Longer is better?
No “the Office” jokes here! Ok literally had a retailer tell me I should want a longer digital cable (USB to be specific) vs a shorter one. That even if you had to coil the cable it would provide better sound. A shorter cable worsens the sound, per this guy. So . . . Never heard anything close to this anywhere. Goes against any understanding of physics or general audiophile learning I’ve accumulated. What say you? Is this guy a sleezball salesman (because we all know longer cables cost more!) or am I missing some sort of mystic voodoo?
Going by this scientific measure
and having heard multitudinous covers dwarfing originals (Marilyn Manson’s cover of "You’re So Vain", and especially Ministry’s masterful reinvention of whiny old Bob Dylan tune Lay Lady Lay come to mind), the shorter the USB cable the better. |
@devinplombier ha ha ha! |
@mitch2 is correct on all counts. The dude was confused. His knowledge was referring to S/PDIF and he incorrectly protected it into all digital cables. |
Both AI, @mitch2, and those who agree with them are correct. Anyone who remains skeptical or chooses not to believe this can conduct the experiments themselves. Below is my actual experience. I had an SMSL SU-1 DAC, which accepts digital input via USB, Toslink, and RCA (coaxial S/PDIF). When I used a non-75-ohm RCA cable, the sound became distorted, paused intermittently, and suffered from dropouts. After switching to a true 75-ohm RCA cable, even one as short as 3 feet, the sound was completely stable—on par with USB. This demonstrates that the primary issue is impedance mismatch, to which the SMSL SU-1 is particularly sensitive. When the cable and connectors are properly impedance-matched, signal reflections do not appear to be an issue even with varying cable lengths. I then tested a couple of USB (Type-A to Type-C) cables ranging from 6 inches to 6 feet. In all cases, the sound remained stable, and the sound quality did not vary with cable length. |
