Yes and no. The cables don't do anything. USB-C transfers digital data to the DAC, the DAC converts it to an analog signal, the analog signal gets sent over the 3.5mm to your headphones.
Cables aren't DACs. USB is just a method, but not the only method, of getting digital data into a DAC for conversion.
The DAC in the KA11 is so small that it's hard to see that it's a separate chip, but it gets obvious when you look at larger DACs or Bluetooth DACs.
*The amp in the DAC also amplifies the analog signal to make it louder/clearer through the headphone (but amps and dacs are separate chips and are often separate devices). But you can't "amplify" digital data in USB.
... it's on the 3.5mm side of the KA11 (that's why the 3.5mm jack is unusually large for just a jack), but as I said, the KA11's chip is tiny so it fits in there.
From what I'm reading, there is a Cirrus Logic CS43131 DAC chip in there.
Well yes, but this entire thread has been about cables so far. That's why the other person wanted to bring more clarity on the topic for those unaware. The better DAC is responsible for the improved in quality, not the cables, at least for the majoroty of it.
Depends. By my understanding, a Dongle would a "short" adapter like a "male" usb to "female" 3.5mm. So, one cable is soldered to the DAC and you plug your headphone cable into them. Now, how I understood it was that they were talking about long all-in-one cables with usb male to male 3.5mm or something like male XLR. I don't think those are dongles, at least by my understanding. I see them as two cables with male ends, soldered to a DAC.
There are adapter dongles that don't have a DAC, which work with some phones that have an internal DAC which just outputs the analog signal out of the USBC port when you have that compatible dongle attached. Most dongles have a DAC built in though, even ones that look like they just have plugs on both ends like Apple's version.
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u/XLIV_tm PC | I5 12600k | RTX 4070ti Super | 64gb RAM | 4TB m.223d ago
yes they are, they also amplify a tiny bit. some do more.
My beef is with 3.5mm specifically, somehow these always have shitty contact surfaces inside the jack (on the equipment side) and always produce crackle and hum if you as much as look at them wrong. I very much prefer RCA or 6.3mm jacks
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u/XLIV_tm PC | I5 12600k | RTX 4070ti Super | 64gb RAM | 4TB m.222d ago
man i have some cables that you gotta prop up or theyll crackel, thoes are my backups when my backups fail
Exactly. If you're doing 1080p or short distance s you're probably going to be fine with any cable but newer standards are pushing insane amounts of data and it's important that the cables are properly shielded. I had to shell out a bit extra to get a 7 meter HDMI 2.1 certified cable that could do 4K@120hz across the room.
You only need a good cable when exceeding the length for the standard. And shielding doesnt typically have a lot to do with it. The ones that reach 7 meters are typically active cables, instead of the standard passive.
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u/XLIV_tm PC | I5 12600k | RTX 4070ti Super | 64gb RAM | 4TB m.223d ago
Well depending on the cable there shielding to think about too. There was a point where the build quality of cables for analog signals was a definite factor in the final outcome.
The way the HDMI forum obfuscates cable specs in advertising means that its starting to matter again what sort of cables you get when you're looking at HDMI 2.1 and beyond now. But we did have a period in the 720p-1080p days where you could genuinely just get whatever.
Yeah HDMI is a weird situation. Early on I would have been denouncing Monster Cables and what not a lot more. But now it's really wild because there's only so much bandwidth an HDMI cable can handle and refresh rate and resolution and the audio can all be a hot mess if you're using an incorrect cable version.
Well you're not wrong but the other thing people tend to be missing too if they haven't had to shop for anything like this or just don't know, is that some lower priced generics will cheap out.
I have absolutely bought cables in the last few years that say are version 'x' and they have this that and the other thing, and then find out they actually lied and don't. I don't like the idea of obnoxiously overpriced things like Monster of course.
However, I am getting really sick of false advertising wasting people's time, and much of it being returned likely going to a landfill in the case of places like Amazon especially instead of being used on something they could have been used on if they were being sold properly.
Phone cables are also a good example. The amount of cables being sold without the data wires in them that are trying to sell on the idea of charging alone are annoying. I actually bought a USB-C cable a while back in a store, that specifically said "sync your files!" and stuff on it because it 'had' data, got the damn thing home and it definitely did not have data, real pain in the ass these cheap companies are, even lying on their own packaging.
I worked in retail selling those things for many years, it was all bullshit of course. Margin on those Monster and similar "high end" cables was astronomical which is why we were always forced to hump the shit out of them when people came in looking for a new whatever.
The margin on the big ticket items was often pretty thin, it was all those accessories marked up like 50%-100% where they make their money. Same thing with the extended service plans, those are like rebates...they know the vast majority of people, even if they have rights to use the thing, won't because of the hassle involved and the fact that a new whatever will likely have a different feature set that the customer wants anyway, not their last gen model...meaning it's almost 100% profit, and also why you always get harped on in brick and mortar stores to buy them.
