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[Frank Koenig]

I’ve been doing this long enough that I should have known better. But here we are. Over the several years that I’ve owned a Sound Devices USBPre 2 I’ve chronically fought a weird crackling noise on playback. It’s independent of signal level, source application, sampling rate, type of source file (mp3, wav, Smaart’s pink noise gen, etc.), and every other variable I could think of. It could often be made to go away by replugging the USB connection (clue). I never heard it going the other way using the USBPre as a source (recording mode). It got especially bad the last few days while I was doing a full system reacquaintance (how do you work this thing?) and checkout.

Well, the title says it. I swapped USB cables and problem gone. I rounded up all my USB cables and they all appear to work fine except this one. Silly me to assume that digital connections either work perfectly or not at all.

--Frank

[Robert Healey]

I used to have huge stacks of various USB cables, most that came with devices and got tossed in the pile. A couple years ago, after seemingly never-ending issues with both production and non-production equipment like printers, I threw them all away and bought a stock of new ones from C2G. I haven't had problems with any of the new ones yet, but I figure I will have to do it all again at the 5-year mark. It involved spending a bit of money, but it was worth it not to be banging my head against the wall every time I connected a USB device.

[Brian Jojade]

Yup, faulty USB cables have been a thing, well even since before USB came out.

The part that sucks about a crappy cable is it might still WORK.  Things like data transfers will have checks and re-send failed data.  Files still end up transferred, they just might take longer, and you get no warning that you've got a crap cable making life miserable.

For something real time like audio/video transfer, resending the data isn't really an option and the result is crackling and noise.  But still no warning on the screen that the data stream is getting corrupted.  THAT'S annoying!!

[Dan Mortensen]

Good topic.

Is there something like the Byte Brothers Real World Certifier for Ethernet cables but for USB of all types? The "all types" might be the issue...

[Brian Jojade]

Good topic.

Is there something like the Byte Brothers Real World Certifier for Ethernet cables but for USB of all types? The "all types" might be the issue...

The 'all types' gets WAY more confusing in the USB-C world.  Different speed ratings, different current ratings, and not necessarily listed anywhere on the cable.  A device that you could plug the cable in and it would test the cable and tell you what its capabilities are would be wonderful.  Until then, the solution is just order the cable you need, ignoring your growing inventory of miscellaneous cables in the box in the corner.

[Tim McCulloch]

The 'all types' gets WAY more confusing in the USB-C world.  Different speed ratings, different current ratings, and not necessarily listed anywhere on the cable.  A device that you could plug the cable in and it would test the cable and tell you what its capabilities are would be wonderful.  Until then, the solution is just order the cable you need, ignoring your growing inventory of miscellaneous cables in the box in the corner.

I think it was Linus Tech Tips on Y-T that got a TDS cable tester and all the interface modules to test and certify HDMI, USB, a couple others.  Their primary subjects were sorting out non-compliant HDMI cables.  The machine and accessories was around $15k.

[Michael Thompson]

I've got some USB lab equipment that shows the USB voltage and current and I was rather shocked to see just how much change there was with the assortment of cables I had laying around.  Some lost several volts!  I would highly suggest to anyone reading, use a decent quality cable from a reputable manufacture for any bus powered device.  I've never looked at the data side, but I would imagine it varies a lot too.   

[Steve-White]

Electronics system issues can manifest in ways we would never imagine.  Year of electronics and avionics.  Common causes of problems are wiring, power supplies and software/firmware corruption.

Recently had an issue with DirecTV Genie DVR in my den system when playing back recorded shows, it would drop out and end the playback at some random time of the playback.  i.e. a 1 hour recording may stop playing at 37 minutes in.  So, I contacted tech support and got a replacement.  Installed the unit, left the old power supply dongle attached as it was zip tied into the entertainment system rack.

Guess what?  Replacement receiver manifested the same issue.  Swapped out the power supply dongle and everything works just fine again.

I can't tell you how many avionics faults and issues we corrected by changing out a power supply or voltage regulator.  Next culprit in aircraft is typically wiring issues.  Those manifest from being disconnected and re-connected, bent around, pulled, unclamped and moved to facilitate access to other things embedded deeper the equipment bay or compartment.  We refer to those as FOM removals (For Other Maintenance).

I put patch panels in all my racks and don't plug and disconnect to equipment for this reason.  Did a 4th of July show for an associate in Hanford, CA at the fairgrounds years ago.  His contract and system.  I went out with a helper with his system and did the show at the fairgrounds while he did an annual festival up north a Mondavi Winery.

Set everything up in the infield on platforms and nothing worked.  Power on, everything hooked up right.  Checked a few more things, then got signal from a source.  After changing out a few cables, disconnecting and reconnecting a few more and wiggling a few it was hitting on all 8 cylinders.  I vowed to never do that with a setup, plug directly into processing gear and amps.

[Tim McCulloch]

Electronics system issues can manifest in ways we would never imagine.  Year of electronics and avionics.  Common causes of problems are wiring, power supplies and software/firmware corruption.

Recently had an issue with DirecTV Genie DVR in my den system when playing back recorded shows, it would drop out and end the playback at some random time of the playback.  i.e. a 1 hour recording may stop playing at 37 minutes in.  So, I contacted tech support and got a replacement.  Installed the unit, left the old power supply dongle attached as it was zip tied into the entertainment system rack.

Guess what?  Replacement receiver manifested the same issue.  Swapped out the power supply dongle and everything works just fine again.

I can't tell you how many avionics faults and issues we corrected by changing out a power supply or voltage regulator.  Next culprit in aircraft is typically wiring issues.  Those manifest from being disconnected and re-connected, bent around, pulled, unclamped and moved to facilitate access to other things embedded deeper the equipment bay or compartment.  We refer to those as FOM removals (For Other Maintenance).

I put patch panels in all my racks and don't plug and disconnect to equipment for this reason.  Did a 4th of July show for an associate in Hanford, CA at the fairgrounds years ago.  His contract and system.  I went out with a helper with his system and did the show at the fairgrounds while he did an annual festival up north a Mondavi Winery.

Set everything up in the infield on platforms and nothing worked.  Power on, everything hooked up right.  Checked a few more things, then got signal from a source.  After changing out a few cables, disconnecting and reconnecting a few more and wiggling a few it was hitting on all 8 cylinders.  I vowed to never do that with a setup, plug directly into processing gear and amps.

Word.

RJ45 are rated for 1300 insertion cycles.  IIRC, HDMI connectors are not much better.  Both are often directly soldered to PC boards, so any leverage on the external connector is potential for eventual failure inside the device, too.

I've had original Cannon Electric XLR sockets that were easily 30, 40 years old remain 100% reliable but new "other brands" fail in 1/4 that time, some of them side by side in a patch panel.  They don't make 'em like they used to.

I have a Roland UVC-2 "web presentation" AV interface.  USB "blue something".  Using any USB cable other than the one provided with the unit was Quixotian.  Tilting at bytes and bits, but never connecting.

[ProSoundWeb Community]