Corning optical USB 3.0 - a possible solution for noise coming over USB ?

[EuroDriver]

I have ordered a Corning optical USB 3.0 cable, 3 meter length from Amazon in the US. I also order 12 pieces of clamp on ferrites from 3 different manufacturers.

These ferrites at 100 Mhz, only have an impedance of several hundred ohms so they may well be limited in their effectiveness of keeping RF out of the DAC. The only way to find ou is to try. There is also a question what is the RF signature of the optical to electric converter inside the female USB socket of the cable

USB 3.Optical? - Optical Cables by Corning

Hope to test in early April

PS cable was US $135 including shipping

[UnixMan]

Too bad (for us) that they have added copper conductors for ground and PSU...

IMHO, for our purpose it would be much better to use some other similar product which does NOT use any conductor in the cable (that is one that does provide power and/or ground connections, but only data to self-powered USB hosts).

No need for USB3, either. High-speed USB2 is all we need. Perhaps, it could be cheaper, too.

[EuroDriver]

Corning also make a Thunderbolt optical cable that has no copper conductors. Then we just need Thunderbolt to USB converter

I wonder if Thunderbolt is an easy interface to work with. Can we dream about Jussi, DSC 1 or 2 with Thunderbolt interface, then no need for NAA, HQ Desktop direct over Thunderbolt to DAC :-)

[EuroDriver]

Here is a report on the Corning USB 3 from about 6 months ago. Looks promising

Corning USB3. Optical Cable

There is another report coming on Computer Audiophile, quite a complicated setup used together with Gustad USB to AES/BEU converter, but promising results. I have asked the poster to make a summary and will then link here

[cicquetto]

Can we dream about Jussi, DSC 1 or 2 with Thunderbolt interface, then no need for NAA, HQ Desktop direct over Thunderbolt to DAC :-)

what jussi thinks about that?

[bibo01]

Can we dream about Jussi, DSC 1 or 2 with Thunderbolt interface, then no need for NAA, HQ Desktop direct over Thunderbolt to DAC :-)

what jussi thinks about that?

Well, I would prefer an ethernet interface (similar to Merging's Hapi or NADAC ) on DSC2.
I think that such interface is not too far away

[EuroDriver]

This was just posted on Computer Audiophile

Seems to work well but not with all DAC's. Hopefully it will work with E20, then can compare sound with NAA and HQ Player Desktop direct. The system described below is pretty complicated !

Corning USB 3 experience
I've been using the 10 meter Corning cable, $109 for six months, and highly recommend it.

Currently, my high level config looks like this:

Asus Router> EMOsystem EN70HD> QNAP HS-250 NAS running tweaked Windows 8.1 with Minimserver & Minimstreamer> TPLINK MC210CS x2> SOTM SMS100> AQvox cable> Corning USB 3 10 meter cable> Gustard U12> 1.5 Grover Huffman AES/EBU cable to Auralic Vega DACAES input

All ethernet connections are BlueJeans cable CAT6A, with shortest possible lengths between devices. The QNAP and SMS-100 are powered with separate LPSs and are isolated on the AC power side with isolation transformers, as are the TPLINK power supplies.

I believe that USB galvanic isolation has been achieved using the Aqvox male to female connector with a Keces external power supply delivering a clean 5 volts to light the Corning cable.

The Corning cable has been blind tested, against the standard Belkin Gold cable, and in 5 trials won 4 and tied once. There have been no tests against the many high end audio USB cables.

I can confirm that the Corning cable contains a USB hub, so the signal is re-clocked on the way out of the cable. I also learned that some USB receivers will not work with the Corning cable. This is true with my Auralic Vega. There is an easy fix. Just add another hub between the Endpoint device and the Corning cable. A j5 create - 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub - BlackModel: JUH340 from Best Buy works great. I am looking forward to trying Superdad's Regen product for this purpose. My Gustard U12 does not have this problem.

Anyway, there is a theory that using multiple re-clocking devices adds to sounds quality. It certainly has in my system. My guess is that there are at least 4 USB hubs in my USB signal chain. I read somewhere that someone is using multiple Mutec MC3s this way. I can't find the direct reference, so Google is your friend here.

Since owning the Corning cable, hundreds of tweaks have been done upstream from the Corning cable. Most of these have been Windows tweaks. Never has the Corning USB been an obstacle to improving sound quality.

My theory is that the Corning cable works so well because it regenerates the electrical signal in the connector directly behind whatever device is connected. There is essential no potential for corruption of the signal on it's path, and when it arrives it's integrity is very high.

Altogether, my digital front-end delivers a wide, tall and deep sound stage with the Corning cable. On tracks with great depth, like the Cowboy Monkeys "Hard to Explain" it is just completely immersive.

[EuroDriver]

I have successfully connected my Surface Pro 3 to my E20 Mk III

For this setup, adding ferrites clamped to the Corning cable made no detectable sound quality difference.

The PC end USB A male plug gets quite warm. With a length of 10 meters I guess the RF on the +5v and ground connections gets pretty attenuated by the length as well as by the energy consumption. Also of course the E20 has well done galvanic isolation

It would be interesting to compare the Corning cable with the Adnaco PCI USB optical card solution

Now my Surface Pro 3 becomes usable for audio, but still noticeably inferior to my WS2012 music server