“Computer Audio Design (CAD) helped change how audio enthusiasts view USB, thanks partly to its USB II cable,” writes Hi-Fi Plus in the magazine’s annual Awards edition. This game-changing cable has since evolved into the USB II-R, which not only wins a coveted Hi-Fi Plus Award, but also comes out as the absolute top of its kind, “against any known contender.”  

Digital audio source components – from servers to streamers, from CD transports to laptops – are real noise polluters in an audio system. Their CPUs, chipsets, switch mode power supplies, regulators and the like produce considerably more high frequency ‘noise’ than any analogue component. To stop this unwanted noise from interfering with your system’s overall performance, you need to tackle it before it reaches the analogue stage.

CAD’s USB cables are engineered to filter out this noise from any and all digital music sources before that noise can reach the digital to analogue converter (DAC).

Designed for use with any server, computer, USB re-clocker or DAC/streamer, the USB II-R cable builds upon the patented filter design used in its predecessor, which reduces high frequency noise on the USB differential signal, the Signal Ground and the 5V connections. However, the USB II-R cable itself is completely new, both in terms of the conductors and materials used, and also in the construction techniques employed.

In tests, Hi-Fi Plus reviewer Andrew Harrison found that the USB II-R “surpassed even USB cables with higher price points in outright performance terms. It offers a significant improvement in musical clarity, spatialisation and instrument placement.” It also enables “one of the most analogue-like sounds produced by digital cable systems, erasing digital artefacts and preserving the music’s sense of realism.”

Harrison concluded his review by saying, “The USB II-R is now the cable that can preserve the most authentic account of the music so far, acting almost like an analogue conduit from PC to DAC. Against any known contender, this winner takes them all.”

You can read Andrew Harrison’s full review in issue 217 (March 2023) of Hi-Fi Plus.

Find out more about the USB II-R cable and track down your nearest retailer at www.computeraudiodesign.com

Discover the full list of Hi-Fi Plus Award winners in the December issue of the magazine.