Our first foray into USB cables was a result of musicians working at The Chord Company. Having copied a CD master recording to a laptop, we were shocked at the poor performance of the burned copies compared to the original master CD.

At the time, we were using one of the first DACs with a USB input, so we played the master from the laptop. Still not great, but better than the burned CD version. Fortunately, after using better ripping programs and playback management, we achieved major improvements with the burned CD.

While we were satisfied that we could produce a fairly decent CD copy of the original master, the laptop copy of the master (sent to the DAC via the USB input) sounded significantly worse than the CD copy fed into the same DAC – so we investigated the construction of the USB cable between the laptop and the DAC.

The original Signature USB contained four separately shielded conductors. We have now refined the effective cross-section of the silver-plated copper conductors and upgraded the insulation to a high-speed PE/LDPE/PE composite dielectric. The earth shielding connection is additionally protected from high-frequency interference by its own foil wrap layer. The ARAY technology has been upgraded from Tuned ARAY to Super ARAY with a specific ARAY design for Signature USB. We have incorporated refinements to both USB-A and USB-B connectors. All connections are soldered and the USB plugs are plated in the UK to our specifications with ChorAlloy™. We believe these changes have all contributed to a healthy improvement in performance. It is certainly somewhat more difficult (and therefore longer) to build, so the price has increased compared to the original Signature USB, but we feel the effort is more than justified when you test it against the original design.

There are many high-performance storage and streaming devices, and the new Signature Super ARAY USB is an obvious choice for trying these out. It is also worth testing between your PC/tablet and DAC, especially if it is used fully loaded with decent rips of your own CD collection, high-quality downloads, or for streaming hi-def music such as Tidal, etc.

If possible, avoid using micro-USB adapters with our USB cables, but if you have a high-spec DAC with only a micro-USB input, it is still worth testing a good USB cable with an adapter.

Length:
1.00 m

Series:
Chord Company Signature series

Herstellerangaben:

The Chord Company Ltd
Chord Company House Millsway Centre
Amesbury
SP4 7RX , Wiltshire
United Kingdom
cabledoctor@chord.co.uk

Verantwortliche Person:

Drei H Vertriebs GmbH
8 Stormsweg
22085 , Hamburg
Germany
info@3-h.de