USB cable for digital audio with 5% silver and carbon shielding
Carbon USB takes two steps beyond the models below it: silver plating rises to 5% and noise protection becomes a carbon-based three-layer system, hence the name. It is intended for the link between a computer, streamer or mobile device and the digital-to-analogue converter.
With five terminations it fits both traditional USB ports and USB-C ones, and it carries computer data too.
Conductors
The Long-Grain Copper (LGC) is clad in a silver layer amounting to 5%. Because the digital signal runs almost wholly at the surface, behaviour comes close to that of a cable made entirely of silver. Solid conductors keep strand interaction to a minimum, giving less distortion and less jitter; in the USB-A > USB-C version they are Semi-Solid Concentric, with the same intent.
Shielding and insulation
The Noise-Dissipation System (NDS) alternates metal with carbon-loaded synthetic material: together these layers absorb and reflect the bulk of radio interference short of the layer tied to ground, so circuit reference is not modulated by noise. Hard-Cell Foam insulation, with its nitrogen pockets, retains little energy and holds signal-pair geometry constant. The conductors are Direction-Controlled and arrows on the plugs show the correct orientation.
Terminations and lengths
USB-A > USB-B is the version for a computer or streamer and a tabletop DAC, USB-C > USB-B the one for sources with only a USB-C port. USB-A > USB-C and USB-C > USB-C reach converters with a USB-C input; USB-A > Micro-B 2.0 is for units with a Micro-B socket. All are offered in 0.75 m, 1.5 m, 3 m and 5 m lengths.
Key features
- Long-Grain Copper (LGC) with 5% silver plating
- Carbon-based three-layer Noise-Dissipation
- Nitrogen-filled Hard-Cell Foam insulation
- Direction-Controlled conductors
- Terminations: USB-A > USB-B, USB-A > USB-C, USB-A > Micro-B 2.0, USB-C > USB-B, USB-C > USB-C
