It is widely accepted that analogue cables can have a significant impact on the sound quality of an audio system. Computer Audio Design has long believed that digital cabling has at least the same impact. The company’s digital interconnects continue to prove their point, and are now further enhanced for an even more audible impact.
Digital audio source components – from servers to streamers, from CD transports to laptops – are real noise polluters in an audio system. Their CPUs, chipsets, switch mode power supplies, regulators and the like produce considerably more high frequency ‘noise’ than any analogue component. To stop this unwanted noise from interfering with your system’s overall performance, you need to tackle it before it reaches the analogue stage.
CAD’s USB cables are engineered to filter out this noise from any and all digital music sources before that noise can reach the digital to analogue converter (DAC). The new CAD USB II-R cable (£1,500) replaces the company’s highly successful USB II model. Designed for use with any server, computer, USB re-clocker or DAC/streamer, it builds upon the patented filter design used in its predecessor, which reduces high frequency noise on the USB differential signal, the signal ground and the 5V connections. However, the USB II-R cable itself is completely new, both in terms of the conductors and materials used, and also in the construction techniques employed. The combined result is “extra clarity across all frequencies, a larger soundstage with greater speed, and improved timing and rhythm, producing a more realistic natural sound quality”.
The new CAD USB Filter replaces the existing USB I cable. The Filter employs the same patented filter technology, developed in-house by Scott Berry, as used in the USB II-R cable.
The CAD USB Filter (£750) simply plugs directly into your DAC/streamer and can be used with any USB cable. It delivers similar characteristics as the CAD USB II-R cable, resulting in extra clarity across all frequencies, a larger soundstage with greater speed, and improved timing and rhythm.