be able to identify cables with a 10/10 success in a forthcoming video. He claims he can hear the note decay differences in cables, well this has got me thinking, irrespective of the outcome of his "experiment", would a set up with a sensitive enough mic, high precision amp in an anechoic chamber ever be precise enough to do a null test on speaker outputs (averaged in some way possibly) using different cables, to prove once and for all the soind coming out of the speaker is not measurably different when different cables are used ? You could even go as far as to show how different amps and speakers do have a measurable effect on the sound and by how much, and then show if changing the cables makes a comparable difference (which owe know it wouldn't)

So you measured jitter in the form of noise? What about timing of transients?

Thanks for responding to my comment, I meant Toslink.

Great videos! I’ve noticed though on a lot of your tests there’s a large spike half way through. Can you explain what that is?

I don't quite get it - the bits that are received by the DAC are the same regardless of the USB cable right? And doesn't the DAC reclock the data so jitter from the cable should not make a difference?

I love this channel!!

Speaking of USB, I am curious if there is a measurable improvement in noise/distortion/etc. with Schiit's "Unison USB" interface implementation in its DACs. They make a big deal about it and have brought this to the Modi 3+ in the past couple of months. If I had one to send to you, Amir, I would. But, I wonder if there is a significant performance difference between the Modi 3 and Modi 3+ with this new proprietary USB interface.

Sir, I would like to ask you to perform one or two subwoofer reviews, for example in a couple of different price brackets.

I thought people know that those are digital signal and the USB2.0 spec specified that length can deteriorate signal (longest is 16 ft 5 inch)... not so much about how "audiophile" it is as long as it meets the spec. Armir - would be interesting to do a test for "audiophile" switch and ethernet cables too :D

Those USB cables with loose braided coverings can make some noise when they rub across certain fabrics. You'd have to be listening to some pretty quiet stuff to hear that though.

at it may affect you is the quality of the connector, and it wont be affecting sound but they have a shorter life span. Shielded cables are used in areas where there is a lot of electric noise and a home studio/entertainment center won't have a lot of noise unless you put the cables next to big industrial motor cables in your living room.

I made a post with a link you to video on FB. Amazing how people just don't get it. They will argue all day long. I agree that if Kimber is so good how do they even QC it if they don't use tests like yours? When they make such an expensive cable do they have someone listening to the cable before it leaves the factory? Or do they put it up on some gear to test. My guess is neither. They send them out and if people don't like them they return them. But anyone stupid enough to buy this crap probably keeps them because they sound so much better. I had so many people recommend to me to upgrade my USB to a high end cable, because they sound so much better. I'm fine with my old printer cable. :)

If you ultimately only care about minimizing distortions (4:40), the main question must be the following: aside from shielding, noise, and cable-length issues, is a "better" USB cable capable of more accurately representating the original waveform? Measurable experiments indicate the answer is "yes". See the use of null tests to track differences in playback in this "Passion for Sound" discussion: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zncAhs44sp8.html See also Hans Beekhuyzen, who discusses the waveform's reproduction from square waves, in "Improving digital audio signals": ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-N66aDb7LZaM.html

Brilliant video. Finally someone says the obvious. Trust your ears. Trust your judgement. The same applies to visuals too. Too many defer to technology these days rather than using their own judgement. Try telling them about the limits of human perception and that’s when you really hit the brick wall. Thanks for your blast of common sense

Nice one but the truth that bits are bits stands. None of those cables changes one bit. Sure the noise can be on but the data is still intact. This is important.

I have found Lenovo ThinkPad business laptops, regardless of generation to have the least amount of noise (inaudible) on the USB connection. I discovered this with my cheap Behringer USB audio interface. With my Dell Latitude, it had an annoying hum when recording with the microphone. On the ThinkPad, nothing at all. It is very clean. I am not sure why, but I recommend these Thinkpads. They seem to be well designed.

If you watch the video on Vinyl Attack of when Chris went to visit Danny Richie at GR-Research, he describes how he heard the effect of a change Danny made but didnt tell him what he’d done until afterwards. All he did was reverse the direction of a USB cable. The other thing they did which neither of them had wanted to believe would be a thing, was using something to raise the speaker cables off the floor. Which everyone following ASR will already hate me for saying.. but (if you watch Chris’s video) they were both surprised to find an effect. I don’t doubt that some things can have an effect in systems that surpass mine and I have no problem whatsoever admitting that Danny’s rig is way ahead of my Linn KABER active system. I would relish the opportunity to hear it myself.

Please test USB reclockers. Thank you

Could you please clarify once and for all the digital volume control effect on sound quality? For example, how much dynamic range is left if you listen to sensitive headphones on 4% or 10% volume using an Apple USB-C headphone dongle which only supports 48kHz 24 bit sound?

This is fantastic Amir. Could you please test and measure fibre optic cable without copper to see if that makes a difference. Thank you for your insight.

I suggest respecting the natural ability to hear more than other people, it is so obvious. Their opinion is worth listening to; art and technology are based on this. Thank you!

Thank you so much for your reivew - realy nice to see your scientific approach to things instead of "statements" from some third party often on the webpage of the manufacturer, and also so many channels were indivituals are speculating and trying to explain what the hear (or don't hear), and from that send out in the cosmos some statement that this or that is so much better. Do you in any of your videos show how you use the oscilloscope to do those measurement? I would be so interest (and hopefully others) to see how one does this. I bought an oscilloscope just the other day (4x channel one, with two signal generators), but have no "hands on" knowlage on how to use the unit (activate it's "powers") to test my hif-fi equipment to "see" the performance, and do some testing between different setups of my equipment. Thanks again for a great channel!! Regards, from Iceland

Only time USB gave me issues was a VR headset pushing tens of GB's of data per second (cable was over 30 feet) the cost of the replacement cable was $35 for 30 feet the real issue was using USB 2 - USB 3 lol if I can't see a difference even when the cable was cutting out vs the upgraded one no way you're hearing anything

Amir you are the best. You keep this up and companies are going to be calling you " Fake news". LoL 🤣

Would this be true for HDMI cables also?