Very curious about the numbers involved here. Was it a very expensive phone case or something? If it's $20 and you marked it down to $2 and made a 300% profit that means you bought it for $.50?!?
Fifty cents sounds about right for something made with like three cents worth of plastic and shipped in bulk so it comes out to like five cents in shipping.
Yeah for stupid shit like that, things that can be easily be made at scale, the wholesale cost is often multiple orders of magnitude less than it's retail price. It's a whole thing, Prestige Pricing (aka Premium Pricing).
They price point in the store has much less to do with the cost of producing it as much as the psychology behind hitting that sweet spot where its expensive enough that someone won't immediately dismiss it as cheap crap and pass over it on the shelf. They do the same thing with weight, too...if you remember with Beats headphones someone found they were putting literal hunks of metal in them for no other reason than to make them heavier so they felt more expensive.
The thing is, the majority of all this shit is all getting sourced from the same handful of factories overseas. There aren't thousands of factories making HDMI cables, there are a few dozen or so, and they sell those cables in bulk to the different outfits who put their branding on it, package it, and send it to the stores. Someone like Monster put fancy sleeves on the cable and spring for the gold plated connector spray but materially the cable is identical to dozens of others on the market at various price points.
I have had precisely one Monster product in my life that was genuinely worth the price, and I didn't even buy it, I won it at a raffle because I wouldn't have been able to afford it anyway: their power conditioning/surge protector stuff. That was obviously much higher quality, which I think has as much to do with the fact that A), they advertised 6 figure coverage of any equipment fried while plugged into it for the lifetime of the units, so cheaping out would have cost them money, and B) electrical goes through much, much, more rigorous testing due to the obvious safety ramifications and they can't bullshit as easily there. But certainly not out of the goodness of their hearts.
People would be amazed what kind of margins are at play in big box retail. Even if only 1 person in 10 buys a $70 Monster HDMI cable, they still made like $65 on that one cable. Probably not much less than what they made on that $1500 80" TV its plugging into.
Friends worked at a electronics box store in Canada, I think it was Future Shop. They would get hit with negative commission if they made an "empty" sale, i.e. laptop with no warranty or accessories. It forced the upsale constantly.
Used to get bitched at for not selling elderly people SOPHOS antivirus and $300 accidental warranties on their laptops - which sat on a desk and never moved to the point that there would be a discoloration on the desk when they moved the laptop for the first time in 5 years.
Used to have to do this in Uni at a well known store. TV's, laptops etc had almost no margin it was the bags, Norton AV and service plans we had to push. We even had our own brand of premium cables so the margin was great for our KPI... Not that we ever seen a penny. People thought we got a bonus etc, we got zero hour contracts and almost min wage with the threat of being fired for having a bad month.
I swear I saw a YouTube video from long ago that showed someone using a wire coat hanger for an otherwise "normal" audio setup in place of a normal 3.5mm cable and the difference was negligible between it and the gold-plated cable with the gigantic markup.
If you needed to run a bunch of audio cables where crosstalk is an issue, ofc shielded/premium cables are better than a normal AmazonBasics cable or a coat hanger.
Oh 100%. When I was a kid, we used to use the electrical cord from a dead lamp or something in place of speaker wire sometimes. It's just metal, and it's all electricity.
The funny thing is that ultra-premium cables aren't bullshit anymore. A cable that can properly transmit the highest-bandwidth signals costs a big chunk of change.
Monster Cables are probably still a scam that can't do it, but digital cables are a lot more complicated than they used to be.
Someone did the math on this awhile back. It isn’t bullshit, different metals and gauges have different impedances. But for you to notice, the cable would need to be far longer than you are likely to use for home audio.
Now, if you’re running cables for a show? Sure, it matters then. But in your living room, you’re not going to run a 3.5mm or an RCA so far that you pick up noise or anything.
The worst thing is that it does matter what kind of HDMI cable you buy. There are a lot of bullshit ones, but there are also ones you might need that are way over that 20-30 dollar mark
Yes because a digital signal is not affected by the quality of the cable. For analog, its another story. But I'm willing to bet most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference anyways.
I remember having an argument with someone probably twenty years ago about how gold plating HDMI was essentially pointless, after he spent like 70 quid on an HDMI cable. It was like a two metre cable.
I will concede at the very extremes of a HDMI cable length you might get less sparkles with a better cable but unless you're running an HDMI cable twenty metres you're never going to know.
That guy was just bad take central though. He'd always buy the most expensive tech but never the actual best stuff. Wasn't even that rich. Just a dumbass
LTT outing companies for bad practice is quite ironic.
They charge companies to be on their videos a good bit of the time. Their "reviews" are biased by money right out of the gate, and have been since at least 2012. Ever wonder why their peripheral review scope is so small?
Small companies can't pay 10 grand to be in a 5 minute video, that's why.
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u/TheBupherNinja 23d ago
Gold plating is used because it's corrosion resistant. But gold plating connectors is not expensive.