AudioQuest Carbon | USB Cables

**Special Orders: We can special order any cable in any length or termination that you need from the AudioQuest Retail Catalog. You can email, or message us to place a special order. Upgrade your USB cable with our AudioQuest ULTIMATE Level Carbon Cables Silver-plated (5%) copper conductors for exceptional sound quality Low-jitter and Metal-Layer Noise-Dissipation design for USB audio Premium strain-relief design for long-life and durability Hard-Cell Foam dielectric material reduces distortion Bloom's Take For high-resolution digital audio, the superiority of the cable matters, and Radio Frequency (RF) energy (AKA "noise") is the mortal enemy of quality sound. AudioQuest has been the most significant cable supplier to the high-end specialist market for years. Their portfolio has sold in several thousand outlets in over sixty countries, and we feel they deliver excellent value and performance to maximize and highlight your listening experience. The Carbon line represents our very best Ultimate Level upgrade for your USB digital signal cables. Premium Level Forest USB Upgrade Cables Elite Level Cinnamon USB Upgrade Cables From AudioQuest Audiophiles and music lovers know that soul-satisfying digital-audio playback requires the best digital-audio cables, and the best cables reduce the most noise and distortion. AudioQuest’s digital-audio cables employ proven techniques for minimizing noise and distortion: better metals, better geometry, better dielectric, Dielectric-Bias System (DBS), Noise-Dissipation, Direction-Controlled Conductors, and other ingredients needed for optimizing each specific application. AudioQuest's line of Carbon USB cables provide the best, durable high-definition upgrade to your digital audio. Why It Matters For many applications, the speed of digital communication is important. Most visibly, “speed” is about transferring large files as quickly as possible, or carrying enough data for an HD video. For USB audio, “speed” is critical not because of how-much how-fast, but because time relationships within a digital stream are critical to the reconstruction of the analog waveform that brings information, music and joy to our ears. Time-based damage (jitter) to this information within the data package makes the sound small and flat instead of 3D, harsh and foggy instead of smooth and clear. AudioQuest USB Type-C cables featuring conductor materials and construction techniques that have allowed AQ’s other USB cables to achieve “Best-In-Class” recognition worldwide. With the newer USB Type-C connector quickly becoming commonplace on many devices, AQ’s line of Type-C equipped USB cables will allow users to connect with Type-C enabled devices such as MacBook, ChromeBook, Pixel, Galaxy Note 7, etc. In addition, ALL of AudioQuest’s USB cables incorporate a newly developed strain-relief system to provide robust durability between the USB cable and plug. Solid 5% Silver Conductors Solid conductors eliminate strand-interaction distortion and reduce jitter. Solid silver-plated conductors are excellent for very high-frequency applications, like Hi-Res digital 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 cables. Hard-Cell Foam Insulation Hard-Cell Foam (HCF) Insulation ensures critical signal-pair geometry. Any solid material adjacent to a conductor is actually part of an imperfect circuit. Wire insulation and circuit board materials all absorb energy. Some of this energy is stored and then released as distortion. Hard-Cell Foam Insulation is similar to the Foamed-PE used in our more affordable Bridges & Falls cables, and is nitrogen-injected to create air pockets. Because nitrogen (like air) does not absorb energy and therefore does not release any energy from or into the conductor, distortion is reduced. In addition, the stiffness of the material allows the cable's conductors to maintain a stable relationship along the cable's full length, producing a stable impedance character and further minimizing distortion. Specifications Metal (USB A-B): Silver-Plated Solid Copper - 5% Silver Metal (All Others): Silver-Plated Semi-Solid Concentric - 5% Silver Dielectric: Hard-Cell Foam (HCF) Noise-Dissipation: Carbon-Based Jacket: Gray/Black Braid