About The AudioQuest Carbon USB A to Micro B Cable
The AudioQuest Carbon USB Type A to Type B Micro cable is designed and made to complement all their products. Afterall, their reputation is at stake. Of course at the dawn of the digital age came the attitude that, "it's just digital" so everything sounds the same whatever the price.
That point-of-view has been well and truly disproved and qualitative differences between products has become accepted truth. When separate transport and DAC combos arrived, the argument changed accordingly..."all S/PDIF digital audio cables sound the same…" That was also disproved by people who have decent hearing and are attuned to picking up even minor differences. Now the frontier has moved once again. So, is digital audio really just ones and zeros? Technically it is, but with many years of listening to products at all prices, we and many, many others don't believe so. Once you've had a chance to listen to an AudioQuest Carbon USB, we don't think you will either.
All AudioQuest cables definitely have a high-quality look and feel and in direct comparison to a free-in-the-box USB cable, you will experience greater bass extension, and the soundstage will be opened up with vocals sounding more natural. A quality USB cable is a great way to connect your desktop or laptop computer to a half decent audio digital-to-analogue (DAC) converter. For USB audio, as with all digital audio signals, it's critical to maintain accurate timing. This cable can reduce the timing errors or "jitter" that often makes digital music sound less clear and rich and three-dimensional.
The USB Cable For Serious Music Lovers: The AudioQuest Forest and Cinnamon are also good, but as can be expected Carbon with 5% silver content is even better. If you love your music and love your gear, want better quality and the confidence that the product will deliver well above average, then here's three reasons why.
Semi-Solid Concentric 5% Silver Conductors: Semi-Solid Concentric conductors eliminate strand-interaction distortion and reduce jitter. Solid silver-plated conductors are excellent for very high-frequency applications, like USB audio. These signals, being such a high frequency, travel almost exclusively on the surface of the conductor. As the surface is made of high-purity silver, the performance is very close to that of a solid silver cable, but priced much closer to solid copper cable. This is an incredibly cost effective way of manufacturing very high-quality USB cables.
Tip: When it comes to conducting signals, silver is the best-performing metal — better than either copper or gold. Cinnamon's silver-plated conductors are designed to reveal more high-frequency detail.
Solid High-Density Polyethylene Insulation: Any solid material adjacent to a conductor is actually part of an imperfect circuit. Wire insulation and circuit board materials all absorb energy (loss). Some of this energy is stored and then later released as distortion. Solid High-Density Polyethylene Insulation ensures critical signal-pair geometry while minimising insulation-induced phase distortion.
Carbon-Based 3-Layer Noise Dissipation System (NDS): 100% shield coverage is easy. Preventing captured RF Interference from modulating the equipment's ground reference requires AQ's Noise-Dissipation System. Metal and Carbon-Loaded synthetics prevent most RFI from reaching the equipment's ground plane.
Silver-Plated Terminations: Precision direct-silver plated pins are carefully attached with the very best solder. Through choice of flux and metallurgy, AQ solder has been optimised to make a low-distortion connection. The difference you hear between solders is a result of connection quality. AQ Solder does not have a high silver content because the more silver there is in solder, the more difficult it is to make a good connection.
About USB
The letters USB stand for Universal Serial BUS and this was established by a stalwart group of companies such as Intel, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft (just to name a few) in order to give the personal computing world a truly universal standard and means to connect devices such as hard drives, printers, cameras and more importantly, to us, our audio components. Included in the original description are protocols for the pristine transfer of audio over USB. Great care and sensitivity went into this design. Consequently, a computer connected to a USB-enabled digital-to-analogue converter can outperform the best compact disc players available today. AudioQuest is committed to contributing products that honour USB's ability to deliver state-of-the-art performance on this new and wonderful frontier.
AudioQuest Carbon USB Review
"One of the go-to USB cables for computer-audio fans, the Carbon is neutral without sounding bleached, dynamic without sounding piercing, detailed without sounding analytical." The Absolute Sound Editors' Choice Awards 2023
Our Take
AudioQuest Carbon is properly engineered, made with quality materials, and tested through hours and hours of listening by people who have a passion for music. The Carbon, like the lower priced Cinnamon perform very well on music. The difference, besides the colour of the outside braid, is in the silver content - 1.25% on the Cinnamon compared with 5% on the Carbon. The theory is that increased silver content contributes to a faster passage of the signal. So, if you enjoy listening to digital music files on a decent audio system, you'll be surprised at the difference a quality USB cable can make to your enjoyment.
Main Features & Specifications
- Product Description: AudioQuest Carbon USB 2.0 Type A to Type Micro B Cable
- Terminations: Direct-Silver Plated
- Conductors: Silver-plated Solid Long Grain Copper
- Silver content 5%
- Dielectric/Insulation: Solid High-Density Polyethylene
- USB 2.0: This cable exceeds USB 2.0 data rate specifications
- Jacket Colour: Black/Grey braid
- Available Lengths: 750mm; 1.5 Metres
- AudioQuest Product Code: AQ-CARBONUU/.75
- Manufacturer's Australian Warranty: 5 Years - Does not cover misuse or abuse
Note: Features & Specifications subject To Change Without Notice. E&OE