Length of USB cable?

[boleary]

Just wondering what the general consensus is regarding the best usb cable length. I know Manny recently posted that he found no difference between a long (2 m I think) and a shorter cable. I have a 1 foot, $50 kimber cable here and it doesn't sound as good as my 3 ft $1 cable. My preferred cable is 6 foot, V4 data only, by YFS. I've ordered a 6 foot clarixa but there seems to be a lot of folks who think shorter is better. Is it?

[PeterSt]

Hi Brian - Just trying to make some shortcuts, but everybody can answer ...

What Mani compared was 0.5m against 3.5m and that was both Clairixa.

If it were for the more expensive cables (I mean, not the $1 ones) then it seems obvious that not many try (read : have the opportunity).

If we look at the ordered lengths of the Clairixa, then all I can tell is that people just order their required length. I do not see any "behavior" in shorter is better. Still, people may feel that shorter is better.

Not even 1c ...
Peter

[boleary]

Thanks Peter and I'd be happy to receive that Clarixa invoice at your convenience. 

[charliemb]

This is a late reply but may help someone.

I did try with many different lengths, including same exact cable brand and type.   I tried lengths from 18 inches (~ 1/2 meter), to 12 feet (10% less than 4 meters);  including at least 0.7 M, 1M, 6 feet, 2M, 10 feet, and 12 feet.  (I'm missing some as this is from memory.)

By far the worst sounding one was the shortest, 18 inches.  This was a well regarded Belden.

The best sounding was the 2M length.   This was the Supra, and interestingly, it was better than the 0.7 M version of the same cable.

Also interestingly,  the 10 and 12 foot were no-name cheap cables and were quite good, maybe better than the well regarded Pangea which was 6 feet.

[PeterSt]

Thank you for this, Charlie. Great stuff.

Maybe this is part of the explanation why our ever $1 cable of 1m80 was best for most, and why my own attempt of the 70cm Supra didn't hold for even 3 minutes against that $1.

For the other cables we sold (many 100s of them) I still don't have any consensus. They all stay out and nobody complains. For the Lush the story is no different. Most go at 70cm and 100cm, then maybe 5% is 150cm (and the few at 200cm and 300cm just can't weigh in anyway).
I myself use 100cm and never tried another.

With the "knowledge" of today, I am pretty sure that the length will matter, but how I don't know (or anyway can't predict).

Maybe it is also good to know that something like a 100x 30cm Clairixa is out (the so-called "Short Clairixa" for Intona) and that here too there isn't a single feedback about a poor result. But then people will always use it with the Intona (like I did) and can't tell the difference (and officially it is too short to interconnect a PC and a DAC).

Maybe we should start focusing on this and have a great finding or whatever.

Great thanks, Charlie !
Peter